Nikkei Asia reports that Sony Corporation has planned to increase annual spending on video games under the R&D article to ¥300 billion ($2.16 billion). This is more than she will spend in the same period on the development of electronics and semiconductors.
Sony has been increasing investments in the segment for the second year in a row. The current spending is 11% more than the amount that the company invested in video game R&D last year and 162% more than similar spending two years earlier.
The indicated 300 billion ($2.16 billion) is 40% of all research and development costs that Sony Group is going to spend this fiscal year (it will end for the company on March 30, 2024).
Most of the amount is planned to be spent on research in the field of games-services and products for augmented reality (the latter will be handled by nine studios that belong to or have received investments from Sony and which are located outside Japan).
Within the framework of the current financial year, the company planned to spend 55% of the total budget going to PS5 game development on the creation of service projects. In the next fiscal year, this share will increase to 60%.