Nikkei Asia reports that Sony Corporation has planned to increase its annual video game R&D spending to ¥300 billion ($2.16 billion). This is more than it will spend in the same time frame on electronics and semiconductor development.

Sony has ramped up investment in the segment for the second year in a row. The current spending is 11% more than the amount the company invested in video game R&D last year and 162% more than it spent two years earlier.

The said ¥300 billion ($2.16 billion) is 40% of the total R&D spending that Sony Group plans to spend in the current fiscal year (it will end for the company on March 30, 2024).

Most of the amount is planned to spend on research in the field of games-services and products for augmented reality (the latter will be engaged in nine studios that are owned or received investment from Sony and which are located outside of Japan).

In the current fiscal year, the company has planned to spend 55% of the total budget for PS5 game development on service projects. In the next fiscal year, this proportion will increase to 60%.

 614