Sony Sells Oodles of PS4s on Best Black Friday in "Company's History"

[StewShearerOld]

Sony Sells Oodles of PS4s on Best Black Friday in "Company's History"

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Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House says the PS4 could "exceed" sales benchmarks set by the ultra-popular PS2.

While Black Friday is a big day for pretty much all of the retail sector, it's easily one of the most important shopping days in the year for console makers. With bargains convincing people to make big purchases, it's a day where the likes of Sony and Microsoft can use the right deals to substantially expand their user base. In 2014, for instance, Microsoft was able to claim a significant victory when its Xbox One <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138836-Xbox-One-Outsold-PS4-On-Black-Friday>beat the PS4 for most Black Friday console sold. This year, the PS4 <a href=http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/29/playstation-wins-black-friday-according-to-marketing-study>came out on top and, according to SCE president Andrew House, helped drive Sony to one of its best sales days ever.

"We've just seen the most successful Black Friday in the company's history," said House, speaking in an interview. Speaking about the PS4 in particular, it was revealed that its current performance more than puts the console on par with the PlayStation 2 which, of course, still stands as the bestselling gaming console of all time. "We are now trying to benchmark against the success of the PlayStation 2," said House. "Or exceed it if possible." He would go on to say that the success of the PS4 proves that "rumors of the demise of the console have been greatly exaggerated."

House's comments come in the wake of reports that the PS4, just two years after its launch, has sold <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165169-More-than-30-Million-PlayStation-4-Consoles-Sold>more than 30 million units. The PS2, comparatively, took <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141825-PS4-Is-Quickly-Surpassing-PS2-In-Sales>two years and eight months to sell 20 million. While time will have to tell if Sony and the PS4 can maintain this sort of momentum, times are certainly looking good for the PlayStation brand.

Source: <a href=http://www.afr.com/technology/gadgets/home-entertainment/sonys-ps4-stays-ahead-of-the-pack-20151206-glgyc3>Financial Review




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[Amir Kondori]

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

 

[Ticklefist]

PS2 was a much more mature console at this point in its lifespan. Sony's still dragging its feet with the PS4.

 

[Lightknight]

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

I think those articles existed before home consoles did. Not sure how but I blame time traveling pranksters.

 

[Lufia Erim]

PS2 was a much more mature console at this point in its lifespan. Sony's still dragging its feet with the PS4.

How so? Im genuinely curious to what you mean?

OT: well there are more people who play videogames ( to not say gamers, i hate that term) than when the ps2 came out. I don't see why they couldn't sell more consoles.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

Last gen you had
DS - 150 million+
PSP - 80 million+
Wii - 100 million+
360 - 80 million+
PS3 - 80 million+

for over 490 million+ (it's probably over 500 million but sales figures stopped coming out with the new consoles release)

This gen
3DS - 55 million (no chance of breaking 100 million)
PSV - 20 million- (less than 20 million and abandoned)
Wii U - 11 million- (no chance of breaking 25 million)
XBO - 20 million- (http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/console-wars-Q3-2015.002.jpeg) (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/analysis-sony-continues-to-widen-its-console-sales-lead-over-microsoft/) unlikely to match 360)
PS4 - 30 million (the only bright spot in the eight generation)

This may not be the last gen but you won't see 5 consoles/handhelds from the big 3 again and this gen has only started if the console sales dry up like what happened to the Wii it could be bad.

 

[Rozalia1]

Sony's over brother jack dude. Popping those buy rates.

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

Hey now, you just called half the people here idiots.

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

Last gen you had
DS - 150 million+
PSP - 80 million+
Wii - 100 million+
360 - 80 million+
PS3 - 80 million+

for over 490 million+ (it's probably over 500 million but sales figures stopped coming out with the new consoles release)

This gen
3DS - 55 million (no chance of breaking 100 million)
PSV - 20 million- (less than 20 million and abandoned)
Wii U - 11 million- (no chance of breaking 25 million)
XBO - 20 million- (http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/console-wars-Q3-2015.002.jpeg) (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/analysis-sony-continues-to-widen-its-console-sales-lead-over-microsoft/) unlikely to match 360)
PS4 - 30 million (the only bright spot in the eight generation)

This may not be the last gen but you won't see 5 consoles/handhelds from the big 3 again and this gen has only started if the console sales dry up like what happened to the Wii it could be bad.

Really now? You're going to compare a decade's sales to in some cases two years? Lol.

 

[Ticklefist]

PS2 was a much more mature console at this point in its lifespan. Sony's still dragging its feet with the PS4.

How so? Im genuinely curious to what you mean?

OT: well there are more people who play videogames ( to not say gamers, i hate that term) than when the ps2 came out. I don't see why they couldn't sell more consoles.

Well the PS2 had more flagship titles in more varied genres at this point in its life. Gran Turismo for racing, Tekken Tag for fighting, Final Fantasy X for that crowd. Probably a lot more that's not coming to me at the moment.

On the other hand we have the PS4, which has Bloodborne.

 

[lancar]

I wonder if they did a Brack Friday Bunduru...

 

[balladbird]

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

It's a popular sentiment every generation, without fail. I will concede that it's a bit more common this time around than in the past, though... probably because of the few-years-old trend of gamers salivating with desire for there to be another games crash like the one from the 80s for... whatever reason they think that'd be a good thing.

 

[Adam Locking]

PS2 was a much more mature console at this point in its lifespan. Sony's still dragging its feet with the PS4.

How so? Im genuinely curious to what you mean?

OT: well there are more people who play videogames ( to not say gamers, i hate that term) than when the ps2 came out. I don't see why they couldn't sell more consoles.

Well the PS2 had more flagship titles in more varied genres at this point in its life. Gran Turismo for racing, Tekken Tag for fighting, Final Fantasy X for that crowd. Probably a lot more that's not coming to me at the moment.

On the other hand we have the PS4, which has Bloodborne.

There's Driveclub for racing fans, Infamous Second Son for sandbox city-destruction, Killzone for shooters, Little Big planet for platformers, Resogun for Shoot 'em Up fans and Until dawn for Horror. The only main genre they don't have is a fighting game.

 

[Ticklefist]

PS2 was a much more mature console at this point in its lifespan. Sony's still dragging its feet with the PS4.

How so? Im genuinely curious to what you mean?

OT: well there are more people who play videogames ( to not say gamers, i hate that term) than when the ps2 came out. I don't see why they couldn't sell more consoles.

Well the PS2 had more flagship titles in more varied genres at this point in its life. Gran Turismo for racing, Tekken Tag for fighting, Final Fantasy X for that crowd. Probably a lot more that's not coming to me at the moment.

On the other hand we have the PS4, which has Bloodborne.

There's Driveclub for racing fans, Infamous Second Son for sandbox city-destruction, Killzone for shooters, Little Big planet for platformers, Resogun for Shoot 'em Up fans and Until dawn for Horror. The only main genre they don't have is a fighting game.

These aren't flagship titles.

 

[King_Julian]

I wonder if they did a Brack Friday Bunduru...

HAHA! This guy gets it!

 

[Lightknight]

Regarding the "death of consoles".

The fact of consoles is that they easy user-friendly plug and play systems that benefit developers, hardware manufacturers and consumers in some ways. Having standardized hardware/software gives developers a well known standard to develop around and optimize, it gives harware manufacturers significant cost advantages via economies of scale, and the consumer gets a much more directly catered to in that developers will make sure all games work on that system's specs, the system's lifecycle can often outlive a computer due to the games being specifically designed for them beyond the point where a pc would be too old and there is generally a lower cost than computers except in the case of software pirates in which case you are no one's customer and they don't give a shit about you nor should they.

That being said, PCs are much more customizable and those steam sales can frequently dip below used game sales. They're also becoming more and more living room friendly thanks to Steams initiative in that area. So eventually that benefit will go away. Consoles used to be much more couch gaming friendly with four player titles but those have largely diminished in the current generation. I'd still put consoles at higher living room friendliness at this moment and it's always going to be really hard to beat the efficiency gained by standard units. While one could argue that one day we could see a standard computer for the living room, I'd argue that not only are we currently seeing that thanks to the x86 architecture being adopted by everyone but Nintendo, but on that day it'd just be another console.

It is possible that one day computers will outpace game processing the same way PCs used to only be able to handle word processing and barely that. That would pretty much ruin the need for advanced hardware or standard units in everything except whatever other types of processing demands we have then. But this point would require machines that are many times more powerful than what we've got now and yet with similar power demands. That's not impossible but it would more than likely require new technologies rather than improvements to existing ones which are starting to bottleneck. Things like liquid data storage and quantum computing do show promise in that area but require significant hurdles to make viable at a reasonable cost of both money and power consumption.

If companies keep putting out a console like the PS4, then consoles will continue to exist.

 

[gorfias]

I feel like a traffic cop on Valium shouting "stoooooop... please stoooooop".

PS4 is terrific in many ways but one vital one: there is a huge storage problem. They will only assure you can replace your 1/2 to 1 TB drive with up to 2 TB.

I only have about 1/2 dozen games and PS+ games and I've already had to delete almost all of it. All cross platform purchases will be for the XB1 that has figured this out: I get to keep the internal 1/2 tb and add an external 3 TB (maybe more). Works great.

Can the console be a success if everyone realizes they'll be buying new games from the competition?

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

I think those articles existed before home consoles did. Not sure how but I blame time traveling pranksters.

Escapist published it. It was a marketing guy wrote that, whoever wins Gen 7, there will not be a Gen 8. He was wrong. There will even be a Gen 9: it just will not look like this. My bet: a streaming service. Amazon vs. Netflix vs. Samsung vs.... who knows.

 

[Lightknight]

I feel like a traffic cop on Valium shouting "stoooooop... please stoooooop".

PS4 is terrific in many ways but one vital one: there is a huge storage problem. They will only assure you can replace your 1/2 to 1 TB drive with up to 2 TB.

I only have about 1/2 dozen games and PS+ games and I've already had to delete almost all of it. All cross platform purchases will be for the XB1 that has figured this out: I get to keep the internal 1/2 tb and add an external 3 TB (maybe more). Works great.

Can the console be a success if everyone realizes they'll be buying new games from the competition?

External drives (or an internal drive with an enclosure) can go up to 6TB and can even improve performance depending on speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Gm5TiR93Q

I mean, if for some reason it "HAS" to be internal only then I'd understand this complaint. But I can't think of a reason why. Even with the 2TB limitation, that's still more than the industry standard for PC and certainly was on release.

But I see no reason why a firmware update wouldn't start to support higher amounts as long as the storage device's read/write/power consumption/size all hit the mark.

EDIT: apparently you'll want to stop at 4TB because the 6TB HDDs require a special boot technique (you have to do something crazy like hold down the power button for 5-6 seconds but not 7 seconds or it will boot in safe mode). 4TB allows you to keep turning on the console from a controller while on the couch in your underwear and with beer in hand.

I remember reading some article where someone was saying that this would be the last generation of consoles and that they would sell less than the previous generation. I remember thinking that person was an idiot.

I think those articles existed before home consoles did. Not sure how but I blame time traveling pranksters.

Escapist published it. It was a marketing guy wrote that, whoever wins Gen 7, there will not be a Gen 8. He was wrong. There will even be a Gen 9: it just will not look like this. My bet: a streaming service. Amazon vs. Netflix vs. Samsung vs.... who knows.

Everyone publishes it every generation.

Streaming gaming just isn't that popular. You'd think it would be but even with ultra fast internet connections there is always going to be input delays that aren't going to cut it for some game types. Milliseconds add up and make a difference. Even in a local lan party with great connections you're going to run into this problem thanks to the basic limitations of the speed of light/information and authentication and everything else.

Could it eventually kill the console? Maybe. But they are more cumbersome with even less control over the experience.

 

[gorfias]

External drives (or an internal drive with an enclosure) can go up to 6TB and can even improve performance depending on speed.

Reviewing


I had been looking at the Nyko extra storage solution and was warned, Sony might kill it with a firmware update.

Could it [streaming gaming] eventually kill the console? Maybe. But they are more cumbersome with even less control over the experience.

Around 2000, 15 years ago, I thought the concept of even standard def. streaming would always be impractical. In 2006, Circuit City (RIP) assured me cable would never be able to steam more than 1080i. TV would never be capable of greater than 1080P. Around 2010, I asked why the heck I would ever need an Android (Smart) Smart Phone. About 18 months ago, I saw a curved, 4K, OLED TV for $10K @ Bestbuy. Now I'm seeing them for about $3K (I want one!). It's been a number of years since I tried OnLive on a slow, Android tablet, and it was very good. If Gen 8 run 7 years, what the heck will game streaming be like by then? I think it is coming.

 

[RawSteelUT]

We go back and forth between consoles and PC dying, because pundits can't accept that the two forms of gaming serve different audiences and insist on there being only one.

Physical media has been "dead" for years, according to tech pundits in silicon valley and environs, but they're still out there and selling rather well. I know I've just about done all my Christmas shopping, and no download codes among all of them.

If anything, the future of gaming will a continued push toward the Hollywood model of pushing content out everywhere, in every way that can profit. Streaming, download, discs, neural implants, whatever the customer wants and is willing to pay for, gaming companies are probably looking at it as an avenue for profit.

 

[Lightknight]

I had been looking at the Nyko extra storage solution and was warned, Sony might kill it with a firmware update.

I'm not sure what their motivation to do so would be. As long as it has an external power supply then it shouldn't make any difference to Sony at all. If anything, it'd just mean more games being purchased for their console and if you accidentally break the console then it'll just be another sale. Likewise, since we can already swap out the HDD for other drives then there isn't any additional security issue that a 4TB drive would have that a 500GB drive wouldn't also be vulnerable to.

The only thing I could think of may be the 6TB solution since it requires a special startup for some reason. But that seems like more of a reason to update the firmware to be more compatible unless it actually causes a problem. I doubt this is the case since PS3s when from 60gb to 500gb default HDDs during its lifespan and I have no reason to believe that the PS4 isn't designed to scale up the same way.

Around 2000, 15 years ago, I thought the concept of even standard def. streaming would always be impractical. In 2006, Circuit City (RIP) assured me cable would never be able to steam more than 1080i. TV would never be capable of greater than 1080P. Around 2010, I asked why the heck I would ever need an Android (Smart) Smart Phone. About 18 months ago, I saw a curved, 4K, OLED TV for $10K @ Bestbuy. Now I'm seeing them for about $3K (I want one!). It's been a number of years since I tried OnLive on a slow, Android tablet, and it was very good. If Gen 8 run 7 years, what the heck will game streaming be like by then? I think it is coming.

The difference between video streaming and game streaming is input. Thanks to buffering you can stream video just fine because you can generally buffer/download faster than you can watch. But when you incorporate input into it then there actually can't be any such thing as buffering and every input has to be received, processed and then displayed.

This is a physical limitation to game streaming. Even in your own house you'll run into the same problem so if we honestly believe that companies can do it full justice over the internet then we're kidding ourselves. I mean, have you not already been trying to play some of the game streaming services? The delay is readily noticeable and I have no faith that it can get better due to physical limitations (rather than technological limitations). If something like quantum entanglement results usable input technology then sure. But right now we're limited with information only being able to travel the speed of light at best and with the multiple checkpoints of authentication taking their own time. That's all without even accounting for internet speed which is still really pitiful in the US.

 

[gorfias]

PS3s when from 60gb to 500gb default HDDs during its lifespan and I have no reason to believe that the PS4 isn't designed to scale up the same way.

Hope so. The video you shared looked a bit convoluted to me. Doable, but not as simple as hooking up a 3 TB USB 3.0 to the XB1. All of the methods I'm seeing, including Nyko, you're still using the one port on which the internal 2.5 drive runs. But from what you've written, I guess the 4 TB Nyko is in my future.

Does the PS3 have a 1 TB max do you know? Will it do 2 TB internal as well?

This is a physical limitation to game streaming. Even in your own house you'll run into the same problem so if we honestly believe that companies can do it full justice over the internet then we're kidding ourselves. I mean, have you not already been trying to play some of the game streaming services? The delay is readily noticeable and I have no faith that it can get better due to physical limitations (rather than technological limitations). If something like quantum entanglement results usable input technology then sure. But right now we're limited with information only being able to travel the speed of light at best and with the multiple checkpoints of authentication taking their own time. That's all without even accounting for internet speed which is still really pitiful in the US.

I might have seen the problems if I played more. As it was, I didn't see them but again, I didn't play onlive live.

Maybe just full digital. Our 65" 4K TVS will come with a controller and we'll buy new games from a Samsung library. (Or not. Even if TVs BECOME consoles, I play on keeping my TV a dozen years. Won't the newest games 10 years from now require better hardware?) Dunno.