Stock image via Envato Elements
Sony PlayStation 4 sales reached 100-million mark
Despite a marked drop in sales, Sony sold 3.2m PlayStation 4 consoles in the second quarter of this year, breaking the 100-million sales barrier. Next stop, PS5.
Stock image via Envato Elements
Sony’s PlayStation 4 (PS4) has reached the 100 million consoles sold milestone, despite a slow down in sales. Even though we are eagerly awaiting the PS5, the PS4 market is generally saturated.
The Japanese giant managed to sell 3.2m consoles in the second quarter of this year to break the 100 000 consoles sold barrier.
Despite the flagging sales and competition from Nintendo, the PS4 has been extremely dominant. The PS4 is the fastest console to reach the 100m unit mark, beating both the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii.
The PS4 has reached 100m units sold in just five years and seven months; managing to double sales from 50m units to 100m in just under three years despite the very competitive market.
Two milestones with one PlayStation console
While discussing their latest earnings, Sony also revealed another milestone as the company reported that online game sales had overtaken physical game purchases.
This would be music to the ears of game publishers who have to incur the cost of creating and distributing the physical copies of games.
Access to quality internet connections is a key driver to the increase in digital downloads. In many territories, access and the cost of data is prohibitive.
In many cases, online titles cost the same or more than the physical copies of the game. It would therefore make no sense to purchase the game if using your data to download it would incur an additional cost.
Internet quality and the quality of games
The quality of Internet connection continues to improve. So downloading large games means no longer waiting for days while your PlayStation eats bandwidth. Which quite frankly, has very little respect for the size of your hard drive.
With the PS4 dominating the market and a strong line-up of games still on its way; the future looks bright for Sony as they continue to tease the release of the PS5.
Also read – Death Stranding on PS4: New ‘Heartman’ trailer released
With the specs for the latest edition suggesting a console that will compete with high-end gaming PCs, it seems unlikely that the PS5 will be priced similarly to its predecessors.
A Swedish site is already taking pre-orders for about R15 000. This is obviously still speculation at this point. However, even that price point seems a bit cheap for the performance promised.
PS5, backward compatibility and VR
While the performance will excite hardcore gamers, the price tag might make it very hard for the next-gen PS5 console to sell as quickly as the PS4.
However, the decision to include backward compatibility to the PS5 may mean we could see the PS4 continue to be the main console in the Sony stable. For some time at least.
The PS5 is geared toward the more hardcore gamers; much the same way the PS4 Pro currently exists as a power upgrade for users wanting 4k graphics and smoother VR experiences.
Also read – PlayStation 5: Why you should care about backward compatibility
