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Sony sees their most successful Black Friday ever

Is Black Friday a thing in Europe now?

It's getting bigger every year, definitely. Here in Spain, pretty much all shops and big shopping malls had Black Friday adverts and some interesting discounts. I was actually looking for a cheap PS4 bundle but there weren't any as interesting as what was advertised on the US. I guess they are still saving those for the huge Christmas campaign we have every year.
 
Sony, you're not going to exceed the success of the PS2, at least not in terms of hardware units sold, so don't get comfortable with the notion that you're going to sell 155m+ PS4s. Ain't gonna happen.

Ahh, okay then. I only read the OP. It's good that they're keeping their expectations in check, because while I think the PS4 will be wildly successful throughout the gen, it's not going to reach PS2-levels of hardware sales.

Andrew House actually discusses that directly in the article: "Mr House was "hesitant to predict" that the PS4 would top the PS2's lifetime sales of 155 million, given "the cadence at which people expect innovation" was speeding up." Seems realistic.

The article also says: "IHS has predicted just 2.5m VR headsets will be sold next year, with PlayStation leading rivals such as Oculus and HTC's Vive.

"I don't think those kinds of volumes would be either unrealistic or a disappointment," Mr House said."
So they're not predicting PSVR to sell 2.5 million units - that the overall VR market is expected to do around 2.5 million hardware sales, and Sony is expected to be leading the pack. Seems quite reasonable if you ask me.
 
Very interesting.
Germany is now the largest console market for Sony in the Europe.
New thread worthy, imo. Anyone?

Honestly, I think we should wait for more sources on this - unless someone wants to tweet Shu or Jim Ryan, or someone like that perhaps? The article also says "The PS4's performance has been boosted by growth in new markets such as the Middle East and China", and while this is technically true China is still currently a tiny part of the console base which probably accounts for about 2% of the PS4 hardware market.
 
It's getting bigger every year, definitely. Here in Spain, pretty much all shops and big shopping malls had Black Friday adverts and some interesting discounts. I was actually looking for a cheap PS4 bundle but there weren't any as interesting as what was advertised on the US. I guess they are still saving those for the huge Christmas campaign we have every year.

70% of the BF deals here in Spain are crap though. Some retailers do some shitty practices like raising the price shortly before Blackfriday so the discount seems bigger or selling old stuff that has been in the warehouse since forever while acting as if it was a brand new product and stuff like that. You really need to be careful and well informed or you may be scammed.

GAME Spain has a 1TB PS4 bundle with GOW3, TLOU and the Uncharted Collection for 400€. They sent me an email a few days ago. I guess it's a solid one if you haven't played those games, but I already have most of those games for my PS3.
 
Oh shit, NPD is going to be brutal, but we already know for sure that both companies did great so this is great news already!
 
Just FYI: The article makes it clear they are talking about WW sales.

Other surprising tidbits include:

  1. Germany is now their largest market in the EU

  2. They would consider 2.5 million VR sales (all VR platforms including PSVR) in year 1 to be a success.


    [*]They do not expect PS4 to outsell PS2 LTD but do expect it to keep pace with PS2 for at least the first 5 years.

People should read the article before they try to dispute imaginary claims of PS4 selling 155 million in the future. The TL;DR crowd never changes.
 
Also that 299 price point with a game bundled (and 50% off a year of ps+) really did them wonders. I mean, that's over 100 bucks off original MSRP just 2 years after launch, so it's an easy pick-up for anyone on the fence (like me). That and next year seems to be an incredible year for games. Good job!
 
Well deserved.

I didn't expect them to be as agressive as they were this holiday. December will be interesting for them with the Battlefront bunduru at 299, i'm thinking the new Star Wars frenzy will deliver.
 
His comments on VR expectations are interesting... seemed to be cut out of the OP's link, but are in the original article:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/28227dea-9c01-11e5-b45d-4812f209f861.html#ixzz3tdWC73vg

IHS has predicted just 2.5m VR headsets will be sold next year, with PlayStation leading rivals such as Oculus and Vive, owned by smartphone maker HTC.

“I don’t think those kinds of volumes would be either unrealistic or a disappointment,” Mr House said.

“You don’t necessarily need tens of millions of units to be a solid platform for there to be a good, vibrant developer community — but it certainly helps.”

Momentum in new VR content is “still more weighted towards the independent development community”, he admitted, as smaller companies were prepared to take bigger risks on a new technology where production costs may be lower than today’s multimillion-dollar console blockbusters.

“We are seeing more of the majors start to get into this space,” he added. “We are at the start of a very new medium. I think this will be a long road.”
 
1.I think the VR expectations deserve its own thread. There are alot of people that are probably expecting it to do Kinect type numbers.

2.They expect it to keep up with PS2 numbers for the first 5 years, how many PS2's did they sell in the first 5 years? and is 100 million looking realistic for PS4 by the time its done?
 
Yes, because that's exactly what I said isn't it.

What else did you say apart from the armchair marketing expert babble then? The PS4 is a bit of a freak in relation to the history of consoles, there's no way anyone can say definitively what it can or can't do.
 
2.They expect it to keep up with PS2 numbers for the first 5 years, how many PS2's did they sell in the first 5 years? and is 100 million looking realistic for PS4 by the time its done?

From the source article:

Three years after its March 2000 launch, the PS2 had sold 51 million units, and by the end of 2005 more than 100 million had been sold.

IHS, the market researcher, predicted last month that the PS4 customer base would not exceed 100 million until 2020. But if the PS4 follows the PS2's trajectory over its first five years, that milestone could be reached by the end of 2018.
 
1.I think the VR expectations deserve its own thread. There are alot of people that are probably expecting it to do Kinect type numbers.

2.They expect it to keep up with PS2 numbers for the first 5 years, how many PS2's did they sell in the first 5 years? and is 100 million looking realistic for PS4 by the time its done?

I thought PS2 actually did near enough 100m in its first 5 years
 
His comments on VR expectations are interesting... seemed to be cut out of the OP's link, but are in the original article:

snip

Oh really? 2,5 mi in 6 months for a very likely 200U$+ device?
That sounds like a huge sucess out of the gate to me, i find it hard to believe they will achieve this.
 
"We are now trying to benchmark against the success of the PlayStation 2 - or exceed it if possible."

shitjustgotreal.gif
 
Oh really? 2,5 mi in 6 months for a very likely 200U$+ device?
That sounds like a huge sucess out of the gate to me, i find it hard to believe they will achieve this.

It's 2.5 million units for all VR devices in 2016, including PSVR, Vive and Oculus. That does not seem unrealistic to me.
 
Hope they beat the PS2 in the upcoming years of this gen, anything to show that console gaming isn't dead/dying.

Great news for Sony!
 
The PS4 has had the hardest push in Germany for any console I've ever seen, it's not surprising. PS4 console deals have been insane at every major retailer in the country for months. You could get one for 280€ during Black Friday.

And right now lots of Sony games have a RRP of 19,99€ to make the choice even easier

- The Order
- Until Dawn
- God of War 3 Remastered
- Driveclub
- Infamous Second Son
- Knack
- Little Big Planet 3
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Tearaway Unfolded
- The Last of Us: Remastered

I don't watch TV so I can't say how the advertising was there.
 
Oh really? 2,5 mi in 6 months for a very likely 200U$+ device?
That sounds like a huge sucess out of the gate to me, i find it hard to believe they will achieve this.

Mind you, that's in reference to a forecast for the total market, not just Sony, and I think House was commenting on in that context.
 
So it's outselling the Wii as well then? Because that quote says "The PS4 has become the fastest-selling home console ever", so unless I'm misunderstanding it (quite possible) it's saying it's the fastest-selling console for its first 24 months on the market? I mean, fastest-selling in this instance means biggest-selling, right?!
I didn't see that quote. As I read it they were trending ahead of PS2 but didn't expect to exceed PS2 overall (I.e, they expect shorter tail for PS4).

I could be wrong but I think it's trending ahead of PS2 but a little behind Wii.

EDIT: re-checked article. The writer seems to claim under image "best ever" but it doesn't seem like an actual quote from Sony. I think the writer just assumed if it's outpacing PS2 it must be "best ever" as PS2 sold the most ever. In short I think the writer goofed.
 
Ahh, okay then. I only read the OP. It's good that they're keeping their expectations in check, because while I think the PS4 will be wildly successful throughout the gen, it's not going to reach PS2-levels of hardware sales.



Hence why I said "in terms of hardware units sold." Revenue wise you're probably right - the PS4 has got to be bringing more cash in for Sony than the PS2 ever did, what with PS+ and PSN/digital sales being a thing now. Not to mention the hardware is cheaper to manufacture, whereas at the time the PS2 was quite a costly system to make for Sony.

We may all think - Sony too - that the PS4 won't outdo the PS2, but are you kidding me with the bolded? What company is going to say, "let's be successful but not THAT successful, as the PS2 was," even if it may be quite difficult, if not impossible to get there. The objective is to always try to do better, yet here you are saying that they shouldn't attempt to.

Okay.
 
The PS4 has had the hardest push in Germany for any console I've ever seen, it's not surprising. PS4 console deals have been insane at every major retailer in the country for months. You could get one for 280€ during Black Friday.

And right now lots of Sony games have a RRP of 19,99€ to make the choice even easier

- The Order
- Until Dawn
- God of War 3 Remastered
- Driveclub
- Infamous Second Son
- Knack
- Little Big Planet 3
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Tearaway Unfolded
- The Last of Us: Remastered

I don't watch TV so I can't say how the advertising was there.

Where can I buy UD for 20€?
 
I didn't see that quote. As I read it they were trending ahead of PS2 but didn't expect to exceed PS2 overall (I.e, they expect shorter tail for PS4).

I could be wrong but I think it's trending ahead of PS2 but a little behind Wii.

EDIT: re-checked article. The writer seems to claim under image "best ever" but it doesn't seem like an actual quote from Sony. I think the writer just assumed if it's outpacing PS2 it must be "best ever" as PS2 sold the most ever. In short I think the writer goofed.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how well the writer checked their facts - I pointed out earlier something else I took issue with regarding their writing:

Honestly, I think we should wait for more sources on this - unless someone wants to tweet Shu or Jim Ryan, or someone like that perhaps? The article also says "The PS4's performance has been boosted by growth in new markets such as the Middle East and China", and while this is technically true China is still currently a tiny part of the console base which probably accounts for about 2% of the PS4 hardware market.

I'll go and take a look at the Financial Times source coverage.
 
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