The PlayStation 4 's initial success--a staggering 10 million units sold
in nine months--puts Sony's game division in a good place for the
future, European executive Jim Ryan explains in a new interview. At
the same time, however, Ryan makes it clear that this console
generation is far from over, and initial success is not necessarily a
guarantee of prosperity down the road.
"Having momentum and having that initial success--and it is just
initial, there's a long way to go yet--it puts us in good heart for the
future," Ryan told GamesIndustry International in an interview from
Gamescom .
Ryan also says in the interview that Sony's future-facing technology
and services like PlayStation Now , Project Morpheus, and
PlayStation TV all "require investment." But as a result of the PS4
selling so quickly right out of the gate, Ryan said decisions about
investing in these areas are now easier to make.
"It's much easier to make decisions like that from a position of
relative success, relative strength, rather than a world where
PlayStation 4 was struggling, where our momentum wasn't great,"
Ryan said. "The money man would be thinking, 'hmmm, do we
really want to put more into this?' Those conversations, which are
very important for us and very important for the shape of the whole
industry, they become easier. That can only be a good thing."
The PS4's initial success is quite different than the last generation,
when the PlayStation 3 --due in part to a high price tag--was slow to
take off. Sony learned from these lessons, and the PS4 is better off
as a result. Ryan says, "Yeah, we made so many mistakes last time
round that I won't list them now. But we did list them, and we
vowed to rectify them. By and large, I think we've done that."
NPD data released yesterday showed that the PS4 yet again was the
best-selling console in the United States, outperforming the Xbox
One .
-Gamespot
No comments:
Post a Comment