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Jan 4 (Reuters) – When Sony Group (6758.T) At this week’s CES 2023 tech trade show, it teased the long-awaited adrenaline-fuelled film of Sony’s hit PlayStation racing franchise, “Gran Turismo,” which will really showcase its new identity as a content-driven company.
The film reflects the Walkman and Bravia TV makers’ transformation from primarily hardware-focused innovators to broad-based entertainment providers. It also represents an important bridging of the gap between Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony PlayStation and Sony Music, according to more than a dozen current and former senior executives interviewed by Reuters.
“I define our identity as a creative entertainment company with a solid technological foundation,” said Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida.
The film’s CES debut, a stage usually reserved for big-screen TVs and robotic pets, has brought in $10 billion in investments in music, games and anime over the past five years.
“Gran Turismo” is one of 10 game-inspired film and TV projects in various stages of development.
HBO’s “The Last of Us,” which premiered Jan. 15, follows a man hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl into a pandemic-ravaged United States. Game adaptation.
Last month, Amazon Prime Video ordered “God of War,” a live-action remake of the popular PlayStation game based on Greek mythology.
Sony’s “creative entertainment” approach to the company goes beyond content.
A sort of Sony-Honda EVScheduled to reach consumers in 2026, it’s designed to be a rolling showcase of Sony’s entertainment, gaming, and camera sensor prowess.
It will also generate recurring subscription revenue like other content services.
“Ultimately, we think the mobile space will become an entertainment space in the long run,” Yoshida said.
These high-profile projects, which would not have been possible even three years ago, stem from regular conversations among Sony executives as they seek a way to work together more effectively.
Sony has resisted catching up to Netflix with a rival service and resisted calls from activist shareholders to sell or spin off its media and entertainment assets in 2020.
Instead, it struck deals to supply movies to Netflix and The Walt Disney Company (DIS.N) Series on Disney+ and HBO, Amazon and Apple (AAPL.O) Apple TV+.
The shift is reflected in Sony’s performance, with two-thirds of its operating profit coming from the games, music and movie studio. Operating profit rose 8 percent to 344 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in the July-September quarter, beating analysts’ expectations. In November, as music business offset weakness in the gaming division, Sony Raised full-year operating profit forecast.
“This is a complete transformation of this company into a company that is no longer an electronics company,” said Ulrike Schaede, a professor of Japanese business at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
The company now has a coherent corporate narrative, which will make it easier for the various parts of the company to come together, Schaede said.
“That’s the new Sony,” she said. “Now, can they deliver? I don’t know.”
treasure chest
When veteran media executive Tony Vinciquerra was hired as Sony Pictures chairman in 2017, the division faltered after a series of box office failures, including the 2016 reboot of the “Ghostbusters” franchise. Media executives say DVD and Blu-ray disc revenues are plummeting under pressure from streaming services and there are rumors of a possible sale.
But Vinciquerra was attracted by the opportunity to leverage the company’s assets: “Sony is the only company in the media industry that doesn’t just own TV or movies, but also music, PlayStation and technology,” he said in an interview.
For decades, Sony has struggled to achieve the “synergies” the company touted when it bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989.
At best, these forced collaborations end up as product placements in movies or marketing pushes. At worst, they get in the way of adapting to the digital age.
Entertainment executives then came up with PlayStation Productions: a division within the gaming conglomerate, based in the Culver City studio, dedicated to film and television adaptations.
It acts as Hollywood’s cultural commissioner, “someone who can talk in their language,” PlayStation head Jim Ryan said in an interview, “in a non-confrontational, non-adversarial way, you know, just trying to be the best. Good thing for both departments.
The result was last year’s Uncharted, starring “Spider-Man” Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in search of Magellan’s lost treasure. When the film was released on the streaming service in August, it grossed $401 million worldwide, making it the most-watched movie on Netflix.
Meanwhile, one of the most popular artists released by Sony Music, Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who plays “Bad Bunny,” will star in a Based on Sony’s Marvel Universe character, The Dead, coming out 2024 Bad Bunny is an entertainer for Rimas Entertainment.
Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer said Yoshida’s “Light Touch” has proven successful. “Frankly, ideas were flying around and everyone was more willing to talk to each other,” Stringer said.
In August of this year, “Gran Turismo” will be released again after a 12-year hiatus, which will be another test of Sony’s strategy.
The film is based on British racing driver Jann Mardenborough, who at the age of 19 won the 2011 European GT Academy and finished on the podium at the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Academy Award-nominated “District 9” director Neil Blomkamp helms a cast that includes “Lord of the Rings” star Orlando Bloom and “Stranger Things” actor David Harbor.
“We’re telling a true story about wishes come true,” said Asad Qizilbash, head of PlayStation Productions. “The kid loves playing Gran Turismo, and at the same time, we’re celebrating the game.”
Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, with additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Kenneth Li and Suzanne Goldenberg in New York.
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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