India emerging as good opportunity market for Sony’s gaming biz, says India MD

PTI, Nov 10, 2024, 2:01 PM IST

India is emerging as a “good opportunity market” in the gaming business for the consumer electronic major Sony, its India Managing Director Sunil Nayyar said.

The company has reported “phenomenal growth” in the gaming business in FY24, with the robust performance of PlayStation 5 and its software peripherals.

Sony India’s PlayStation dominates the console operating gaming system market here with around 95 per cent market share and has almost doubled its revenue in FY 2023-24 from the segment. However, now, it expects a moderation in the growth rates because of the high base, Nayyar said.

“Now, the base is very high because we almost achieved the double business last year. So this year, we intend to have modest growth, but we are developing the gaming business market in the country, including software development and peripherals etc,” the Sony India MD told PTI.

Sony India last week filed its annual returns to report over 50.1 per cent growth from its ‘other business’ segment at Rs 1,363.54 crore, which houses its gaming and B2B business.

“This is largely led by the gaming business. It gave us a phenomenal growth. There is no doubt about it. PlayStation 5 and our software peripherals, everything did very well.

“So, India is now becoming a very good opportunity market for gaming for Sony… We have 95 per cent in the market today as far as PS5 is concerned. We have a very strong brand here for the gaming business,” Nayyar said.

Besides, Sony is also doing well in some other niche segments such as medical equipment and its sports business, where it sells Hawk-Eye systems, used in all major sporting events, including cricket, tennis, football, badminton, rugby and volleyball to visually track the trajectory of a ball and display a profile of its statistically most likely path as a moving image.

“We are also growing in various niche segments like medical equipment, where we sell a lot of products (such as Microdisplays) and even sports business, where we sell Hawk-Eye. So, even sports business is doing very well,” he noted.

Sony India’s revenue from Consumer Audio and Visuals segment increased 15.7 per cent to Rs 6,300.20 crore in FY 2023-24 against Rs 5,445.73 crore a year ago. Its overall profit rose 22.18 per cent to Rs 167 crore, while revenue from operations surged 20.6 per cent to Rs 7,663.74 crore.

Nayyar said the over 20 per cent growth in the topline is because of the strategy of premiumisation on which it has been working for the last few years in all product zones, including TV and audio products.

“This is the primary cause because of the sales growth because our average sales price has gone up,” he said, adding that “now, we do not rely on selling entry-level or price point models”.

Now, in India, everything is being upgraded in the market from content on OTT platforms to everything in the market, he said.

“This is our ongoing journey for selling premium products in the country. So, this strategy, you can say philosophy, is working well for Sony. We have upgraded, and evolved the customer into the premium segments, especially in our television lineup, home theatres and cameras,” said Nayyar.

Sony India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s tech major Sony Corporation, expects to surpass its historic Rs 11,000 crore revenue, which it recorded in FY15, in the coming years.

Its revenue fell after its parent firm exited the mobile phone and laptop business. From FY22, however, Sony India’s revenue stabilised and started to report positive growth numbers.

“I cannot peg a time framework, but efforts will be that we should soon become kind of Rs 10,000 crore company in a time to come,” he said.

However, Nayyar also added that the market is a little bit challenging now, and there have been ups and downs.

“We are closely monitoring the situation, but our strategy remains the same, premiumisation and selling more premium products in the country, raising the ASP, giving new technology to our customers every year in all the segments, which we play,” he added.

On Sony India’s ongoing business in the current fiscal, Nayyar said all the categories are showing very positive momentum, especially television, sound bars, and home theatres.