Mat Piscatella

You know what to do.

Folks with prior success are struggling to realize that the game industry has changed completely. It's never going back to how it was. Funding, development, and audiences have all fragmented and that is the "new normal." Only folks who have been scrapping their whole career will weather this change.

Screenshot from LinkedIn. The statement from the CEO is very long but the relevant part is that a) they laid people off and b) there's talk of "overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage affecting Mindseye" (that's the company's game that came out and did very poorly.

It's got to be some real insult to injury to have your CEO lay you off while blaming conspiracies and corporate espionage after ordering monitoring software to be secretly installed on employee PCs.

The biggest predictor of strategy isn't market trends or competitive behavior or anything from a SWOT analysis... it's the bonus plan set for the executives.

It's always about the bonus plan. You get what you bonus on. Tale as old as time.

Yes.

I told my parents about the state of the game industry like this: a game was announced in the prime spot of the game awards, then it came out and had 2 million players. so it was a collosal failure

Sony Group Corporation (SNEJF) Q3 FY2026 earnings call transcript Read Sony Group Corporation (SNEJF) Q3 FY2026 earnings call transcript on Yahoo Finance to keep your investing strategy up to date with all of the latest information

One way to help boost ARPU is to not give a 30% cut to an external storefront I reckon.

Anyways, full transcript:

finance.yahoo.com/quote/SNEJF/...

Going back to CFO Lin Tao's comments during Sony's Feb 5th earnings call...

If that is the plan here (which I don't think it is, tbh) it would be highly unlikely to succeed, imo.

The console market juice would definitely not be worth that kind of squeeze. But, hey, who knows.

Eh, it's what one would do if they wanted to goose the operating income %. Focus on the higher margins while accepting lower overall revenues.

If the market isn't growing at an attractive pace, go for margin. Maybe. Who knows.

Just reads to me like something in the bonus criteria in the exec comp packages changed or something. Shrug.

Sales of the console were never noticeably or significantly impacted by the PC releases existing, and Ghost of Yotei finished at #11 in tracked full game $ sales for the year in the US, so can't even say that assumed non-exclusivity hurt it either.

Ultimately, the new shift won't really matter.

According to Circana's Player Engagement Tracker, 60% of US active PS5 users played Fortnite in 2025. The top Sony single player game was Marvel's Spider-Man 2, which ranked 28th at 9.9%.

So, shift in strategy from market expansion and revenue growth to margin protection.

Younger and less affluent players aren't going to leave their established games and low barrier of entry platforms, and dedicated PC players will just play other things.

But sure, higher margin % on lower revs.

Upcoming U.S. video game market results from Circana:
Coverage Month - Public Release Date

Feb (Feb 1 - Feb 28) - Mar 20
Mar (Mar 1 - Apr 4) - Apr 22
Apr (Apr 5 - May 2) - May 20
May (May 3 - May 30) - Jul 2
Jun (May 31 - Jul 4) - Jul 22

Digital Data Sharing Participating Publishers:

Yep.

Whatever you need to tell yourself.

RIP

No matter how bad you feel you are at your job, no matter what stupid career decision you beat yourself up over, none of it compares to Jurickson Profar.

So, you have that going for you, which is nice.

I saw 9 of these bands... in the 90s.

I'm dead. I'm dust.

Make sure to bring your glasses. You know how hard it is to drive home at night these days.

Gen X was subject to extreme levels of lead paint as children. or something.

If you recognize more than 4 bands on this slate it is time to schedule your colonoscopy.

I'm really just describing myself here.

The highest concentration of people who played Galaga on a cigarette burned arcade cabinet in a bowling alley

An entire crowd still waiting for Half-Life 3

100% of this audience will have played Sonic on an orginal Sega Genesis

Anyone else going to AARPapalooza?

I just scream endlessly into the void now. Sometimes I am invited to keynote the void.