Focusing on entertainment and generating synergies between our diverse businesses to realize the Creative Entertainment Vision - Sony Group holds its Corporate Strategy and Earnings Announcement Presentation
On May 14, 2025, Sony Group held its Corporate Strategy and Earnings Announcement Presentation. The event, held at Sony City in Shinagawa, Tokyo was attended by more than 60 members of the media and analysts, and was also livestreamed for online audiences. Hiroki Totoki, President and CEO, outlined the company's long-term strategy and its strategic direction, emphasizing that Sony will strive to realize its Creative Entertainment Vision by continuing to focus on entertainment, and through various group synergies, working together with creators, partners, and employees.
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The core of our strategic direction is to focus on realizing the Creative Entertainment Vision
Hiroki Totoki, President and CEO, took the stage to explain the mid to long-term focus of the Sony Group's businesses and our overall strategic direction.
Totoki opened by highlighting that the shift in business direction towards entertainment in recent years has been transformative for the Sony Group, and has led to strong results. Totoki also emphasized that the entertainment businesses, which includes the Game & Network Services (G&NS) segment, Music segment, and Pictures segment, account for more than 60% of Sony Group's consolidated sales, and are highly resilient, even during economic downturn. He underlined that Sony remains committed to achieving growth by continuing to focus on entertainment.
He also reiterated that building on Sony Group's momentum and results to date by focusing on realizing the "Creative Entertainment Vision" - Sony Group's long-term vision for where it wants to be in 10 years announced at the Corporate Strategy Meeting in 2024 - will be at the core of its Corporate Strategy moving forward. Looking towards the future expressed in the key message of the vision, to `Create Infinite Realities,' he stated that Sony will aim to achieve it "together with creators, partners, and employees, and through synergies among Sony Group's diverse businesses."
Totoki then explained the progress and key initiatives of each entertainment business that will be integral to making the Creative Entertainment Vision a reality. In the G&NS segment, he mentioned that in addition to the expansion of PlayStation®5 (PS5), which is expected to continue and drive steady profit, network and studio businesses are also expected to grow, while the business will also focus on profitable peripheral devices.
In the Music segment, Totoki stated that efforts are being made to strengthen Sony's position in the global market, with the business continuing to improve profitability, while also building on its initiatives to bring Japanese artists to the global market. Regarding the Pictures segment, he expressed his expectations for Sony's upcoming major new titles, the growth of the anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll, as well as Sony Pictures' role as a central hub for many synergistic, cross-company collaborations.
The Value and Potential Brought by Cross Business Collaborations and Synergies
Totoki then addressed the importance of the cross-business collaborations and synergies that are central to the Creative Entertainment Vision. He highlighted broader collaborations in anime, which is a market that continues to grow, as well as efforts to connect fan communities both within and outside Sony, with the aim of creating opportunities and synergies across various entertainment sectors through the "Engagement Platform" initiative. Totoki further explained Sony's focus on "Location-Based Entertainment," which combines intellectual property (IP) and technology to create new experiences.
He stated that anime continues to be a major area which leads growth for the Sony Group across many parts of its business, and announced the number of paid members for Crunchyroll, with its core business focused on anime streaming, has grown to over 17 million as of March 31, 2025. Totoki highlighted the aim to enhance collaboration with the PlayStation Network, which has the largest monthly active users (MAU) in the Sony Group, and by allowing new customers and renewing customers to smoothly register for Crunchyroll's paid services from PS5, contributing to further increases in Crunchyroll's paid membership.
Growth in Technology-Related Areas as Enablers of Entertainment Businesses
Totoki continued by emphasizing that Sony's innovative technology is critically important for realizing the Creative Entertainment Vision, and laid out the future growth for technology-related areas that will serve as enablers for the entertainment business.
In terms of the Entertainment Technology & Services segment, he outlined the direction to shift the focus of Sony's business towards content creation, and to concentrate on technological development in growth areas. As a leading example, Totoki introduced initiatives in sports entertainment, including the acquisition of KinaTrax in order to enhance sports data utilization capabilities. He also touched on content creation related solutions, including the spatial content creation support system "XYN," real-time VFX (Visual effects), and 360 Virtual Mixing Environment.
In the Imaging & Sensing Solutions segment, Totoki explained that image sensors, which are key devices for capturing the real world, will enhance the accuracy of content creation and elevate the reality of entertainment experiences to the next level. He revealed plans to introduce a new generation of production processes aimed at further business growth for mobile sensors, and plans to provide more value-added and innovative sensors by combining this with the two-layer transistor pixel stacked TRISTA. For businesses with future growth potential, such as sensors for automotive applications, Totoki stated that Sony will aim for mid- to long-term growth under optimal development costs and frameworks, while carefully assessing the speed of market growth and the viability of the business.
Providing more value-added and innovative sensors
Finally, Totoki stated that, "The diversity of our businesses and our people will be of paramount importance in realizing our Creative Entertainment Vision," concluding his presentation by emphasizing that synergies generated by organically connecting diverse businesses and people are the source of Sony's unique competitive advantage.
Following Totoki's speech, Lin Tao, CFO, Sadahiko Hayakawa, Senior Vice President, and Kazuhiro Yamada, CFO of Sony Financial Group took the stage to present the consolidated financial results for the fiscal year 2024. During the subsequent Q&A session, questions regarding the speed of cross business synergies, the outlook for Location-Based Entertainment and the impact of US tariff policies were raised by the media and analysts.
Details of Totoki's presentation on the corporate strategy, and the consolidated financial results for the fiscal year 2024 can be found on Sony's IR website with archived video, speech transcripts, and financial presentation materials.