Despite shipping over 80 million PS5 units as of August 2025, Sony might’ve admitted that it’s not enough. The company is now openly shifting its gaming business away from a hardware-first model. According to Sony Senior VP Sadahiko Hayakawa, the future of PlayStation lies in expanding its ‘platform’ and boosting ‘engagement,’ not selling more consoles. That subtle wording may signal the beginning of a fundamental transformation for the PlayStation brand — and the console war in general.
“In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement,” said Hayakawa during a shareholder meeting as reported by Genki_JPN on X.
He explains that overall, Sony is making a broader shift toward ‘creation’ as games, music, and pictures divisions account for 60% of its total revenue. This includes shifting from making devices like TVs to expanding services like Crunchyroll and co-creating new IP with partners like Bandai Namco. Hayakawa says this evolution toward entertainment creation is aimed at driving both long-term growth and financial stability.
Interestingly, this direction still aligns with PlayStation’s heavy push into live service games, despite its recent bombs *cough*Concord*cough*. Sony could still be chasing those golden eggs that can evolve, across multiple consoles, and retain player engagement over months — or years.
After all, just look at Helldivers 2 and what its success in engaging and retaining loyal playerbase entails. Developer Arrowhead Studios recently revealed that it was Sony itself that initiated talks to bring the game to Xbox. That reversal hints at a much larger strategy shift, one in which ecosystem or digital platform now outweighs hardware exclusivity.
With that in mind, the signs might already be there, as we all know that Sony isn’t alone in this shift. Its rival, Microsoft, has already laid the groundwork with initiatives like Xbox Play Anywhere, the Xbox app on PC and mobile, and Xbox Game Pass. With hardware-agnostic gaming and cloud integration, it has embraced even third-party devices like the ASUS ROG Ally to extend its ecosystem beyond a console. It was widely believed that Xbox’s lagging sales drove the decision, but Sony just proved otherwise.
So, what does this mean for the 10th-generation console war? Does that mean the PlayStation 6 is never coming? No, it most certainly will. But after that, it’s up to anybody’s imagination. To put it simply, everything points toward the same conclusion, whether their hardware is selling or not. Both Sony and Microsoft are preparing for a future where consoles and exclusivity are no longer the foundation of their gaming business.
