Sony Group is broadening its business interests, focusing on the metaverse and electric vehicles at its annual corporate strategy meeting this week.
The buzz word for Sony’s Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida is ‘kando’, a word that loosely translates to ’emotional involvement’.
He wants the company to “create a live network space that connects creators and users, while also generating new kando experiences.”
This means a focus on its three entertainment businesses, games and network services, movies, and music, which last financial year delivered 51 per cent of the company’s sales, proving the tipping point between its past as an electronics company, and its future as an entertainment company.
“The 21st century is the era of network entertainment,” Yoshida said. The company’s recent acquisition of Bungie, and its further US$1 billion investment in Epic Games, points towards a future in the metaverse.
“The metaverse is at the same time a social space and a live network space where games, music, movies and anime intersect and expand,” Yoshida said, saying Sony will “learn more about live services from Bungie” and launch more than 10 live game services by 2025.
Yoshida believes its electric vehicle partnership with Honda is “an area where we see great potential as another kando space.”
“Currently, there are more than 1 billion vehicles in operation,” he said.
“The combination of mobility with information and communication technology will make these billion vehicles into services over the long term.”
As drivers become passengers, entertainment will take over, reasons Yoshida.
