Since its launch in November of 2013, the PlayStation 4 has carved out its spot at the top of the home console market. Not to say that the competition hasn't been intense for Sony, especially in a market that is doing better than ever.
With E3 a week away, Sony is taking a minute to celebrate the success of the PlayStation 4 and are thinking about what the future will hold as well, at least according to SIEA CEO Shawn Layden.
Hardware Success
"As you'll recall, last year we performed the daredevil stunt of launching three new pieces of hardware in 60 days. Probably won't do that again," Layden remarked during an interview with Time about the PS4's success and future.
What he's referring to is the release of the PS4 Slim as the standard model PS4 going forward, the release of the beefier PS4 Pro, and the release of the PSVR, Sony's proprietary virtual reality headset for PS4. And despite releasing these pieces of hardware in such a small period of time, it hasn't hurt sales.
Since it released in the fall, the PSVR has sold over 1 million units worldwide, and Sony has struggled to meet demand since. This reflects the growing demand and interest in virtual reality among consumers. This also reflects how well Sony marketed and priced the headset to compete. The other two major headsets on the market have been the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive but are aimed at the high-end PC market. This means that anyone interested would have to drop a pretty penny on a powerful enough PC before getting either headset, which isn't cheap either. By running the PSVR off of the PS4, it keeps the headset on fixed specs, allowing Sony to keep it cheaper than the other two while still offering meaningful VR experiences.
The PS4 Pro has also seen plenty of success, with one of every five PS4s sold being a Pro model. This plays to the growing consumer base of 4K TV owners that are looking for better experiences. It's even more impressive when taking its competition into account. Last August, Microsoft released an updated version of the Xbox One with the Xbox One S. The S was designed as a slimmer Xbox that could run games and video at 4K. And while it was a big boom for Microsoft, the favor Sony has built up helped out the Pro's sales, offering more pure 4K gaming experiences despite the lack of 4K video.
Software Success
The success has also been reflected in the ever-diversifying software lineup. The two biggest successes of 2017 so far have been Horizon: Zero Dawn and MLB 17: The Show.
Despite being an unestablished IP like Uncharted or God of War, Horizon has seen great success since its release in February of this year. It recently passed 3.4 million copies sold, which is huge for an unproved IP that is also a system exclusive. It didn't hurt that Horizon is one of the best reviewed games of the year, which was probably a nice boost.
As for MLB 17: The Show, historically sports game usually sell fairly well since the genre has a built in audience. That said, being a PS4 exclusive as well would have to hurt the series in the sales department a bit. That hasn't been the case, as the 2017 entry in the baseball series is the best-selling game in the series to date. Layden attributed this success to the change in marketing ideas for The Show, marketing it less as a game and more as the ultimate experience for any diehard MLB fans.
Eye Toward The Future
While there are no concrete details in place, Layden did comment a bit about what the future holds for PlayStation 4, especially with the planned release of Project Scorpio from Microsoft in the fall. For the time being, Layden said that the plan was to stay the course with PS4 and PS4 Pro. His reasoning for this was to maintain a consistent experience across both platforms for future software releases and to not divide the audience. It also keeps demands simple for developers, since the PS4 Pro, at its core, is still a PS4, so the system requirements are nearly the same for both. This is timely, especially given rumors about a potential PS5 announcement sometime in the future.
As for handheld, things don't look as clear. Sony tried twice to break into the handheld space, an area which Nintendo has held a vice grip on since the Game Boy. The PS Vita, the followup to the PSP, was the second attempt at this, though it didn't see anywhere near the success Nintendo has had in the space. It doesn't help that support from Western developers fell off as time went on for the platform. That said, Layden did hint that the PS Vita will still be supported thanks, primarily, to the Japanese market where it has sold the best and seen a steady stream of releases.
All in all, the last few years have been very good to Sony and that doesn't look to change anytime soon.
