Sony: Third-party AAA titles like Modern Warfare 2 allow us to maintain strength

Sony says that third-party juggernauts like Call of Duty will help prop up its earnings after noticeable Q2 losses.

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Sony's latest Q2 earnings report is full of misses for the PlayStation giant. Operating profit was down 59% to $305 million, game sales were down nearly 14 million units, and total segment revenues were down by $647 million over last year. MAUs are down 1 million users, punctuating steep declines in MAUs from Q3 2021's previous high point, and PlayStation Plus subscribers dropped by nearly 2 million.

Company CFO Hiroki Totoki says that content has been sluggish through Q2, and that third-party games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will help buoy the PlayStation brand against these forecast and sales misses. Totoki also expresses confidence in big first-party games like God of War Ragnarok, however these first-party titles have historically sold significantly less than their third-party counterparts.

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"Production has been going quite well. According to the previous period, we have a decline in MAUs as more people are now going outdoors. PS4 and third-party sales have been rather sluggish, and catalog titles and historical titles have been declining," Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said in a recent Sony Q2 earnings briefing.

"PS5 engagement is quite high, so in Q3 we expect some recovery. We have strong first-party titles and we have some seasonal effect on Q3 that we can see some of the recovery coming from the downturn.

"There has been a weakness in third-party software because our initial forecast was too strong and therefore we have to reflect. Users are going out from home and therefore have impacted our sales.

"Large third-party AAA titles will allow us to maintain our strength, for example Call of Duty had a good release, and for the third quarter we do have very high expectations."

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First-party games typically represent a smaller percentage of overall game sales on PlayStation consoles.