Sony hasn’t been this hot since it made the Walkman

CNN — The last time Sony was worth this much on the stock market, Bill Clinton was president and the PlayStation 2 was about to debut on American store shelves. “But today, the company is primarily generating profits off of entertainment, which is games, music and.” Less hardware, more content Sony Group, Japan’s third largest company by market value, has turned itself around by innovating its games business beyond consoles and making acquisitions to expand its IP, Joost van Dreunen, an adjunct assistant professor at NYU Stern who teaches the business of video games, told CNN. Robert Lawson, the chief communications officer for Sony Group, said in a statement that since 2018 when the company acquired EMI publishing, making Sony Music the world’s largest publisher of music, Sony has invested approximately 1.5 trillion yen into content IP across various entertainment businesses. “Sony Group has shifted its corporate strategies towards strengthening its creation and entertainment assets,” Lawson said, noting the company is focusing on “new collaborations between Sony sister companies,” including leaning heavily into the anime genre. In May, at Sony’s annual investor conference, Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said that the company was embracing a “creative entertainment vision.” Sony’s emergence as an entertainment company was not always certain, Thong said.