Sony's "PS5 is for hardcore" statement: Was it a misunderstanding of SIE's plans?

[DonFerrari]

TheMisterManGuy said:

SKMBlake said:

Nope. It's way more complicated than that.

How So?

RolStoppable said:
For Sony's boss, the context is nothing more than dedicated device vs. non-dedicated device, so all consoles fall into the hardcore category. That's backed up by his statement that the PS5 is "a niche product for serious gamers"; he obviously does not mean that the PS5 is targeted to sell way below 100m units.

Even in that case, I still kind of think it illustrates how differently both Sony Corp. and Sony Interactive view the PlayStation brand. What Sony Corporation sees as niche, and what SIE sees as niche are probably two different things. For the overall picture, it'd make sense that the executives at Sony Corp. would see the PS5 as a niche product because they view way more potential in growing general purpose markets like phones and TVs. But in the eyes of Sony interactive Entertainment, they probably see the PlayStation 5 in much broader terms, since that company only really does video games, and thus to them, 100+ million units is a wide audience.

When you're trying to sell everything from movies, to smartphones, to music, to sound systems, of course video game consoles will look niche in comparison. 

Even shuhei Yoshida should see Playstation as niche when compared to smartphone gaming market or the whole gaming industry. Nothing wrong on it and niche also shouldn't mean small, just reduced in size compared to a full market. That is why we say companies need to carve for a niche that only they fulfill the market.