PlayStation 4 Becomes Fastest-Ever Home Console to Sell 100 Million Units

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

PlayStation 4 Becomes Fastest-Ever Home Console to Sell 100 Million Units

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on July 30th, 2019 in the Gaming category.

 

[Tornado]

Meaning, basically, that they were able to keep production levels near demand this time, which they famously could not accomplish at least twice with the PS2.

Even after they drip fed consoles into only the Japanese market for considerably longer than

two months

 

[SimTourist]

Pretty crazy and it's still got a few years left in the tank, I don't think PS2 level is achievable, but second place is a lock I think.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

The funny thing is that they've not spent anywhere near as much on marketing as MS have, or paid to try bias media towards them.

 

[Tired Tyres]

The funny thing is that they've not spent anywhere near as much on marketing as MS have, or paid to try bias media towards them.

Nothing was going to help the Xbox one after its E3 reveal. You don't cock up that badly and recover.

 

[BadFlounder]

Nothing was going to help the Xbox one after its E3 reveal. You don't cock up that badly and recover.

Yeah, but I think it was all about that price. They could have recovered from the crappy reveal if they were at $399, at least enough to make the sales race somewhat competitive. But coming in asking $100 more for a somewhat less powerful console was just a horrendous mistake.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

Yeah, but I think it was all about that price. They could have recovered from the crappy reveal if they were at $399, at least enough to make the sales race somewhat competitive. But coming in asking $100 more for a somewhat less powerful console was just a horrendous mistake.

Not related to sales, but IIRC, they needed to sell more games to break even on each console too compared to Sony.

 

[FoRiZon]

Yeah, but I think it was all about that price. They could have recovered from the crappy reveal if they were at $399, at least enough to make the sales race somewhat competitive. But coming in asking $100 more for a somewhat less powerful console was just a horrendous mistake.

Not only that but the aside the 100 dollars more, the reveal is the corporatism at worst. DRM, used games restrictions, forced Kinect....I think you know the rest of it already.

Felt like a literal gut punch to the consumers and commoners. Thanks Don Mattrick.

 

[Wolfe]

The PS4 won big time this generation simply by not being the XBone or Wii U, but not because it's much better than either of them in and of itself (excluding the Wii U being weaker). They all have terrible UIs and sluggish OSes, multimedia clutter, and a lack of storage (by proportion). Not to mention the PS4 and XBone have almost all the same games, and the difference in hardware is moot for most of them.

What Sony did right most of all is just not 🤬 up their marketing.

 

[Billybops]

The only reason the ps2 is so high is due to the built in DVD that at the time of release was in most cases cheaper than a stand alone DVD player.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

The PS4 won big time this generation simply by not being the XBone or Wii U, but not because it's much better than either of them in and of itself (excluding the Wii U being weaker). They all have terrible UIs and sluggish OSes, multimedia clutter, and a lack of storage (by proportion). Not to mention the PS4 and XBone have almost all the same games, and the difference in hardware is moot for most of them.

What Sony did right most of all is just not 🤬 up their marketing.

This, so much this. Sony deserves credit for it, because playing safe was a smart approach. But it was a race of attrition, really. Microsoft has spent this entire generation making up for the tone-deaf 2013 E3 presser, and its eagerness to do so (whether out of a genuine appreciation for gamers' tastes or, more likely, improved financials) has resulted in Sony backtracking on some of its own silly choices this generation in preparation for PS5.

It was weird how much hardware performance — despite very little between the two — mattered in 2013, but didn't in 2016/2017, when the gap between the two higher-spec consoles was bigger...

Imagine how much stronger PS4 would be doing if Sony hadn't given the finger to a feature it helped popularize (backwards compatibility).

 

[Tornado]

Sony sold 150 million PS2s in the 6 months-ish of the PS2's life where that was arguably true?

They all have terrible UIs and sluggish OSes,

It really is absurd how terrible they both are compared to the 360's Dashboard and especially the XMB.

 

[TomBrady]

Sony sold 150 million PS2s in the 6 months-ish of the PS2's life where that was arguably true?


It really is absurd how terrible they both are compared to the 360's Dashboard and especially the XMB.

I'm sorry but that is complete and absolute nonsense. Honestly when's the last time you've actually used a 360? Because I've used mine recently because I just got it a year ago and still have games I need to play. It's faster than PS3 but no where near as fast as PS4.

It was weird how much hardware performance — despite very little between the two — mattered in 2013, but didn't in 2016/2017, when the gap between the two higher-spec consoles was bigger...

You might want to make a visit to digital foundry videos. Xbox One X being better is practically all you see in the comments section. The xbox fanboys are getting their revenge in full there. Maybe you should join them since you seem to be bothered that people aren't talking about Xbox One X being better than Pro as much as they did about PS4 being better than Xbox One

We're comparing a new console generation to a couple of upgraded consoles. Obviously less people are gonna talk about it since far less people buy them.

 

[SimTourist]

Yeah, but I think it was all about that price. They could have recovered from the crappy reveal if they were at $399, at least enough to make the sales race somewhat competitive. But coming in asking $100 more for a somewhat less powerful console was just a horrendous mistake.

By february 2014 the price was already at $399 at most places, the console wasn't selling, then they took out the kinect and lowered the price further. Xone has been consistently cheaper than PS4 for years now, the console simply isn't selling. And the problem isn't the price, it's the games. When PS3 took a beating in the begginning of 7th gen Sony shut the hell up and worked on the most important thing - the games, and starting from 2009 they really took off - Killzone 2, Infamous, Uncharted 2, LBP, then 2010 - GoW 3, Heavy Rain, GT5, and so on until literally the last days of PS3 with Beyond and GT6. MS by comparison took the foot off the gas at the first signs of failure and never brought anything high quality. The two games that define Xbox this generation are Ori and Cuphead, fantastic games, but not exactly what you'd expect.

 

[Tornado]

I'm sorry but that is complete and absolute nonsense. Honestly when's the last time you've actually used a 360? Because I've used mine recently because I just got it a year ago and still have games I need to play. It's faster than PS3 but no where near as fast as PS4.

I've used a PS4 much more recently than a PS3 or 360. Its UI is atrocious in comparison regardless of if it is "faster," as is the Xbone's.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

You might want to make a visit to digital foundry videos. Xbox One X being better is practically all you see in the comments section. The xbox fanboys are getting their revenge in full there. Maybe you should join them since you seem to be bothered that people aren't talking about Xbox One X being better than Pro as much as they did about PS4 being better than Xbox One

Why would I do any of that when I'm not the one that cares about the numbers on a spec sheet?

Nice try though.

I've used a PS4 much more recently than a PS3 or 360. Its UI is atrocious in comparison regardless of if it is "faster," as is the Xbone's.

I'm guessing you mean one of the older 360 dashboards though? The current/final one is slower than I remember the earlier ones being, but I'll readily admit it's not like I've played with it much these last few years.

Playing PS3 this week reminded me of how simple and functional XMB was. I don't miss the occasional hanging when a trophy list needs to load entirely before I can quit out of the menu though!

It still boggles my mind that hitting the Share button on a DS4 and trying to save a screenshot in SWBF2 can take upwards of five seconds.

 

[BadFlounder]

By february 2014 the price was already at $399 at most places, the console wasn't selling, then they took out the kinect and lowered the price further. Xone has been consistently cheaper than PS4 for years now, the console simply isn't selling. And the problem isn't the price, it's the games. When PS3 took a beating in the begginning of 7th gen Sony shut the hell up and worked on the most important thing - the games, and starting from 2009 they really took off - Killzone 2, Infamous, Uncharted 2, LBP, then 2010 - GoW 3, Heavy Rain, GT5, and so on until literally the last days of PS3 with Beyond and GT6. MS by comparison took the foot off the gas at the first signs of failure and never brought anything high quality. The two games that define Xbox this generation are Ori and Cuphead, fantastic games, but not exactly what you'd expect.

You just proved my entire point. "By Feb 2014...." Exactly. By launching at that price, it killed everything. It didn't matter that it dropped by Feb 2014. Personally, I've been completely content with my PS4 this entire generation. I just never found a reason to buy an Xbox, which says a lot. So I agree that the games are a massive part of the problem.....but that wasn't the case at launch. That became the narrative later on.

 

[SimTourist]

You just proved my entire point. "By Feb 2014...." Exactly. By launching at that price, it killed everything. It didn't matter that it dropped by Feb 2014. Personally, I've been completely content with my PS4 this entire generation. I just never found a reason to buy an Xbox, which says a lot. So I agree that the games are a massive part of the problem.....but that wasn't the case at launch. That became the narrative later on.

It's important to remember that PS3 was significantly more expensive than Xbox 360 and launched a year late and had crappy 3rd party versions, but it still managed to outsell it in the end. The xbox brand has some power in the US and the UK, but in the rest of the world it might as well not exist at all, the brand power Sony has built up since PS1 is just way too strong to compete with, even when they did everything wrong with PS3 it still sold 85+ mil consoles.

 

[GTV0819]

Thanks to numerous third-party studios who also find the gaming console to be attractive and thus, have made a plentiful amount of good games that attracted a lot of players with it, even if its price tag is considered to be above average. This generally translates to good sales.

It is a milestone that its direct predecessor, the PS3, never achieved, because despite its potential to be a powerful console, game developers often find the structure of the system to be complicated and so, have a hard time developing their games on it.

I hope its upcoming successor will be as good as this or maybe even better but only time will tell.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

It still boggles my mind that hitting the Share button on a DS4 and trying to save a screenshot in SWBF2 can take upwards of five seconds.

The worst has to be looking at communities, sometimes it takes minutes to load but most of the time it just fails.