Kenichiro Yoshida—Sony Group Corporation Chairman, President And CEO—appeared as a guest on Norges Bank Investment Management's Good Company videocast late last year. News outlets have sluggishly picked up on some interesting tidbits from the November 2023 interview—the Sony boss has discussed his gaming division's ambitions in the recent past, but (host) Nicolai Tangen managed to pry out a clearer picture of PlayStation's ambitions for the future. Yoshida-san has an all-encompassing vision for the brand: "In short, it will be ubiquitous wherever there is computing users will be able to play their favorite games seamlessly, gamers will be able to find a place to play in different spaces, while PlayStation will remain our core product, we will expand our gaming experiences to PC, Mobile and Cloud." Gamers on the PC platform have to wait roughly two to three years for PlayStation exclusive titles to breakaway from home consoles origins—it is encouraging to hear that a greater number of conversions could be in the pipeline (with shorter lead times...hopefully).

The discussion moved onto game subscription services—a hotbed talking point as of late—Yoshida seemed to be happy with his company's normal mode of operation: "Well, we do subscription business model. At the same time, people usually play one game at the time, so an all-you-can-eat type of many games may not be so valuable compared with video streaming services. We have kind of balanced a hybrid service on PlayStation Network: subscription as well as paid content." Microsoft is a market leader with its Xbox and PC Game Pass services, now bolstered with a takeover of Activision Blizzard—the Sony CEO remained calm regarding his firm's main rival: "Healthy competition is necessary for the Games Industry to grow and at Sony we believe it is important to provide gamers with different options to play so we will continue our efforts to achieve this."Yoshida's stance on Artificial Intelligence was quite balanced—it is inevitable that the technology will be integrated to a greater degree at PlayStation development houses: "The convergence and computing is a megatrend, and AI is also born out of computing. So, we cannot get in the way of technology, but at the same time, entertainment is a people business...The content that forms that basis of entertainment is creator-generated, and copyrighted. Creators involvement is essential. Therefore, Sony positions AI as a technology that supports creators, and it should not replace them...Games are computer software, it is made by programming languages. LLM (large language models) with help streamline game development, allowing creators to focus on creators to focus more on creativity."


Norges Bank Investment Management's video description states: "Sony Goup Chair & CEO: Future of gaming, music, AI and Japanese culture—Kenichiro Yoshida is Chair and CEO in the Japanese company Sony Group. In this podcast he provides unique insight into one of the worlds most creative companies. He has been the CEO since 2018 and been really successful! How does he foster innovation, what innovations can we expect to see in gaming, music and entertainment? Tune in!

"At the end of 2022 the fund's holdings in Sony amounted to close to 2 billion US Dollars, or just shy of 17 billion Norwegian kroner in 2022 currency. The podcast In Good Company is part of Norges Bank Investment Management, a podcast about our investments. We are transparent about how the fund is invested. In this podcast, you to get a deeper insight into the companies the fund is invested in.

Our CEO, Nicolai Tangen, has in-depth interviews with the leaders of some of the largest companies in the world. You will get insight into their leadership principles, the company's strategy and how they are dealing with a large investor like us. You will also learn more about our role as an owner of the companies."