Since the PlayStation 4 was launched it has performed better than its rival, the Xbox One from Microsoft. The momentum continued throughout 2014 as Sony’s console took in the bulk of sales. Microsoft countered with price cuts, bundles and discounts to claw back some sales over the holiday season, and that worked, but the price cut has now been reversed. In an interview Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House explained how he expects 2015 to be a strong year for PlayStation 4.
House was talking to Nikkei Shimbun, a popular Japanese publication, and he first reiterated that PS4’s total sales have now crossed 18.5 million units. The market performance was surprising for Sony itself as PS4’s outperformed PS2’s first year, only 10.6 million units of that console were shipping during the first year, Sony’s current console is selling far better than that. He remains hopeful that PS4 sales will outperform PS3.
Sony will particularly focus on improving software services this year. The official launch of PlayStation Now will take place this year and it will be expanded to non-Sony devices, it was announced recently that new smart TVs from Samsung will be able to access PlayStation Now, and House says that this is just the first step.
On first party development he pointed towards much awaited titles like The Order 1886 and Bloodborne which are expected to drive PS4 sales as well. Sony also wants more casual games which the whole family can participate in.
Sony has had to delay PlayStation 4 launch in China. House clarified that this had to be done because the local government asked for a change in the business plan. So far no new date has been provided.
House did touch upon the DDoS attack that took down PlayStation Network over Christmas. Rightly pointing out that this affected Microsoft’s Xbox Live as well, House said that these attacks are a threat to content business and while these threats can’t be eliminated completely, Sony will make investments to reduce the possibility of something similar happening again.
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