TOKYO—Sony Corp.’s next-generation PlayStation is still more than a year away, but its marketing strategy against newcomers like Google is already clear: Focus on hard-core gamers who obsess over the latest features.

Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida has even called the PlayStation a niche product, aimed at serious players. “Details when making games have become more important than ever,” he said at a recent company strategy briefing. The company talked up the specs of the next PlayStation such as “ray tracing,” which...