Sony has announced that its gaming console, the PS4, has sold 100 million units since it launched back in 2013. Of these 100 million units sold, 3.2 million PS4 devices were sold in the quarter that ended June 30. The Japanese tech company had sold 96.8 million PlayStation 4 consoles by the end of the previous quarter. Additionally, the PlayStation 4 console has also become the fastest home game consoles to reach 100 million unit sales. Daniel Ahmad, Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, says that it took PlayStation 2 a total of 5 years and 9 months to reach this milestone, but PlayStation 4 achived the feat in 5 years and 7 months.
To put milestones into perspective, the Nintendo Wii sold more than 120 million units in its life. The bestselling console in history has been the PS2 with more than 150 million consoles sold.
If speculation circulating the internet are to be believed, then it is possible that we will see a PS5 announcement in 2019, but the console will only hit store shelves in 2020. Nevertheless, Sony has a strong portfolio of first part games slated to launch in 2019 that include the likes of Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, Days Gone, and Ghost of Tsushima. Not to mention the large library of third-party games that have a release window of 2019.
This is also the first time that we have seen a mid-life refresh for consoles. We have seen the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X which run the same games as their base consoles but with either better frame rates or resolution.
John Kodera, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment said, “Thanks to the continued support from our fans during the holiday season, we are pleased to announce that PS4 has reached 91.6 million units globally. We are also happy to announce that the monthly active users of PlayStation Network continues to show strong growth, and has surpassed 90 million as of end of November 2018. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our passionate community around the globe, and our partners, for helping us achieve these milestones. This year, we will bring more enhanced experiences to our fans along with a highly anticipated line-up of games that are only possible on PS4. As we look toward the next PS4 milestone, SIE will continue to evolve, and we will further expand the platform to deliver the best interactive entertainment experiences to the world.”
Sony learned from its PS3 mistakes and made a console that was friendly to develop for, was priced right and was catering to the needs of gamers. Microsoft which saw tremors success with the Xbox 360 stumbled in the initial days of the Xbox One. It has made efforts to ensure a strong position in gaming in the future with features like Xbox Game Pass, Play Anywhere titles and more.
Nintendo on the other hand, doesn’t officially operate in India. However, the company has taken the innovation route instead of making powerful consoles since the days of the Wii. The Nintendo Switch is a great example of how Nintendo is playing to their strengths offering gamers a portable option rather than a console that only sits below their entertainment centre. It is speculated that we may see a successor to the Nintendo Switch in 2019.
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