Tech Report: Sony’s PlayStation 4 scores 30+ million sales

(THEAUSTRALIAN) Sony said Wednesday that it has sold more than 30.2 million PlayStation 4 video game consoles, two years after the launch of a system that the company says has sold faster than any of its predecessors.






“We are sincerely grateful that gamers across the globe have continued to choose PS4 as the best place to play since launch two years ago,” said Andrew House, President and Global CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

The latest total, as of Nov. 22, is up from more than 20 million in March, when Sony provided its most recent update on PlayStation 4 sales. Sony has said it aims to ship more than 17.5 million units during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2016.

PlayStation’s direct competitors are Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One and Nintendo Co.’s Wii U. Microsoft hasn’t recently updated its consoles’ sales figures but analysts say PlayStation 4 is running far ahead of Xbox One. Nintendo said more than 10.7 million units of Wii U were sold as of September this year, since the product launch in November 2012.




Sony made the PlayStation business a new pillar of the group, and the arm is expanding its services beyond the traditional game business where users would buy a single game title at a retail store or via network download. While it is getting ready to release a virtual-reality headset dubbed PlayStation VR next year, it now offers a streaming-based video game subscription service as well as a cloud-based live and on-demand TV service. These offerings are now available even on non-Sony devices, such as Samsung Electronics Co.’s TVs or the Fire TV Stick by Amazon.com, Inc.

Sony introduced PlayStation 4 in November 2013 and recently cut prices in major markets, including the US, Europe and Japan to spur sales.

The Wall Street Journal.