The PS4 has performed admirably in 2014, and Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House explained his expectations for 2015 and talked about quite a few other relevant topics in an interview on the online version of the popular Japanese newspaper Nikkei Shimbun.
House mentioned that Holiday PS4 sales were satisfactory both for hardware (for which Sony announced having overtaken 18.5 million units of which 4.1 in the Holiday season) and software.
From a regional perspective, Japanese sales performed as expected. In the United States, despite the fact that the competition managed to get stronger due to promotions and price reductions, results were within predictions as well. In Europe, even if production was doubled, the console still managed to exceed expectations.
House also explained that the results are considered susprising even internally. The PS2 shipped 10.6 million units in its first year, and the PS4 is selling better compared to that. However, the situation of the market has changed since then, and SCE’s President is keeping a close eye on the situation, to see if the PS4 will continue outselling the PS2.
That said, he’s confident that it will outperform the PS3.
Even if he doesn’t want to be too optimistic, House continued, given the line-up of software that will be released in 2015, it’s going to be the year that will demonstrate the strength of the PS4.
House mentiones that in 2015 there are strong titles even just looking at first party development, like The Order 1886 and Bloodborne, and the studios are creating games that fully take advantage of the performance of the PS4. Even if the sales of PS3 are declining, considering the strong demand for the PS4, Sony can aim to sell more units of the new console than in the current fiscal year.
In 2015, Sony is going to focus on improving its services. PlayStation Now is going to officially launch soon, and its ultimate goal is to make PlayStation games accessible on devices of other brands. The recently announced support on Samsung’s Smart TVs is, according to House, just the first step of a broader strategy.
Another relevant goal is to improve the line-up of casual games, that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
For what concerns the delayed Chinese launch, House clarified that the reason is that the local government requested a change in business plan. Although he hopes to release the PS4 as soon as possible, he can’t mention a specific time.
He mentioned that the Chinese market is being approached carefully. It’s the first time that Sony Computer Entertainment and the Chinese authorities work together. Things like how censorship works or which organization makes the final decisions, need to be ironed out to build a business together.
House also commented on the DDOS attacks that brought the PSN down during the Holidays, mentioning that it isn’t a situation that affected just Sony Computer Entertainment, but also Microsoft. That kind of attack is a big threat to the whole content business. While it can’t be prevented with 100% safety, he promised that investments will be made to counter the possibility of it happening again.
House concluded by saying that he’ll discuss the problem with the rest of the executive team in a few days. In the meanwhile the 10% discount code that will be distributed to PSN users as an apology has been well received by the public.
The PS5 Exists.
