SCE President Andrew House Explains the 5 Million Sales Target for PS4, Mentions Beta for Gaikai

Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House explains the reasons behind that lofty estimate of five million PS4 sold by the end of the fiscal year and also mentiones a beta for the Gaikai cloud gaming service.

[fattyuk]

Well you count my household for 2 of those 5 mil

[PR_FROM_OHIO]

I see your 2 and raise you 1 lol!

[Abriael]

You mean you're gonna buy 3?

[PR_FROM_OHIO]

Yea

[Abriael]

Lol. Please now you have to tell me what you're going to do with three :D

[Salooh]

I will pre order mine in monday :D . Anyone recommend a good deal with release date delivery for uk ?. :P

[fattyuk]

^^^ don't think you'll get a guranteed release day console in the uk if you haven't pre ordered yet?

might be wrong,

[Salooh]

Yea , i'm too late T_T . Thanks anyway . I guess i will have to pre-order and wait until release date . Then i will search in retail stores , if i found one i will cancel my pre-order ...

[XB1_PS4]

Count me in 4 1.

[HammadTheBeast]

I hope all consoles do well.

5 mill for PS4 is EZ mode.

Hopefully Wii U can pull up the numbers, and Xb1 can do well also.

My money's on PS4 tho.

[LetoAtreides82]

Fattyuk, he might still be able to pre-order a bundle for launch day, but I doubt he can get a standalone version.

[miyamoto]

the Saviour of Play is coming!

[JuniorCE]

To resell??

I regret badly.... I should've pre-ordered at least more 3 units at different retail stores...

I saw people on EBAY trying to resell PS4 for $1200 :-(

Unfortunately, I am just getting one...

[nosferatuzodd]

lol how about youre 1 and my 3

[amiga-man]

I havn't pre ordered but i'm a patient man, I have no Idea how many Sony will sell at launch but one things for sure they can't make them quick enough.

The PS4 is certainly the machine that most people want getting hold of one will be the problem.

[AndrewLB]

Junior- Sony said recently in an interview with Fox Business that they will have far more PS4's at retailers than there are pre-orders. I wouldn't count on making anywhere near the insane amount of profit like we saw with PS3, especially since PS4 will be widely available on day one without a pre-order.

[Ju]

I still believe pre-orders are a minority. Now, what's the factor we'll see. If it is somewhere 4:1 (which I can easily see possible), they will need 4-5Million units until Christmas or January (second batch). 1M in preorders is high. It will most likely sold out for a while.

[Magicite]

I bet it will breach 5 by end of this year.

[MaximusPrime_]

2 in my household. I'm buying one, my brother buying his

[Rhaigun]

This isn't directed at you solely, Maximus, but I find it strange some of the people here were complaining that Steam Machines are too expensive, and then I see those same people here talking about buying multiple PS4's.

Which is it? Steam Machines aren't too expensive, or some are lying about getting multiple consoles?

[wastedcells]

Sony hook us up with vita TV then we can have ps4 on every TV for the win.

[Knushwood Butt]

Ordered mine today.

[finbars75]

Agreed but I have a feeling there going to hit that 5 million easily before the end of the fiscal year from all the numbers in preorders that keep being released which is great news for those who purchase the PS4.To think that the PS4 will be launching in 1 month and 9 days is going to be the most epic day in years.Cant wait for Gaikai to be part of this whole experience.

[darren_poolies]

You're going to buy 2 million PS4s? :P

[cleft5]

Count me in for 1.

[VforVideogames]

I read all the comments post in a PS4 article and for the first time no sony fan call the XBOX ONE a XBONE nor a microsoft fan the PLAYSATION a GAYSTATION that my friends is RESPECT I SALUTE YOU FELLOW GAMERS!!!!!

[3-4-5]

Fiscal year ends in March right ?

So what this possibly could means is, there is a huge game release before March that maybe we haven't heard of yet.

[Pope_Kaz_Hirai_II]

I can 1000% guarantee it will sell that many , i cant get a hold of one anywhere and im now hoping for cancellations.

[GTgamer]

I hope the gaikai beta starts early 2014.

[dcj0524]

Will be easily met. This is the biggest console launch in history. And the first time 2 rivals go head to head in the same timeframe. Ashame I have to wait till Janurary.

[Sevir]

Not the first, Ninty and Sony went head to head in 2006 with the Wii and the PS3... But we knew how that went! Lol. Still MS has no advantage this Winter! They'll both sell out but the PS4 will Sell more.

[insomnium2]

Well winning in the short term is not all there is to it. PS3 is set to pass Wii in a couple of years so.....

[_QQ_]

@insomnium2
you think the ps3 will sell 20mil units more with the ps4 coming out? ps2 was a rare case that we probably will never see for a while.

[Sevir]

It'll sell... The PS3 is $200 it's mass market price, there is still software releasing and only the early adopters will be making the jump to the PS4 in year one and 2. With the PS3 being where it's at, 86 million units sold and cross gen software coming casuals see little reason to upgrade and spend 200+/300+ premium for games they can largely play on their PS3 and Xbox 360...

It's a ten year cycle... The PS1 sold 100+ million and the PS2 sold 160+ million, at it's current rate Sony will sell 100+ million in 3 years which would put it at it's 10 year mark.

[nirwanda]

And the saturn and ps1 also went head to head too, sega won the battle but sony won the war.

[TechMech2]

It's a good time to be a gamer

[kratos_TheGoat]

I bet 5mill on ps4 and 4.6 mil for xbox 1 getting both sweet

[BabyTownFrolics]

Getting both too

It's gonna be a great winter

[nukeitall]

I'm getting Xbox One, and on the fence about PS4 myself. I have both pre-ordered though, but it is a lot of dough to put down, on something I don't have much time to use.

[matrixman92]

I was a huge 360 fanboy this gen, bought every multi plat on 360 and only played ps3 for exclusives. But I really do not think it will be that close. I think the damage has been done, and people like me have already decided to jump on the sony bandwagon. PS4 will completely destroy xbox one IMO

[kratos_TheGoat]

I cant ignore live lol live is addicted just like ps plus

[nukeitall]

I think the lack of dedicated servers on PS4 will hurt them on multiplayer games. I think the casual market will also eat into PS4 market.

That said, I think the PS4 has the core market cornered and maybe the cheapskates. However, core gamers tend to be the very early adopters.

[DigitalRaptor]

Desperate times eh, nukeitall?

So let's take a look at your conflicting arguments.

- Lack of dedicated servers on PS4 will hurt them on multiplayer games

Who buys those games and cares about the fine details that makes a better multiplayer experience? Core gamers.

- PS4 has the core market cornered and maybe the cheapskates

So they have the core gamers cornered, so they can't win on the "dedicated servers" front, and who are the cheapskates? Casuals, right? So yeah... nice reaching going on there, but you Xbox fanboys aren't going to be in as comfortable a ride as last generation, and I think the sooner you deal with that reality, the healthier you will be for it.

[scott182]

@Nukeitall

Please explain your lack of dedicated servers argument in further detail... I would like to hear more.

Seeing as how sony will have two new separate cloud solutions for next gen (Gaikai and openstack), besides the servers they already have currently that they used for exclusives last gen...

Pretty sure Sony will be just fine on that front.

[solidjun5]

"I have both pre-ordered though, but it is a lot of dough to put down, on something I don't have much time to use."

You are you fooling nukeitall? I highly doubt you have both pre-ordered.

EDIT: damnit. I replied on the wrong thread.

[Ju]

You know that the servers are exactly the same for both, Playstation and Xbox (this includes PS3 and 360) - and usually PC as well. Just FYI.

And, btw, nothing really prevents a PS developer to use Azure. Just saying. This would be a little bit ironic, though.

[BG11579]

@matrixman92 Well said (bubble up)! It's the same thing for me.

@DigitalRaptor
1) You know, in my country, Sony is making contracts and investing money with the major internet provider to improve and increase the bandwidch dedicated for PSN services. Because if you don't have a good internet, serves won't mean anything.
2) Now people that buy a PS4 are poor? Using you logic, the people that bought a 360 are also poor. Did you have a 360?

[nukeitall]

@DigitalRaptor:

"Who buys those games and cares about the fine details that makes a better multiplayer experience? Core gamers."

You can be a core gamer, and not play online! Zing!

Those that care about multiplayer will gravitate towards the system that gives them the best experience online. This has been proven with Xbox Live Gold.

"So they have the core gamers cornered, so they can't win on the "dedicated servers""

As pointed out earlier, core gamers consist of several groups of people.

@scott182:

"Please explain your lack of dedicated servers argument in further detail... I would like to hear more."

Titanfall was made for Xbox One, because Sony was unable to provide the dedicated server needs Respawn had.

source: http://www.respawn.com/news...

Call of Duty: Ghost has dedicated servers on Xbox One, but nothing for PS4.

Some developers will provide their own servers, but there aren't many that can match MS in cloud availability, and likely price:

Respanw said "Most importantly to us[Respawn], Microsoft priced it so that it’s far more affordable than other hosting options "

“We[MS] have something over a million servers in our data center infrastructure. Google is bigger than we are. Amazon is a little bit smaller. You get Yahoo! and Facebook, and then everybody else is 100,000 units probably or less. So the number of companies that really understand the network topology, the data center construction, the server requirements to build this public cloud infrastructure is very, very small.”

http://www.datacenterknowle...

Keep in mind that availability in certain regions, proximity to where you live and cost all matters. Because I have a server in space, doesn't make it an equivalent.

@Ju:

"And, btw, nothing really prevents a PS developer to use Azure. Just saying. This would be a little bit ironic, though."

Sure they can, and they can also host their own servers or get it from someone else.

Problem is, the cost!

MS is providing dedicated servers at low cost to developers. They can actually afford it, as well as provide the tools to set it up quickly with the most server compared to almost anyone.

Most developers want to create games, not play "internet hosting/cloud provider".

We are already starting to see that gap appear with CoD and Titanfall.

@solidjun5:

Whatever I say, you won't believe me anyhow.

[Magicite]

MS cant manufacture that many in so short timeframe even if they want.

[AndrewLB]

Care to explain how you know this?

[nirwanda]

Ms don't manufacturer anything, they get people to do it for them.

[SonyKong64]

I'm going to make a statement with my wallet and not buy Microsoft's Xbox one.

My statement? I do not support anti consumer corporate greed, regardless of oops sorry you caught me reversals on those same disgusting policies..

Now invent some pride in yourself as a supposed gamer and follow suit = ) you'll sleep better at night.

[Thatlalala]

Your life is going to be a very long and frustrating one then. This is how the world works.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

@SonyKong64 -Righteous,

@Thatlalala -Disgraceful,

[nirwanda]

I moving from xbox to sony, not because of any corporate reasons just purely on price, power and free games.

[nirwanda]

@savagedo you buy clothes? Or food?.
You must be a vegetarian that makes there own clothing.
The whole world is a moral minefield.

[TechMech2]

I don't ponder those things when deciding which company I throw my money at. It's just video games.

[Vanna]

Was really hoping the gaikai rollout starts earlier in EU then atleast 2015, not all of EU has poor broadband speeds.

Really looking forward to what they achieve with it though, while we wait :)

[Pancit_Canton]

Sony are kinda underestimating the demands. They could easily do 10 Millions of PS4 sold during launch. Price tag and global availability are the main key points.

[XB1_PS4]

Although that'd be awesome. I don't think it's gonna happen.

[BabyTownFrolics]

Careful there mind where you are

It's not enough to just be pro sony you must also be anti ms if you wanna keep those bubbles

Perhaps I'm being hyperbolic but it seems like if your pro ms and pro sony you might as well be a troll fanboy in the eyes of this community

[XB1_PS4]

@BabyTownFrolics I say what I want! Eff the disagrees. I know when I'm right, and I don't need agrees to give me satisfaction.

[BabyTownFrolics]

@xb1

You will need bubbles in order to be part of conversation

I'm just warning you from my observations but it might be best to just ignore me

Does not really matter in the grand scheme of things

[HammadTheBeast]

No clue why you got disagrees, it's near impossible to have 10 million PS4's manufactured for launch.

[TheGreenMan]

Sony's fiscal year ends 3/31, so 5 million probably won't be that hard.

[Hicken]

Odd that you don't follow your own advice and yet your bubble count is fine. Also odd that someone like JokesOnYou is antagonistically anti Sony and yet has even MORE bubbles.

Reality doesn't support your claim.

[nunley33]

trenton said they're making them as fast as they can.it'll be around 3 million at christmas time if production goes well enough. the fiscal year ends march 31st so 5 million is doable if demand keeps pace.

[DigitalRaptor]

I don't know why they just don't steamroll ahead and go over their estimates, if it's feasibly possible in the time frame. PS4 is stomping the competition already, so I think they know that PS4 is flying off shelves and will be for the next few years.

For what they don't sell from their estimates, can be new stock for the following year. Now this isn't coming from a business mind, so I could be WAAAY off the mark here, but just speaking my mind.

[Ju]

To make 10M in this short amount of time, you do not only need the manufacturing capacity but also the cash flow to make this happen. A PS4 @ $400 (under the assumption Sony actually sells at a loss, or close to manufacturing costs) would set you back with $10M * 400 = $4B. This is a high risk target; even though it is likely Sony can sell all those 10M - if they would sell only 5M (which is still a phenomenal number) it'll bind $2B. Still, we are talking about $4B in about 3-4month. This is a lot of money which is at play here.

[Sevir]

I'll have 1 in my household. :) Nov 15th, aren't you hear yet!

[Crossbones]

I'm expecting 7 million by the end of their fiscal year.

[MasterCornholio]

That's march right?

Nexus 7 2013

[Crossbones]

Yeah, by March 31, 2014

[PositiveEmotions]

I think they already reached their goal.

What you guys think?

[Abriael]

That if they had five million preorders they'd be trumpeting it all over the net, newspapers and TV news, every day of the week and twice on sundays.

[PositiveEmotions]

They could be saving that announcements after the release of the PS4 around the world?

[Abriael]

Instead of announcing it now and increasing the hype, and with it sales, further?

Yeah. Good thinking.

[Sevir]

Completely agree Abriael. I think at the turn of DEC 31 2013 theyll have sold 3 million units having launched in 32 markets across NA and Europe, while also launching in Asia, The middle east in December and south america. They should wrap up about 1 million units in Feb and then theyll have launched successfully world wide and have sold just about that many by close of March 2014. Theyll make it.

[5eriously]

Did you follow the Japanese pre-order news today?

They all sold out in minutes and there after another batch sold out again in minutes. If Sony can do the stock and delivery 10Mil will be nothing in no time!

[Abriael]

@5eriously: no, I didn't "follow" them, I wrote them lol.

[miyamoto]

manufacturing hardware is way faster today than it was in 2006

PS4 manufacturing will be much much faster than PS3

[TomahawkX]

Infamous: Second Son is suppose to come out around February and that game will move 1 million systems easily.

[NateCole]

I trust Sony on this. Remember the ecconomy is still shit. Hopefully they will surpass it because they deserve every success for being awsome sofar.

[matrixman92]

i really hope they do Gaikai right. I think it should be a small fee (10-15 a month) on top of ps+ that gives you access to the entire library to stream. I probably wouldnt be very much interested if you had to pay for each individual game to stream, especially if you have owned a physical copy of the same game before

[LetoAtreides82]

I'd rather pay for each game I want to stream. Off the top of my head these are the games I'd be interested in playing through Gaikai:

TLoU
Mass Effect Trilogy
Deux Ex: Human Revolution
Heavy Rain
Beyond: Two Souls
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Origins
God of War III
Tomb Raider
Infamous 1 & 2

Some of these (especially TLoU) I'd rather have a 'remastered for PS4 version'

[matrixman92]

I would rather just keep my ps3 than pay for every game ive already owned again

[DanielGearSolid]

just went to best buy and took a pic with the ps4 display box... Wanted to simulate the Nov 15 experience

[DanielGearSolid]

Put it on instagram, pretending I got it early

[fattyuk]

sorry but that is tragic.

[GuruMeditation]

You're what now?

[WeAreLegion]

@Daniel - Sweet.

@fattyuk - Jerk.

[pyramidshead]

I'm pretty sure most people are happy that Sony has done such a big turn around. I don't think they could have afforded another PS3 type disaster like in 06. Great news.

[feraldrgn]

Awaiting the inevitable "I have 4 PS4s" video.

[SaulGoodman]

Yeah, this isn't a lofty estimate. It's right on target. Here's some free advice. Buy some more Sony stock now if you want to make some money in a few months. There's nothing predicable that might happen, besides Oct 17th.

[PS4isKing_82]

Sony will sell 5 mil before new years. And another 2.5 by the end of march 31st.

[sephx22]

Not to offend anyone but will the PS4 pass Wii U in sales before new years?

[sephx22]

-

[sephx22]

-

[OmegaShen]

Well if my gf moves in with me, she will have a PS4 and a PS3 (both with more then 1TB hard drives).

An I'll have my game systems in the living room ^-^

[Relientk77]

I already have one preordered, and a friend of mine preordered 2

[cell989]

I'm buying 2 so I'm part of that number