PlayStation Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan has recently revealed some interesting detals about the process that goes into bringing new intellectual properties to the market; explaining how this is actually quite the risky move for them.
In a recent interview with GQ Magazine, Ryan explained that the costs associated with producing a new intellectual property are quite high, and this is one of the main reasons why it is "very risky " to bring them to the market in the first place.
"We've invested a lot organically over the course of the PS4 generation, more than people realise. We've added Insomniac Games through acquisition. We're making great games now and we certainly plan to continue making great games," Ryan revealed.
He then continued: "The thing with those blockbuster games is that they need a box office release. They cost more than $100m dollars to make these days and in order to be able to do that and bring new IP to the market – which is a very risky thing that we did four times in the PS4 generation – you've got to have a box office release."
MARVEL's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the most recent game developed by Insomniac Games, and while we don't have any specific numbers, it is likely that the game has been selling great, especially when we keep in mind how much of a success the original MARVEL's Spider-Man was back in 2018.
During this past generation, Sony Interactive Entertainment introduced a bunch of new intellectual properties like Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn, Bend Studio's Days Gone, and Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima; all critically praised titles that, according to Ryan's definition, were risky moves.
"We have a management organisation that sits over the individual studios and one of the things that we look at a lot is the portfolio and we look at is the balance between new iterations of much-loved series such as God of War or Uncharted and shaking things up with new IP such as Horizon Zero Dawn or Ghost Of Tsushima. We think about this very deeply and very carefully."
Interestingly enough, and as mentioned above, the new intellectual properties that Sony Interactive Entertainment has brought to the market have been widely successful from a box office standpoint, while also being praised for their top quality video game design.
Sony has yet to reveal a new intellectual property for the PlayStation 5, but their PlayStation Studio keeeps growing by the day, so it is safe to assume that it won't disappoint once it gets inevitably announced; we just have to patiently wait until that happens.