Sony CEO says PS5 no longer needs aggressive marketing as console enters later years

Sony is changing its strategy for the PlayStation 5 as the console moves deeper into the later part of its life cycle. Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki said the company is no longer focused on “aggressively” selling the PS5, arguing that the console has reached a stage where the company can put more attention on earning money from its existing players. “We are in the latter half of the life cycle for a PlayStation console,” Hiroki Totoki said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in August this year. “That means that we do not need to ‘aggressively sell’ the console today,” he added.Sony says PS5 is now in the latter half of its life cycleThe shift comes nearly six years after the PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020. According to Totoki, Sony’s focus is now moving from selling more consoles to increasing recurring revenue from its large PlayStation user base.During the WSJ interview, Totoki said Sony does not need to push PS5 sales as aggressively as it did earlier in the console's life. Instead, Sony is looking at ways to generate more recurring revenue from people who already use PlayStation products and services.Totoki pointed to PlayStation Plus as an important part of that strategy. He said the service now has more than 125 million monthly active users, making its existing customer base a major opportunity for Sony.PlayStation Plus becomes more important for SonySony's comments suggest that services and subscriptions are becoming increasingly important to the PlayStation business as the PS5 matures. Rather than relying only on new console sales, the company wants to increase the value it gets from its existing users. PlayStation Plus offers access to online multiplayer, games and other benefits across its subscription plans.The comments also come at a time when Sony is dealing with changes across the PlayStation business, including higher hardware prices and growing debate around digital games.PS5 price increases and physical games debate continueSony increased the prices of the PS5, PS5 Pro and PlayStation Portal in several markets in April 2026, citing continued cost pressures.At the same time, the company has faced criticism from some players over its plans to reduce its reliance on physical game discs. Sony's chief financial officer Lin Tao said in July that the company would “cautiously move forward” with ending physical discs, pointing to the growing digitisation of content.Sony has also faced a class-action lawsuit over how digital game purchases are presented to consumers. The company has argued that consumers should not assume they permanently own digital games in the same way they own physical products.Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.