Uncharted 4 proved the power of first-party Sony games

The PlayStation 4 has a commanding lead in the console market, and that happened with a sparse release cadence from Sony’s first-party studios. But one of the company’s most recent blockbusters is evidence of how important, and lucrative, Sony-made games can be.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End debuted May 10, which was in the heart of Sony’s fiscal Q1 2016, and it was a key contributor to the PlayStation division’s $427 million in operating income. Those profits were up a massive 126.3 percent year-over-year. So while hardware revenues were down for Sony, gamers went nuts for its software. That led to the company reporting some record sales in the $99.6 billion global gaming market.

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In a conference call with investors this morning, Sony executives explained that Uncharted 4 performed especially well. Overall, first-party Sony games are on an upward trend. And that makes sense because the company has not really had a hit like Uncharted 4 on the PS4. Prior to the globe-trotting adventure from developer Naughty Dog, 2015’s difficult role-playing action game Bloodborne was the highest-profile Sony Interactive Entertainment-published product its flagship system.

Uncharted 4 was the top-selling physical game at U.S. retailers in May, and it made $56 million from digital revenues in that launch month.

“Uncharted 4 also marked the best first month of sales for any game in the Uncharted series after Uncharted 3, which is remarkable given the fact that it launched during the holiday period in November 2011,” The NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said last month. “The success of Uncharted helped Sony rank as the leading software publisher for May 2016.”

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Sony's Game Packaged Software sales were up considerably YoY.

Primarily driven by the success of Uncharted 4. pic.twitter.com/JFBUCS2jnQ

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 29, 2016

Looking ahead, Sony is anticipating even more success from Uncharted 4. It told investors that its first-party games have a high profit margin, so it expects the game to help pad its operating income through the upcoming gift-giving holiday season.

And then Uncharted 4 will finally get some more company. The company’s developers are planning to release the exhilarating platformer Gravity Rush 2, racing sim Gran Turismo Sport, and oft-delayed adventure game The Last Guardian before the end of calendar 2016. Each of those have the potential to sell well.

Then, in March (Sony’s Q4), the publisher will launch the highly anticipated open-world robo-dinosaur-hunting simulator Horizon Zero Dawn. That game has a ton of buzz following a strong showing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in June, and it could have an Uncharted 4-like effect on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s bottom line.

“With the PlayStation 4 install base growing at a rapid pace and the profit margin on first-party software being fairly high, it’s clear that Sony has a great opportunity to improve profitability this year through the release of hit first-party software,” gaming-industry analyst Daniel ZhugeEX told GamesBeat. “Hit titles such as Gran Turismo Sport and Horizon Zero Dawn are set to launch this fiscal year and are expected to perform well. Especially Gran Turismo due to its history on the PlayStation platform. Sony has already forecasted that Operating Income for FY16 will be up 52 percent YoY and I fully expect this increase to be driven by higher PlayStation 4 software first-party and network sales which have better profit margins than the hardware side of the business.”

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Now, gamers will have to see if Uncharted 4 is really the thief’s end, as Naughty Dog has repeatedly said, or if Sony won’t have the will to resist the call of that bountiful booty.