ComputerMKII
Banned
Translated from http://www.lefigaro.fr/jeux-video/2...llions-de-playstation-4-d-ici-a-mars-2014.php
"We will sell 5 million PlayStation 4 by March 2014"
As PlayStation is about to celebrate its twentieth birthday, Sony has just made the most important launch of the famous console.
Andrew House - head of Sony's video game department since April 2012, came to Paris on friday to launch the PlayStation 4 (PS4), which came out in Europe two weeks after its North American launch. France is the fourth country in the world for the video games of the Tokyo group, after the United States, Great Britain and Japan.
LE FIGARO - Will you announce the two million mark for PS4s sold worldwide by Saturday?
Andrew HOUSE - I'm crossing my fingers. But we'll need more than 24 hours to calculate the European sales. It's more complicated to measure European sales. It was simpler to measure the North American sales because we only had to count the retail sales from two countries - United States and Canada.
What does this launch inspire you?
It's the most important one in the history of the PlayStation, which will soon celebrate its twentieth birthday. I'm extremely happy about pre-order figures, which can be explained by the attractive price of the console. Our production chain is the best we've ever had. We're redoubling our efforts to have more PS4s available before Christmas and not to disappoint customers. In the light of people's reception, I'm very confident in the fact that we will sell more than 5 million PS4 by late March 2014.
We're rebuilding enthusiasm for video games and the Sony brand. Our portable console PS Vita is more demanded in the United States since the PS4 came out. And the playing experience will be better with Sony smartphones.
But the console won't serve just to play games...
The PS3 was only made for playing and watching Blu-ray movies. The PS4 is a multi-function console, used for gaming but also for downloading films, series, watching television, sharing your playing experience with your friends, it has a social dimension, thanks to Facebook integration, which isn't offered by our competitor. Therefore, it will be used by more than one person in the house.
We're going to offer a total of more than eighteen online services, such as Sony Entertainment Network and the PlayStation Plus multiplayer service, which has become paid. The number of TV channels available in France is going to increase but we've first chosen to develop the social aspect, in order to attract a loyal audience, which will act among their friends as purchasing advisors for services and content.
What part of your income will those new services represent?
The part of new services in our income will increase in a significant way compared to the PS3. Our Gaikai (cloud gaming) service will be launched in 2014 in the United States, and later on in Europe. For now, only 10% of the big games are distributed digitally.