PlayStation Now Reached 700,000 Users With 40% Average Yearly Increase of Paying Subscribers

Today, during Sony Corporation’s financial conference call for shareholders and analysts Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki talked about PlayStation Now

Totoki-san talked about PlayStation now, mentioned that Sony is committed to making PlayStation the best place to play by delivering to users the best content in the best manner possible, and PlayStation Now is one of the ways to achieve that.

With the addition of nine countries in Europe this year, the average annual increase in paying subscribers has exceeded 40% since the service has launched, and the number of users has reached approximately 700,000.

The addition of a download feature for PS4 titles has caused the gameplay time per user to increase significantly. At the moment the gameplay time for downloaded PS4 games is twice as much compared to the gameplay time of streamed titles, contributing to high user engagement and retention of PlayStation Now users.

Sony plans to leverage the expertise acquired with PlayStation Now to provide the ultimate gaming experience to users in both the console and game streaming spaces.

Totoki-san also admitted that the advent of cloud gaming could be a threat, but Sony has to turn it into an opportunity. The trend must be acciurately captured in order to create business opportunities.  The growth of game streaming is not a surprise for Sony and many players have been rising to the challenge in this business. It’s important to have a solid strategy and vision for it.

More information about Sony’s strategy for game streaming will come at the Corporate Strategy Meeting on May 21.

If you want to read more about Sony’s performance during the past fiscal year and an update on PS4 shipments, you can read our dedicated article.