Sony CEO: Consoles a 'niche market' within the games industry

Sony chief exec Jim Ryan has suggested consoles now exist in a 'niche market' within the wider games industry.

Speaking during a recent investor relations Q&A (via ResetEra), Ryan was asked about the importance of the Sony's console business as the PlayStation maker moves forward, and responded by explaining that the console market is "not a major market."

"If you look at the game industry as a whole, the console market is not a major market, rather it's a niche market, if you will," he commented. "But for core gamers, immersive experiences are something we would like to value."

"In this respect, for the time being, the console as something that brings about computing functionality to the users is very important, but on the other hand, technology will progress, and so as I said today, the Remote Play and PlayStation Now, the streaming services will be worked on in parallel, that is what we are doing at this moment."

Although Sony is hard at work developing the work-in-progress PlayStation 5, which will deliver lighting quick load times and rendering thanks to the inclusion of an SSD, the company has emphasized how streaming will be integral to the future of its games business.

It's for that reason Sony and Microsoft recently joined forces to co-develop cloud and artificial intelligence tech that can be used to support their individual streaming services, and why game streaming platforms like the Google Stadia and Project xCloud have been making headlines.