Sony Aims to Sell 5 Million PS4s in 2013

[Steven Bogos]

Sony Aims to Sell 5 Million PS4s in 2013

Sony's Andrew House says a "consumer focused, developer inspired" approach will make the PS4 successful.

Speaking at Tokyo Game Show today during Sony's keynote presentation, Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House made some bold claims on just how successful the company's new console will be. In particular, he said that Sony is aiming to sell 5 million PS4s by the end of 2013, which when you consider that the console won't launch in Japan until 2014, is a pretty large estimate.

He said that the PS4 had been developed to be "consumer focused, developer inspired" and that he believed this is essential in helping address three growing "trends" in the gaming industry. The trends are, according to House: connectivity as a must-have factor, the rise of "second screen" devices, and a shift in purchasing to become more digital focused.

House says that 1.5 billion PSN accounts have been registered worldwide since the service's launch, and only expects that number to grow higher with the PS4. He said that the "potential of the PS4 is not limited to core users," and detailed plans of how the system will expand to capture the casual markets, in particular, with a focus on party games.

He also said that being flexible for indie developers is very important, and says that Sony will allow indies to publish whenever they want, and for whatever platform they want to publish on.

Edit: The English translation at the event was slightly off, but it appears that House was talking about the 2013 fiscal year, which ends in March 2014, after Japan's February 2014 launch.

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[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Without Japan to boost sales figures that number is going ro be difficult to reach even with one millon pre-orders worldwide.

On the positive side its rival has already shot themselves in the foot enough times to give Sony a decent headstart.

 

[Zeckt]

The only reason I won't be buying one is because I have bad luck with launch quality consoles. I planned on going pc exclusive but sony made their system quite appealing.

 

[Berny Marcus]

Sounds like reasonable expectations. I think.I know I'm getting one for sure

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

That's a... curious thing to say.

Although, I'm willing to bet that the reason that it's that high is because come holiday time when both consoles are out parents are going to get the cheapest console. Then again, the WiiU is cheaper than both, but I'm wondering if the average consumer knows that it's a new console and not an add-on.

In any case, we shall see Mr. House.

 

[Simalacrum]

Wait? 1.5 BILLION PSN accounts?

Ok, let me get this straight? so right now there are roughly 80 million PS3's, 80 million PSP's and 5 million PS Vita's in the wild, according to VGChatz (I rounded off the numbers to make calculating it easier). So, thats approximately 165 million PSN-using machines out there.

?So for that 1.5 billion accounts, there has to be on average 9.6 PSN accounts for EVERY machine.

As far as I can tell, most people only register 1 or 2 accounts on their Playstation consoles at most? including myself.

What gives?

(Also, that number of PSN accounts would mean that it was SUBSTANTIALLY more popular than freakin' FaceBook. That number simply can't be right.)

 

[dragongit]

5 million doesn't seem that far out of the range of possibility. With Holiday shopping and the fact people have been clamoring for a new console generation ( still not counting you Wii U, sorry ), 5 million should still be achievable. The PS3 sales slogged at first, but it's being released before the Xbone, it costs 100 dollars less, and is potentially more powerful. Just judging against the competition it has a fair chance to gain early momentum.

 

[Saltyk]

Five million sounds a little high. I heard they had a million preorders, but will they really get an additional four sales for each preorder? While the system is cheaper than their chief competitor, it's still not a cheap item. Certainly not a whim purchase, at any rate.

Then again, with Christmas right around the corner, it could be possible. The price difference would probably be a huge selling point for any parent that is going to buy their child a console for a gift.

I wish you luck, Sony. I'm still not certain if this is informed confidence or insanity.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Five million units. In a month and a half. And I thought that the $11000 Space Marine army was the craziest thing I'd hear today.

 

[Fimblwintr]

Sony's 'fiscal year' ends at the end of March 2014.

If they sell as much as they produce, they could probably hit 5 million.

Basically, I think the article has its dates wrong due to the common error when translating a company's financial year as the calendar year.

 

[Ferisar]

Five million units. In a month and a half. And I thought that the $11000 Space Marine army was the craziest thing I'd hear today.

Obviously Games Workshop is working with Sony. If you buy the Space Marine army it's just a PS4 that isn't assembled yet once you open the box. Better get your primer ready. Among everything else.

As a bonus, you can melt it down into both heavy-metal and plastic models.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Five million units. In a month and a half. And I thought that the $11000 Space Marine army was the craziest thing I'd hear today.

Obviously Games Workshop is working with Sony. If you buy the Space Marine army it's just a PS4 that isn't assembled yet once you open the box. Better get your primer ready. Among everything else.

As a bonus, you can melt it down into both heavy-metal and plastic models.

Make sure you only use our trusted brand Citadel paints!

 

[RJ Dalton]

http://youtu.be/FopyRHHlt3M

That is all.
No seriously, that's my reaction to this.

 

[Arawn]

Sony's 'fiscal year' ends at the end of March 2014.

If they sell as much as they produce, they could probably hit 5 million.

Basically, I think the article has its dates wrong due to the common error when translating a company's financial year as the calendar year.

Now that makes more sense. Rather than thinking they have a month and a half to sell that many units. Seeing as they will have Japan release next year that figure isn't too far fetched. Still abit high, but possible.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Best of luck to them. But it would be a lot easier if they launched in Japan before 2014.

 

[Pebkio]

And best of luck to all of them. No, this is totally reasonable, and you know who could really sell this: Peter Molyneux.

Alright, well, by the end of Fiscal Year 2013? Which is March of 2014? Yeah, that's entirely reasonable... but why have the year "2013" in there. I think they're just wanking themselves off and they really mean Q1 2014. I swear, the dating system for the corporate world is just to make themselves feel better.

 

[BrotherRool]

Just for reference, the PS3 sold 3.8 million units in that timespan and that was with it being overpriced and a really weak games library.

If anything I think Sony are underestimating, they're only going to be limited by production in this timespan, the Xbox too. This is going to be a real sucker punch for the Wii U though, both it's competitors outselling it's lifetime total within one quarter. Still not unrecoverable, but painful

 

[CriticalMiss]

It seems a bit conservative but that would be Sony's current tactic, let someone else do the fucking up and look great by comparison. Good luck to them and hopefully they don't imitate the sales record of the WiiU.