Sony is promising big things for future profits, looking to boost them to over $4 billion by the end of FY 2017, according to CEO Kaz Hirai’s three-year plan. Hirai plans to focus on devices, music, pictures, and games in order to do this, which (not coincidentally) are the best-performing areas for the company — outside of its financial services, which are little-known outside of Japan but which have consistently delivered billions in profits over the last decade.

Hirai expects Sony to be on course for a minimum operating profit of ¥500 billion ($4.2 billion) by the end of FY 2017 on March 31, 2018. Current Sony forecasts put operating margins for FY 2015 at just ¥20 billion.

Kaz Hirai

“Sony is positioning Devices, Game & Network Services, Pictures, and Music as the segments that will drive its profit growth over the next three years,” said Hirai, speaking to investors in Japan. “It will implement growth measures and engage in aggressive capital investment in these areas with the aim of achieving both sales growth and profit expansion…In Games & Network Services, the Company will strive to further expand the installed user base of the PlayStation platform and PlayStation Network (PSN).”

Hirai said that Sony’s business arms will be given more autonomy, allowing units to make more decisions and creating a more agile environment. However, integration into a wider corporate strategy remains key, with Hirai also expounding a “clearly defined positioning of each business within a broader business portfolio perspective.”

“Sony will position Return on Equity (ROE) as its primary key performance indicator and has set a target for consolidated ROE of more than 10 per cent and a target for consolidated operating profit of more than 500 billion yen for the Sony Group in FY2017, the final year of its mid-range corporate plan,” said the plan documents.

Sony is likely to spin off its mobile device business and its TV business into wholly owned subsidiaries, which may be a prelude to selling off those businesses. Despite making excellent TVs and mobile devices by all accounts, Sony hasn’t managed to do so profitably. Smartphones and TVs are highly competitive and likely to remain so for years, and absent some compelling advantage it’s hard to see why Sony should continue pouring money into those businesses.

This brings up back to the company’s focus on games and related services, which has certainly been a bright spot since the introduction of the PlayStation 4. Sony is riding high with the PS4, leading the console market in installed devices and likely to stay in the lead for years to come. The PlayStation Network is now making a lot of money, thanks to copying Microsoft’s successful Xbox Live strategy. Sony is even beginning to exploit the connections between its different businesses, as with the upcoming Powers original series distributed only through the PlayStation Network.

So it seems like a good bet to put more emphasis on the successful businesses and either revitalize or get rid of the unsuccessful ones, as painful as it might be to imagine a Sony that doesn’t produce TVs. This strategy isn’t assured of success, by any means — Sony’s had its share of clunkers in the games business, with the PS Vita and the PS TV struggling to establish themselves.

One concern is for the future, as many observers wonder whether there will ever be another generation of consoles. That may not matter much for a while; the last generation of consoles lasted a good seven years, after all. Still, it’s fair to wonder what comes next, and if Sony would be ready for it. There are certainly some publicly acknowledged efforts in the works by Sony, including Project Morpheus for Virtual Reality and PlayStation Now offering streaming games on a variety of platforms (and perhaps, someday, on nearly anything with a suitable screen and controls).

No doubt Sony’s working on a potential new PlayStation as well, or at least additional tech that could bolster the current console. For instance, if 4K TVs continue to gain market share, some smart console company will want to be there with a console that easily supports 4K output right out of the box. That could easily be Sony, when the time is right.

Focusing on games and game hardware while giving up on mobile devices could have many benefits. Imagine PlayStation Now on iOS devices, or the ability to play Destiny on your tablet no matter who the manufacturer was. Sony’s got a distinct, difficult-to-replicate advantage in its vast array of wholly owned game studios and game development capabilities. Similarly, Sony Music and Sony Pictures are among the top in their fields, and doing quite well. Using the synergies inherent in those businesses with games could indeed deliver the sort of profits Hirai envisions.

Sony’s vision for the next three years seems attainable, though it may be difficult and alarming to some. The effort begins with good communication, where Sony is already off to a good start by outlining the plan in advance. One thing is clear, at least — regardless of how well this plan proceeds for Sony, we’re all going to be seeing more great gaming experiences coming from the company for the next few years, as Sony puts even more emphasis on gaming.