Sony is aiming to boost sales of its PlayStation 4 game console to give a boost to its network services business, which includes streaming games and video, as it looks to regain the momentum that it lost against tech rivals Apple and Samsung.
Sony's network services currently has 52 million active users, with most of which accessing the network through their PlayStations. The gaming consoles are packages with online content programs and services for entertainment purposes.
"The biggest driver for our network business will be the PlayStation 4," Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said. In addition, Hirai said that the network business will be a "key growth driver" for the whole company, as sales in network services increased by 70 percent in the year to March to US$196 billion.
The PlayStation 4 has been in the video game market for over half a year since its release in November and reports show that the gaming console has already been making Sony profit. News released in April revealed that the company had already sold 7 million units of the PlayStation 4, with the console outselling Microsoft's Xbox One in the United States.
Sony is now expecting to sell 17 million PlayStation 4 units by April 2015, which means that the company is aiming to sell 10 million units in a one-year span. It took Sony about half a year to reach the 7 million mark, which makes the company's expectations a very possible number, considering upcoming blockbuster game titles and possible improvements in the console's hardware.
However, a recent move by Microsoft to make the Kinect motion gaming accessory optional for the Xbox One drops the console's price from $499 to $399, putting it on the same price as the PlayStation 4. The lower price was one of the PlayStation 4's advantages, so it will be interesting to see how well the sales figures go for both consoles from this point onward.
Sony has always had an ambition to spread content services through the company's hardware. Due to the faster Internet speeds of today, that ambition has become a possibility, with the company looking to soon offer streaming services for video games.
Sony has already started offering the pilot version of "PlayStation Now" in the United States, which is a cloud-based service for streaming video games. The service will soon be available on Sony's Bravia TVs, handheld gaming console PS Vita and eventually non-Sony devices as well. In addition, half of PlayStation owners have signed up for PlayStation Plus, which offers streaming music, movies and TV programs.
