By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales Discussion - Shuhei Yoshida: PS4 Pro and PSVR Sales are exceeding expectations

DS: The PS4 Pro appears to have had a very successful launch. Reports claim PlayStation sales in the UK have tripled and that it outsold Xbox in the US on Black Friday. Is the PS4 Pro meeting your sales expectations, or even exceeding them?

SY: Yes, it's selling very well. We were hoping that people who purchased a PS4 day one would upgrade to PS4 Pro, and people who have a 4K TV would see it as their console of choice.

We need more time to analyse the situation, but it seems that more people who are buying PS4 for the first time are choosing PS4 Pro. I think that's driving a larger demand than we had anticipated. In many markets it's sold out and hard to find.

 

DS: Does this open the door for more incremental hardware updates?

SY: PS4 Pro is an incremental update from a hardware standpoint, but making PS4 Pro is not an easy thing to do. We have complete compatibility; it is part of the PS4 Ecosystem. So the system is very carefully designed to maintain that one community between the standard PS4 and PS4 Pro. So we don't talk about future plans, but doing something like PS4 Pro takes a lot of effort. We are very happy with PS4 Pro, and we're happy with the reaction and analysis of the games that have already come out, analysed by lots of professional tech-driven media. So you can't just talk about numbers, you really have to see the games that are designed to work well on PS4 Pro to see the value of it.

DS: Talking of numbers, you haven't released sales figures for PSVR yet. Why is that?

SY: It's not my role to make that decision.

DS: Are you able to give a broad indication of whether PSVR has met expectations?

SY: Well, it's selling out pretty much everywhere.

DS: What have you made to its reception?

SY: Very, very strong. I couldn't be happier about the situation. I was hoping that when we launched PSVR there would be games that people could enjoy and games that took advantage of VR. I was anticipating that it would take some time for developers to experiment and understand the best uses for VR. I still believe that's the case, but even the games which have already come out – some of them are amazing to play on PSVR. So I'm very happy, and people are continuing to purchase more games for the system, so that's a very good sign.

 

DS: Is there anything that's surprised you about the way people are using it? Have you learned anything yet?

SY: What was surprising was the amount of time that people are spending in VR. It's kind of a strange thing to say, but because VR games can be intense, I was anticipating that people would spend some time, but not many hours in VR. But looking at the data, people are spending many hours on the system every day. So that's a great thing to know.

 

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/ps4/feature/a816143/playstation-boss-talks-ps4-pro-ps-vr-and-super-mario-run-rivals/



Around the Network

He seems a bit too dodgy about the PSVR to really seem that much of a success.Or just their shipment was small to begin with.Either way, without numbers, I dont think we can take much out of this.



My (locked) thread about how difficulty should be a decision for the developers, not the gamers.

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=241866&page=1

Nautilus said:
He seems a bit too dodgy about the PSVR to really seem that much of a success.Or just their shipment was small to begin with.Either way, without numbers, I dont think we can take much out of this.

It is sold out basically everywhere though. If the overall number is small, that's because shipments are small. Hard to be dissapointed if it's selling out what you produce, necause you can't really gauge demand accurately before you've caught up with it. Either way, executives don't just go around telling you sales numbers just because a journalist asks about them. If you'd ask him about the lifetime number for Uncharted 4 he also wouldn't tell (even if he went around knowing all those numbers in his head).



Sony seems to be mking really good decisions, but its really there ability to look at data and make smart decisions that has really given them the edge.

And Shu is keen on keeping his studios at the top of their game. Looking on what he has been able to turn out as President of WWS is simply amazing. And now with Days Gone, anotger Uncharted, The last of Us Part 2, Gran Turismo, Hoiozen Zero Dawn, God of War, Gravity Rush 2, and the just released Last Guardian added to the list of Projects his teams had released, you have to just sit back and admire Shu.



Nautilus said:
He seems a bit too dodgy about the PSVR to really seem that much of a success.Or just their shipment was small to begin with.Either way, without numbers, I dont think we can take much out of this.

they are selling out what they produce



Around the Network

Do we have numbers on what those expectations were?



Hard number please.



PS4 - over 100 millions let's say 120m
Xbox One - 70m
Wii U - 25m

Vita - 15m if it will not get Final Fantasy Kingdoms Heart and Monster Hunter 20m otherwise
3DS - 80m

Teeqoz said:
Nautilus said:
He seems a bit too dodgy about the PSVR to really seem that much of a success.Or just their shipment was small to begin with.Either way, without numbers, I dont think we can take much out of this.

It is sold out basically everywhere though. If the overall number is small, that's because shipments are small. Hard to be dissapointed if it's selling out what you produce, necause you can't really gauge demand accurately before you've caught up with it. Either way, executives don't just go around telling you sales numbers just because a journalist asks about them. If you'd ask him about the lifetime number for Uncharted 4 he also wouldn't tell (even if he went around knowing all those numbers in his head).

Well, you do have a point.



My (locked) thread about how difficulty should be a decision for the developers, not the gamers.

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=241866&page=1

spemanig said:
Do we have numbers on what those expectations were?

Shuhei himself nor the interviewer didn't ever mention anything about expectations in relation to PSVR, the interviewer just asked if he could give a general idea as to how it's doing and Shuhei answered that it's sold out basically everywhere.



Nautilus said:
Teeqoz said:

It is sold out basically everywhere though. If the overall number is small, that's because shipments are small. Hard to be dissapointed if it's selling out what you produce, necause you can't really gauge demand accurately before you've caught up with it. Either way, executives don't just go around telling you sales numbers just because a journalist asks about them. If you'd ask him about the lifetime number for Uncharted 4 he also wouldn't tell (even if he went around knowing all those numbers in his head).

Well, you do have a point.

Basically, if you only produce let's say 250k per month, you won't immediately know if there is demand for a million of them, two million, five million or whatever, so you can't gauge demand before it is available in stock for people that want to buy one.