Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki has sold more than half of his stock in the company. A recent United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing shows that the 61-year-old sold millions of dollars worth of stock just two days after the announcement that PlayStation was going to cease production of physical discs in January 2028.
It also came during a time when the stock saw a slight bump in price after the news broke.
Totoki Made Millions
According to the SEC filing, Totoki sold 225,000 shares of Sony stock on July 3. At $21.02 per share, Totoki pulled in roughly $4.7 million on the transaction. The 225,000 shares represented 56% of his total stake in the company.
Following the transaction, Totoki was left with 173,250 shares. But he also wasn’t the only executive to make a transaction after the announcement.
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Also filed on July 3, Sony chief strategy officer Toshimoto Mitomo sold 25,000 shares of stock, representing around 18% of his total shares. He sold his shares at $21.02 as well, totalling $525,500.
Since the sale of the stock, Sony’s share price hasn’t changed much. In fact, as of publication, Sony shares are trading slightly higher at $21.20 on the New York Stock Exchange. In the eight days since the announcement, Sony stock is up 6%.
The announcement that Sony was ending the production of physical PlayStation games sent shockwaves through the industry. While many have come to expect it to happen eventually, the announcement still felt sudden, despite an 18-month buffer between now and when the change goes into effect.
Since the announcement on July 1, a Change.org petition titled “Don’t Kill the Disc” has amassed over 216,000 signatures. Sony, however, has yet to address any frustrations and concerns from fans regarding the decision. Instead, they’ve chosen to just seemingly move on.
What do you think of Sony’s CEO and CSO selling large amounts of stock just after the PlayStation announcement? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Discord.
In other news, read Asha Sharma’s full memo to Xbox employees regarding the mass layoffs that will see 3,200 people lose their jobs this year. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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Yeah CEO’s sell stock all the time. I do think they have to unload Sony should sell Sony Pictures to Netflix and eventually they will give up on PlayStation gradually shut it down maybe 3-5 years after PS6 launches it’s not profitable enough they need to maximize profits to appease shareholders and can’t it’s too old a business model that doesn’t click with current gaming audience. They already left cell phones, computers, and are selling most of their TV buisiness to TCL this is the only way. Music and Japan centric entertainment is their path forward with Aniplex and Crunchyroll.
Playstation isn’t goin anywhere .it’s every other game systems that will be gone ..like Xbox ..they have been getting hammered for years now nobody plays systems with out the big games .Xbox don’t have them don’t does .I see the disc not goin anywhere once all backlash Sony will change mind cus we are the people who buy there stuff do they better listen
Or then they will be no more
once they termistroy the disc games for all companies and consual people stop making them the players can’t play the disc games including buying and ldoilingz the characters cosplay definitely keep the disc games coming thank you for your support
It is not fair to take the the disc away as an option. I for one live in the middle of no where and internet connection is not good taking away the disc’s will loss a lot of people that don’t get an option. This is a bad idea.
rats abandoning the ship
No. The Japan stock exchange has new rules and suggestions for investors and owners
The disc isn’t the issue. The lack of digital media ownership and the unreliability of permanent server upkeep are. Otherwise, digital media formats are economically superior.
Once those nuts are cracked, it’s over for your attitude. So help stem the tide in our favour rather than trying to fight a lost cause.
He’s not abandoning the ship. What he’s really doing is taking the backlash while song is at its current peak and selling so after they either respond or after the backlash drops the stock to is new bottom they will by almost all of it back and walk away with a nice stock increase with some take home money.
Since Sony will most likely stay the course of all digital moving forward, imagine if as a final salute to physical (if even technically possible) they release a console with the ability to run all past discs. I bet stock prices would soar. It would be a monster, cost well over a grand, but imagine the generational span of gamers wanting one.
It could possibly be the top selling console of all time.
Sorry, just trying to find a positive thought to all this.
what past discs? when old games especially ps1-ps3 havent been sold in decades i really dont see more than a million or 2 buying the things, just the hardcore collectors who have 1000 grand to waste.
same with crunchyroll its not a savior for sony when the target audience for anime shows is way way way less than the audience for general music, movies, games and even then netflix has some of the most desired anime
Give consumers a choice to use optional disc drive for the PS6 to play games before 2028 up to PS3. This news will somewhat be more comforting and sell the new $1000 console.
They told you they don’t care what you think, they are making moves to maximize their interests.
It is up to you to fight for your “RIGHT OF FIRST SALE” this is the actual legal mechanism you are losing here.
Don’t let them take from you without compensation.
Right of first sale is a significant legal mechanism and is a valuable part of the transaction. You are just in being upset at it being deleted without consent or warning.
Fight for it. And be ready to give up PlayStation. They need you more than you need them. Me personally? I have a back catalog of old games that I will never be able to finish, even if I had my entire lifetime to live over again. I don’t even need new games.
I feel the same exact way, I have so many have already. There is no need to keep supporting Sony with the discless ps6, fucking discless bastards.
Honestly I’ll be getting a PC when the PS6 drops. Reason being cheaper games, sales on older games happen more frequently, and indie games that take 10 – 15 years to come to console are easier to get on a device that releases most games on its platform first (PC)
Eat the rich!
Bullets for these big eye community focused ideas
While I hope Sony is paying attention yo it fan base because at the end they have something to lose Me myself have games hard disc and digital keep me right with the physical Game
It just doesn’t make sense to make sense. Sony only licenses games and makes the hardware for the consoles but if they’re digital only we all might as well just get a computer and access all the games.
Sony has no more competition so they can stop pretending to care about gamers of money 🫡🤴🏿
First $ grab is in stocks, seeing that now.
Second grab will be the buying frenzy this causes.
Third grab, when all the physical game consoles hit their “expiration” date u have to buy the new one.
Fourth $ grab is selling ALL ur data to the highest bidder. It’s becoming a sick twisted world and I’m afraid it’s gonna get way worse b4 it gets better. Hold on to ur hats….we are going down a deep rabbit hole.
He probably shorted the stock via some dark pools as well. 🙂
Flooding the market with his shares shorts the stock “naturally,” kind of. It mitigates the risk, but also doesn’t provide the same returns.
Its all about money, and I for one wont be buying the next Playstation that comes out. I wouldn’t have a problem with this except for the fact that sony just pulled a bunch of titles off of their store that people had already bought. That also removes it from your library. When you buy a game digitally, there’s nothing that protects you from that game being removed. You will never fully own anything ever again to do with games except the console.
They’ll do anything but let us own a digital product.
It’s almost like he knew the announcement would be good for shareholders in the short term but bad in the long term. Hmmmmmm.
Power play. He knew stocks would rise with the announcement, because why wouldn’t they – but also thought he could mitigate a value spike, preventing the prices from getting too high by flooding the market, and encouraging further investment purchases with managed growth. Great move. Classic market manipulation.
Well everthing in life is rented…we are only here for a little while …nothing is truely ours …better enjoy it …the Future is Here.
Sony can Kiss my Tip, they won’t see another cent from me.
C Suite executives do not just sell shares in the open market very often. Typically they have a structures sales plan and decide to sell stock months in advance to ensure that they are not trading on insider information.
No matter what happens… Playstation has given us some amazing times, years, and memories. And, this might be the end of the road for many. But no matter how upset they make me, loyalty matters. I’ll wait to see where this all goes before I say “enough is enough”. May someone at Sony open their chinky eyes and realize the error in their ways. And, think of a better way to make consumers and their company happy. Maybe they just need new leadership. I vote for Janet Jackson. Revenge for her brother Michael would be sweet against Sony. What better way than running their gaming department and dropping a new Moonwalker game?! I’m here to see it happen. 🤷🏻♂️😅
They sold their stock after the announcement. That fact is a non-issue. Also getting rid of the disc is not the issue that gamers need to be worried about. It’s the periodic stopping of support of the games. Whether you have a disk or you downloaded a digital copy, they can still block the game at any given time if they feel that they don’t want to support it anymore. That is the fight that we need to have when it comes to DRM.
Wrong direction entirely. This is the time for a console builder to step up and fully leverage Pcie M.2 drive technology to resurrect solid state cartridge console gaming. Using an extended and somewhat external Pcie bus, they can eliminate memory issues with consoles and continue to drive budget-minded gaming performance. We are about 5 years past the point where someone should have built this.