At CES 2023, Sony's 'Gran Turismo' flags new entertainment strategy
Send a link to a friend
[January 05, 2023]
By Dawn Chmielewski
(Reuters) - When Sony Corp Group teases “Gran Turismo,” its long-awaited
adrenaline-fueled film adaptation of Sony PlayStation’s hit car-racing
franchise at the CES 2023 technology trade show this week, it will
really be showing off its new identity as a content-driven company.
The movie reflects the transformation of the maker of the Walkman and
Bravia TVs from a primarily hardware-focused innovator to broad-based
entertainment provider. It also represents a significant bridging of the
divides between Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony PlayStation and Sony
Music, according to a dozen current and former senior executives
interviewed by Reuters.
“I defined our identity as a creative entertainment company with a solid
foundation on technology,” Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said.
The film’s appearance at CES on a stage typically reserved for
big-screen TVs and robot pets caps $10 billion in investments in music,
games and anime over the last five years.
“Gran Turismo” is one of 10 game-inspired film and television projects
in various stages of development.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/05/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
HBO's “The Last of Us,” about a man hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl
across a pandemic-plagued America, debuts on Jan. 15. “The New Yorker”
suggested the series could break the curse of bad video-game
adaptations.
Last month, Amazon Prime Video ordered “God of War,” a live action
adaptation of the PlayStation hit based on Greek mythology.
Sony’s “creative entertainment” company approach extends beyond content.
A Sony-Honda electric vehicle, scheduled to reach consumers by 2026, is
being framed as a rolling showcase of Sony’s entertainment, gaming and
camera sensor prowess.
It will also generate recurring subscription revenue like other content
services.
“Eventually, we think in the long term, the mobility space will become
an entertainment space,” Yoshida said.
The high-profile projects, which could not have happened even three
years ago, grew out of regular conversations among Sony executives, as
they sought a way to work together more effectively.
Sony resisted chasing after Netflix with a rival service and fended off
an activist shareholder’s call to sell or spin off its media and
entertainment assets in 2013.
Instead it struck deals to provide movies to Netflix and Walt Disney
Co's Disney+ and series to HBO, Amazon and Apple Inc's Apple TV+.
The shift is reflected in Sony’s results, with two-thirds of operating
profit coming from games, music and the film studio. Operating profit
rose 8% to 344 billion yen ($2.6 billion) for the July-September
quarter, beating analyst estimates. In November, with the music business
offsetting weakness in the games group, Sony hiked its full-year
operating profit forecast.
“This is a complete pivot of this company into something that’s no
longer an electronics company,” said Ulrike Schaede, a professor of
Japanese Business at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and
Strategy.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/05/images/ads/current/bennet_lda_010722.png)
Schaede said the company now has a coherent corporate narrative that
would make it easier to unite the company’s divisions.
“That's the new Sony,” she said. “Now, can they deliver? I don't know.”
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/010523PIX/ent_a.77.jpg)
Director Neill Blomkamp and Orlando
Bloom are seen on the set of Columbia Pictures 'Gran Turismo' at an
unspecified location in this undated handout image. Sony is teasing
the film at the CES 2023 technology trade show this week. Gordon
Timpen/Handout via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png) TREASURE CHEST
When veteran media executive Tony Vinciquerra was recruited as
chairman of Sony Pictures in 2017, the division was reeling after a
string of box office flops including the 2016 reboot of the
“Ghostbusters” franchise. DVD and Blu-ray disc revenue had plummeted
under pressure from streaming services, and there were rumors of a
possible sale, media executives said.
But Vinciquerra was attracted by the opportunity to leverage the
company’s assets: “Sony is the only company in the media business
that has not only television or film, but music, PlayStation, and
technology,” he said in an interview.
Sony had struggled for decades to achieve the “synergy” the company
touted with its 1989 acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment.
At best, these forced collaborations ended up as product placement
in a movie or marketing promotion. At worst, they got in the way of
adapting to the digital era.
Entertainment executives then came up with PlayStation Productions:
a division within the games group located on the Culver City studio
lot and dedicated to film and television adaptations.
It acted as a cultural attaché to Hollywood, “someone who could talk
in their language,” PlayStation chief Jim Ryan said in an interview,
“in a non-confrontational, non-adversarial way just, you know, just
try to do the best thing for both divisions.”
The result was “Uncharted,” last year’s release starring
"Spider-Man’s" Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in a hunt for
Magellan’s lost treasure. The film delivered $401 million in global
ticket sales and became the most-watched film on Netflix when it was
released on the streaming service in August.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/05/images/ads/current/moriearty_sda_LUAL_2022.png)
Meanwhile, one of the most popular artists distributed by Sony
Music, the Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who
performs as “Bad Bunny," will star in “El Muerto,” a film drawn from
Sony’s Marvel Universe of characters, due out in 2024. Bad Bunny is
a Rimas Entertainment artist.
Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer said Yoshida’s “light
touch” has proven successful. “Quite frankly, the ideas are flying
around, and everyone's much, much more comfortable about talking to
each other,” Stringer said.
This August will bring another test of Sony’s strategy when “Gran
Turismo” hits theaters after languishing for 12 years.
The movie is based on British racer Jann Mardenborough, who won the
2011 GT Academy Europe at 19 and went on to a podium finish at the
24-Hours of Le Mans in 2013.
Academy Award-nominated director of “District 9” Neil Blomkamp
directs a cast that includes “Lord of the Rings” star Orlando Bloom
and “Stranger Things” actor David Harbour.
“We’re telling a true story about wish fulfillment,” PlayStation
Productions chief Asad Qizilbash said. “This kid loved playing Gran
Turismo, and at the same time, we’re celebrating the game.”
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, additional reporting
by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Edited by Kenneth Li and Suzanne
Goldenberg in New York.)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |