Sony had a lot to prove as it geared up for big announcements at the Paris Games Week 2017 this morning. Nintendo’s stock has been outperforming it for the better part of this year.
While Nintendo’s stock has increased in value by 94% since the start of the year, Sony’s has only grown in value by 37%.
At the Paris Games Week 2017 on Monday, Sony announced new installments for several popular games, including a new Sims game and a story expansion for one of its most popular franchises — Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis.
The company led its presentation with a trailer for Ghost of Tsushima, a new game from Sucker Punch Productions, and also released previews for new virtual reality games.
“The future of Playstation VR is extremely bright,” Jim Ryan, Sony’s global sales chief, said during the presentation.
The presentation included previews and extended trailers for a number of exclusive titles scheduled for the holiday season and in 2018:
- Monster Hunter World
- Call of Duty: WWII
- Resident Evil 7
- Star Wars Battlefront II
- Spider-Man
- Detroit: Become Human
- Horizon Zero Down: The Frozen Wilds
- Shadow of the Colossus
- God of War
- The Last of Us: Part II
Ryan called game developers a “key differentiator” for Sony. He also pointed to new possibilities for virtual reality and expansion of mobile- and tablet-friendly games on PlayLink, which he called “highly social” and “easy to play.”
Popularity of the Switch and the NES and SNES classics have lifted Nintendo above the competition. The Nintendo Switch consoles beat out the Sony Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One in August sales, according to estimates from market research firm NPD Group.
The success of the Switch, which is projected to outsell the four-year run of the Wii U in just one year, along with the nostalgia-driven NES and SNES Classic craze will result in a big payoff for Nintendo. Fiscal year sales are anticipated to see a 96.3% increase.
Since the release of the Switch in March 2017, Sony’s Playstation 4 has managed to outsell the handheld and home hybrid console in only two of the last six months. But the Playstation 4 remains the best-selling console this year, according to NPD Group.