Sony Sells Over 5.3 Million PS4s Worldwide Since Launch

[Alex Co]

Sony Sells Over 5.3 Million PS4s Worldwide Since Launch

Sony's PlayStation 4 claims the top-selling console crown in January, with total global sales now surpassing 5.3 million since the console's launch late last year.

Following news over the weekend that PlayStation 4 sales in January almost doubled that of the Xbox One in the US [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132268-PS4-Outsells-Xbox-One-by-Nearly-Two-to-One-in-the-US-Last-Month], Sony has now announced that it has sold more than 5.3 million PS4s worldwide since the console's launch in November last year; and that the PS4 was the top-selling console in the US last month overall. Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment states, "I am thrilled that so many customers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play throughout and beyond the holiday season. We are delighted that according to the NPD Group's latest data, PS4 was January's top-selling console in the United States."

House adds, "The PS4 system's momentum just keeps growing stronger, and we are extremely grateful for the continued passion and support of PlayStation fans. February 22 sees the launch of PS4 in Japan, and I'm looking forward to Japanese fans sharing the excitement of the deep social capabilities and entertainment experiences only possible on PS4."

With the PS4 set to release in Japan officially later this week, that 5.3 million figure will most likely shoot up before the month's done. For comparison, the last official sales number Microsoft has revealed for the Xbox One mentioned [http://www.escapistmagazine.com] that the next-gen console has moved over three million units before the end of 2013.

In other PS4 news, Konami has announced a confirmed that the PS4 version will run at native 1080p, while the Xbox One will only manage 720p [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132294-Sony-Konami-Reveal-Limited-Edition-Metal-Gear-Solid-V-PS4], which is the same resolution as the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Source: VentureBeat [http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/17/sony-sells-5-3m-playstation-worldwide-since-launch/]

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[List]

well this is partially because xbone is only sold in 13~ regions, among other things like "big brother" kinect, etc.

Then again who ever in microsoft said "let's limit the launch regions!" is kicking himself.

 

[gigastar]

For comparisons sake, does anyone know approximately how many WiiU's have sold so far?

 

[Li Mu]

Wait...what? The PS4 hasn't been released in Japan yet?! Well that's a few million guaranteed units sold right there.

 

[BrotherRool]

I'm having a great big smug told-you-so moment at the memory of all the people who though it would be difficult to sell 5 million by April.

My next prediction is 1)No price cuts this year, not even at Christmas. Not only is Sony not in a position to afford it, but price-cuts can leave the early adopters feeling sore and they're Sony's most valuable customers. They've got too much momentum to cut prices this year.

2)Since it's normal to have a better second christmas than first, even with the lack of games that's going to be become a common complaint this year, I predict Sony will sell 10 million by the end of this financial year. Maybe even 12, afterall they haven't released in Japan. That would make them more successful than the Xbox 360 in it's launch year and even a bit more successful than the PS2 (the PS2 really took off in it's third financial year)

For comparisons sake, does anyone know approximately how many WiiU's have sold so far?

5.86 million shipped as of 31st December 2013 and NPD had 49,000 sold in the US for January.

Ouch. And this is only going to make the Wii U third-party problem first. If the Xbox One can't completely run PS4 games, it's going to be hard to port down to a Wii U as soon as publishers stop supporting the Ps3/360

 

[Casual Shinji]

Then again who ever in microsoft said "let's limit the launch regions!" is kicking himself.

No shit, right!?

I mean it hasn't even launched in most of Europe. At least, it hasn't in my country, and that's really a first for a major console. And all because of the stupid Kinect voice commands.

No price cuts this year, not even at Christmas. Not only is Sony not in a position to afford it, but price-cuts can leave the early adopters feeling sore and they're Sony's most valuable customers. They've got too much momentum to cut prices this year.

I don't think we'll see a price cut for a very long time, since from what I heard the price was already cut before it launched.

 

[gigastar]

No price cuts this year, not even at Christmas. Not only is Sony not in a position to afford it, but price-cuts can leave the early adopters feeling sore and they're Sony's most valuable customers. They've got too much momentum to cut prices this year.

I don't think we'll see a price cut for a very long time, since from what I heard the price was already cut before it launched.

Not to mention theres no serious need for a price cut, since the current sales nearly catching up to the WiiU in just a few months, where the WiiU has been out for much longer.

So yeah. The dust has settled and seems that Sony is coming out ahead.

 

[JayRPG]

well this is partially because xbone is only sold in 13~ regions, among other things like "big brother" kinect, etc.

Then again who ever in microsoft said "let's limit the launch regions!" is kicking himself.

You can't really take anything away from Sony though, they also had a pretty limited launch (compared to previous generations).

These figures are before the console has launched in Japan, Japan is their biggest market, traditionally they sell the most units in Japan.

I wouldn't be surprised if this figure is nearing 8-9 million after the Japan launch (assuming their supply is good enough).

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm having a great big smug told-you-so moment at the memory of all the people who though it would be difficult to sell 5 million by April.

Wasn't the 5 million sales prediction for the end of 2013?

It's going to be interesting to see just how many PS4s Sony have stockpiled for the Japanese release and how quickly they vanish from shelves. Although I can imagine a few impatient Japanese fans would have imported them already since they had to wait so long.

Did the Xbone launch in Japan yet? It would be nice to see how many more PS4s than 'Bones get sold there too.

 

[Branindain]

According to the stats on Vgchartz, which will be close to accurate, the PS4 last week moved 140,000 units. Meanwhile, the Xbone, WiiU, 360 & Wii COMBINED sold 132,000. Maybe if Titanfall becomes the new zeitgeist things will start to turn but as of now Sony is crushing it, and they're not even out in Japan yet!

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Remember how everyone said the market wasn't right for consoles and the sales just wouldn't work out?

With the power of hindsight bias I can now say that those people were idiots who understood nothing.

But the sales figures we have now aren't really even indicative of popularity since the releases were so ridiculously limited for no fucking reason, and barely any good exclusives are out.

We won't know how popular the PS4 or the XBONE are going to be untill they have a full release everywhere, with a good number of some actually good exclusives.

 

[BrotherRool]

I'm having a great big smug told-you-so moment at the memory of all the people who though it would be difficult to sell 5 million by April.

Wasn't the 5 million sales prediction for the end of 2013?

It's going to be interesting to see just how many PS4s Sony have stockpiled for the Japanese release and how quickly they vanish from shelves. Although I can imagine a few impatient Japanese fans would have imported them already since they had to wait so long.

Did the Xbone launch in Japan yet? It would be nice to see how many more PS4s than 'Bones get sold there too.

Nah, that was just bad reporting. Sony said 'end of financial year 2013' and apparently some news reporters thought that meant 1st Januaray, it actually means 1st April.

The Xbox One isn't available in Japan yet and no-one knows when it will. Microsoft just gave an ultra vague '2014'. It'll be interesting, but if they don't launch in the next couple of months I can't imagine they'll have a chance. The 360 got slaughtered by the PS3 in Japan, it was being outsold by the PS2 at times and so it was going to be a steep battle if they launched at the same time.

And apparently Titanfall went down really well in Japan. But if MS keep dragging their feet then they'll miss out on all the launch hype for that. I'm guessing they're either struggling to localise the Kinect, or both companies are still struggling to make enough consoles to keep up with demand and Microsoft hoped to get a solid footing in their 'main' countries before trying the riskier ones

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Remember how everyone said the market wasn't right for consoles and the sales just wouldn't work out?

With the power of hindsight bias I can now say that those people were idiots who understood nothing.

But the sales figures we have now aren't really even indicative of popularity since the releases were so ridiculously limited for no fucking reason, and barely any good exclusives are out.

We won't know how popular the PS4 or the XBONE are going to be untill they have a full release everywhere, with a good number of some actually good exclusives.

The only reason Sony has big numbers is because Microsoft shat blood on the bed.

Its like every other car company going bankrupt except Ford.

When its the only game in town, of course Ford will sell well. 2/3 consoles report dismal sales, and the only one doing well is the PS4 because its not a Wii U or XBONE. We know who will be more popular the moment the DRM scandal broke out, and the investors started panicking. We knew who would ship more units the moment Nintendo started sitting around doing nothing for years.

I said this gen will be a blood bath, and I was right. 2/3rd failure rate with the only console doing well being the PS4. At this rate, the only people who will be left is Sony and that might not last long since they are selling off everything to keep themselves afloat.

But it's not exactly surprising that the only one who's doing well is the only one who didn't completely fuck up to some degree.

Sonys doing well because their console is actually a decent advancement, and they didn't fuck up marketing or PR catastrophically. As opposed to both the XBONE and Wii-u.

If there's only one player on the field who didn't immediately score an own goal of course they're going to seem like the best players.

It doesn't necessarily say much about the console market that there's only one console doing well when it's the only console not to fuck up horribly.

 

[fix-the-spade]

1)No price cuts this year, not even at Christmas.

I think this depends on Microsoft, if the Xbone gets a price cut (or a Kinect free version) then Sony will shave at least $50 off the hardware price to keep a hold of that cost advantage. To the average consumer getting a game effectively free when you buy a PS4 vs Xbone is a much bigger draw than the PS4's power advantage or the Xbone's creepy CCTV system. Most buyers probably know nothing about either unless the Gamestop guy tells them so.

Ouch. And this is only going to make the Wii U third-party problem first. If the Xbox One can't completely run PS4 games, it's going to be hard to port down to a Wii U as soon as publishers stop supporting the Ps3/360

As far as third party publishers are concerned the Wii U is dead anyway. Unless Nintendo is paying for development there is no reason at all to develop for the Wii U at the moment regardless of the new console's performance. Even if the PS4/Xbone were bombing publishers would be putting games out for PS3, 360 and not Wii U.

 

[Xman490]

For comparisons sake, does anyone know approximately how many WiiU's have sold so far?

5.86 million shipped as of 31st December 2013 and NPD had 49,000 sold in the US for January.

The article http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/01/29/nintendo-posts-fy32014-earnings-with-mixed-results-wii-u-total-sales-5-86-million-3ds42-74-million/ has that stated as a sales number. So considering the 3.5 million sales by mid-2013 and 3.1 million sales on launch as stated on http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/wii-u-sales-total-3-45-mil-31-pct-fewer-consoles-than-nintendo-expected-to-sell/ , that's not too bad for a next-gen console. Basically, it sells about half as well as the PS4 and approximately as well as the XbOne when it comes to their launches. Just shows how much people really value hardware gimmicks.

Hopefully these impressive PS4 sales will attract more fun, innovative exclusives; perhaps they will even total more than the PS3's.

 

[Roxas1359]

I'm having a great big smug told-you-so moment at the memory of all the people who though it would be difficult to sell 5 million by April.

Wasn't the 5 million sales prediction for the end of 2013?

It's going to be interesting to see just how many PS4s Sony have stockpiled for the Japanese release and how quickly they vanish from shelves. Although I can imagine a few impatient Japanese fans would have imported them already since they had to wait so long.

Did the Xbone launch in Japan yet? It would be nice to see how many more PS4s than 'Bones get sold there too.

No, they were planning on selling 5 million by the end of the Japanese Fisical year, which is March 31st. Some news outlets didn't clarify that too well as they also made it sound like Nintendo was hoping to sell 9 million Wii U's by January 1st, when Nintendo really meant selling that much by March 31st.

As for not launching initially in Japan, the Wii U was actually similar because it launched in Japan last since the Japanese home console market is dying and handhelds are rising tremendously. So both of the Japanese console manufacturers launched their console in western regions first since console gaming is big there. Sony also said how they wanted to give Japanese developers "more time" with the system, but I think it was more so that Sony could better control their supplies and not have some of them spread out so thin. PS4 launches this Saturday in Japan, showing Nintendo's poor scheduling because Tropical Freeze releases a day before the PS4 launches in Japan. They also made a poor decision when launching 3D World the same day that the PS4 launched in both Europe and North Anerica.

As for the Xbox One, it has that placeholder date "2014" so no one knows. Microsoft is probably deciding when to do it and will probably be various with it since the 360 flopped in Japan, with the original Xbox being Microsoft's best selling console in that region. It got to the point in which 360s were in bargain bins and had to tell Microsoft to stop sending them. Basically like what happened with the Wii U in England stores, they couldn't sell them no matter how much they lowered the price.