Friday 22 August 2014

With 10 million units sold the PS4 is a success, but Sony doesn’t know why?

Sony’s Playstation 4 sales have surpassed a whopping 10 million units since it was launched in November last year. Not only has it broken previous records, but has also gone to become a key revenue channel for Sony – outweighing its smartphone and TV sales. In fact, Sony has admitted its been hard for it to keep up with the demand. While there’s a huge demand for rival Microsoft’s Xbox One, too; it had sold just 5 million units as of April in comparison with Sony Ps4′s 10 million plus sales.

The rise of the PS4 has beaten forecasts of not just analysts worldwide, but also Sony. In a conference, when Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida was asked what were the reasons behind the PS4′s success, his reply was a plain and honest “We don’t know.” He goes on to say that while he is happy with the results, it’s making him nervous because Sony does not completely understand what’s causing so many people to buy the Playstation.

There are lots of new people trying out the Playstation – people who never purchased the last-gen PS3, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii. This brings Sony in face with a new challenge: Are they exhausting all the core gamers? As purchasing a console is a long-term investment, Sony could potentially reach a sales-threshold leaving no consumers it can sell to.

In India, The Playstion 4 was launched in January this year, though its rival Xbox One will be available only in September. The higher availability of the PS4 could be one of the reasons for higher sales. In an analysis made by Wired, much of the PS4′s success is attributed to its accessibility both in terms of cost and availability. Also, there was a seven-year gap between the launches of the Ps3 and the PS4, which gave enough breeding time for a new generation of gamers.

In the meantime, Sony is focusing on bringing new titles to the Playstation. Some titles such as Until Dawn have been repurposed for PS4, while The Order is expected to launch towards February. Of course, users can expect more games during Christmas time including Bloodbourne and Uncharted 4.

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