Hiroki Totoki talked about Sony’s integrated entertainment vision and how it is doubling down on its investments — including live service games and AI.
Totoki made the remarks at Paley International, an event held by the Paley Center for Media in Palo Alto, California. It’s a rare event for Totoki, particularly in the U.S. His talk was dubbed, “Sony’s creative entertainment vision: Unlocking global synergy. Xiao Liu of Alkeon Capital Management moderated the chat.
As recently as 15 years ago, Sony was mostly a consumer technology company, and now its emphasis is on entertainment.
“Sony started business 1940s and in its first several decades, Sony was known as being primarily for consumers. Over the years, back to 1980s, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures and [invested in music] and became big entertainment company. And that is a kind of transformation that we trying to accelerate more today,” Totoki said.
He said in the mid-2000s Sony needed to restructure the consumer business because it could not scale and margins were getting squeezed. Sony also spun off its domestic financial/insurance business to focus on entertainment including gaming, movies and music.
He said it was hard to compete in general distribution in entertainment, but the focus on specialized distribution worked.
He noted how anime in particular is so concentrated in Japan, even as its appeal has gone global. Liu noted how there is a virtuous cycle that helps Sony grow, and she noted how many companies would to have Sony’s concentration of businesses and she asked about the synergies among the businesses.
He noted the value of IPs like Twisted Metal, The Last of Us and Uncharted and how these game franchises became major TV and movie successes. The film Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, born in anime, was a major box office success with $588 million in revenue worldwide.
“What makes me more happy is two more will come,” he said. “This is a great synergy between companies,” a movie filmmaker and anime production company.
“We could try more to use” the capabilities of Sony further, he said. “We try to find good IPs from Japanese developers and we demonstrate our ability to promote that IP into film and TV dramas” and anime.
PSVR 2 is a small market today but he sees many enthusiastic players. There’s also game streaming. These are relatively small markets today but over time he hopes to develop larger markets and make bold steps in the future on such technologies.
“We want to make it the best place to play and the best place to publish,” he said. It is always looking for the “best fit for gamers,” he said.
Sony has doubled down on content investment. He noted the investment in live service games and it had some success like Helldivers 2. But it’s not easy he said.
“Live service gaming is an interesting phenomenon. Every such type of game could become a platform. And this trend we would like to embrace in the future, and that’s why we continue to try and at the same time as an ex-CFO, I try to mitigate risk,” he said. “And that’s why we are installing a portfolio approach, developed with [multiple] titles and small size, mid size, large size, fora diversified strategy.
Just like in the “storytelling portfolio,” he said Sony is on its way to develop a “live services” portfolio, and within three to five years, he belies Sony can set up an optimized portfolio.
The AI question
Following Phil Spencer of Microsoft and his comments on AI on the previous day at the event, Totoki also said AI is an important trend.
He said, “More than 50% of employees on a daily basis are using AI. And the major purpose of using AI is to improve their efficiency and brainstorming purposes and also streamline the tasks,” he said. “That’s a great thing. And as a creative company, I have to emphasize, [for creativity], AI is a tool. AI will never, ever replace the human creativity. And that, I strongly believe. Having said so, it’s a bold trend we cannot ignore.”
Drake Star Partners reports that big gaming AI fundraises took place this year, including General Intuition’s $134 million round and Decart’s $100 million raise. Overall deal activity across all stages remained steady, with 81 financings in 2024 and 60 financings in the first three quarters of 2025. It’s worth noting that most companies now include an AI narrative in their fundraising pitches and positioning, Drake Star said.
Totoki said Sony needs to adapt new technologies and make them into its strengths.
“For that purpose, for example, forcreativity or strategic purposes, we would use AI in the future. Today, the main purpose is high-power efficiency, he said.
“If you look at our segment, like game and music and pictures, the stance towards AI is a different by the business categories,” he said.
“For example, gaming people do not hesitate to use various technologies. Gaming software is software, right? And even today, they are using machine learning to develop games and we’ll use AI in future. [Developers] are heavily using AI to improve quality assurance as well today.”
“We have to be very careful to protect talent” when it comes to guardrails around the use of images and more, he said.
Experimentation
As for other tech advances, Totoki is open to experimentation.
PSVR 2 is a small market today but he sees many enthusiastic players. There’s also opportunity in game streaming. These are relatively small markets today but over time he hopes to develop larger markets and make bold steps in the future.
“This could be a future trend, even though it’s emerging in the market,” Totoki said. “It’s relatively small, but as such, each tries to develop a future market.If we can find out the good trend in this test, we try to make a bold step in the future, and the ultimate purpose of the gaming business is to become a best place to play and to become best place to publish. And we haven’t changed our purpose for years. And everything we do, every technology we try, is just for gamers.”
Once experimental, the PlayStation Network now has 20 million monthly active users. He noted the PlayStation 5 has sold nearly 90 million consoles to date, and many PS4 players have shifted to the PS 5.
He sees Sony playing a bigger role in sports entertainment, largely by bringing new technologies for entretainment in sports and sports games. Sony has worked on tech for data tracking and real-time virtualization in that area.
More background
Totoki, a 39-year Sony veteran, replaced Kenichiro Yoshida as CEO in April, 2025. Totoki was previously chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Sony has around 110,000 employees, with major businesses in cameras and imaging devices, TV sets, PlayStation game consoles, and movies and TV shows. It’s also making a new electric car with Honda — the Afeela, packed with a PlayStation 5 in it.
Yoshida, who is chairman, had said at the time of the announcement that, based on his achievements at Sony, he proposed that Totoki succeed him in the regime change, crediting Totoki for investments in content IP and semiconductors.
Totoki played a role over time in directing Sony strategically into its entertainment businesses, including games, music, film and TV. He started at Sony in 1987 and co-created the Sony Bank, an internet bank, in 2001. He was appointed CFO in 2018.