Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

[Firewind]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

Smash Bros on the 3DS is a ludicrous idea. It's like Nintendo WANTS the Wii U to fail. Smash Bros as a Wii U exclusive could have been that one killer app but nope, Nintendo are just too arrogant to see it.

If anything people are more excited about Portable Smash Bros. I mean it's a fucking Smash Bros game on a portable! How awesome is that. And it's on a portable with a massive installed base. And it will do more to pull core gamers to the 3DS.

[Etra]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

I was under the impression from early developer comments that the 3DS and Wii U versions would have slight content distinctions.

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

Nope, only graphical. It looks better on the Wii U but that's about it.

[Icemage]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

PlayStation®4 Sales Surpass 5.3 Million Units Worldwide -- TOKYO, Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Per official Sony PR, they've sold 5.3M PS4s worldwide as of Feb. 8. Since they claimed 4.2M on Dec. 30, that's 1.1M in the five weeks in 2014. Not too shabby for the worst gaming retail month of the year.

These are actually shipped numbers, not sold-through, but given the current level of demand, it's fairly safe to say (for now) that almost all of those PS4s are sold through they moment they hit the retail channel.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

How do you know they're only shipped and not already sold?

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

How do you know they're only shipped and not already sold?

Icemage either misread or has additional information; the PR thing clearly says estimated retail sales to consumers of 5.3 million units.

[Icemage]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

Icemage either misread or has additional information; the PR thing clearly says estimated retail sales to consumers of 5.3 million units.

It's just an assumption. Just like Microsoft or Nintendo, Sony has no way of being sure how many units were sold to consumers, but considering that the PS4 is effectively sold out worldwide aside from a tiny number of units in Mexico and Brazil and perhaps the Middle East, it's a safe assumption to say that more or less anything shipped is immediately sold.

Remember, the PR claims as of Feb. 8. There are no weekly trackers in North America, and no reliable trackers in non-Japan Asia, the Middle East, Australia/New Zealand, or South America, so there's no way they can be sure - or even reasonably certain - what was sold in the first week of February even in the territories covered by trusted trackers like GfK or NPD.

As such, in the absence of any corroborating evidence, I always assume a number is shipped to retailers, not sold through because anything that's not an annual or monthly number is likely either a guesstimate or a shipped number.

P.S. Note to those who always claim I trust Sony; I don't. Not even in their public PR, unless I can be reasonably certain they aren't lying or guessing.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

^ I agree, and that's what I said to people on YT but of course, it's Youtube so...


That 5.3M figure has got to be factoring in the shipments/pre-orders from Japan.

[Icemage]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

That 5.3M figure has got to be factoring in the shipments/pre-orders from Japan.

Unlikely. Pre-orders don't count toward shipped numbers until they're actually shipped to retailers, and I doubt Sony sent hardware two weeks in advance to Japanese retailers who hold storage space at an absolute premium. That would be rude and unprofessional in Japan.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

So they're just straight up lying then? I don't see how they possibly sold as many units as they did in the entire month of January in the span of a week, and all before launching the damn thing in their own home country.


EDIT: Just to clarify, they probably have sold that many units - to the retailers, not consumers. That's the whole point of these reports right? I just find it funny that people see that and they immediately think "Wow so many people have bought one!"

Not exactly folks. Are you sure that number isn't factoring in shipments to Japan? I mean the release is this saturday, and it would make sense for them to have already started shipping units in preparation for the launch.

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

PlayStation®4 Sales Surpass 5.3 Million Units Worldwide -- TOKYO, Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Per official Sony PR, they've sold 5.3M PS4s worldwide as of Feb. 8. Since they claimed 4.2M on Dec. 30, that's 1.1M in the five weeks in 2014. Not too shabby for the worst gaming retail month of the year.

These are actually shipped numbers, not sold-through, but given the current level of demand, it's fairly safe to say (for now) that almost all of those PS4s are sold through they moment they hit the retail channel.


Icemage

Ugh, could have saved myself a lot of headaches reading this part myself, but it does actually say Sold-through in the press release IM:

TOKYO, Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system has cumulatively sold through more than 5.3 million units*1 around the world as of February 8, 2014 (JST), and is continuing to demonstrate strong growth and momentum.

So...

[Icemage]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

^ I know it says sold through, but my point is that any console manufacturer that claims sold through is guessing, at best.

So they're just straight up lying then? I don't see how they possibly sold as many units as they did in the entire month of January in the span of a week, and all before launching the damn thing in their own home country.

I don't know how they're arriving at their numbers, but it doesn't seem outlandish. It's possible they've added the Japan pre-release shipments to that total, but that doesn't seem right. This feels like calculated PR to show just how big the Japan launch is, by preparing a "before" status update, and then releasing a worldwide total afterward.

USA has historically comprised about 25-30% of the worldwide PlayStation market. With them selling 271K PS4s in USA in January, that makes their 1.1M claim in 5 weeks at least within shouting distance of plausible without needing to add in Japan's numbers.


Icemage

[Icemage]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

Sony PR states they've sold 6M through March 2 worldwide.

PlayStation®4 (PS4™) Sales Surpass 6.0 Million Units Worldwide In Less Than 4 Months... -- TOKYO, March 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system has cumulatively sold through more than 6.0 million units*1 globally as of March 2, 2014 (JST). This also includes the 370,000 units sold through in Japan since its launch on February 22.

I take this number with a small grain of salt, as before, but that suggests 700K sold in 3 weeks worldwide, including 370K in Japan. That would leave 330K in all remaining territories, which seems low but it's still ridiculously hard to find anywhere in North America or Europe.

It is a foregone conclusion that PS4 has likely passed the Wii U in total install base unless Nintendo had a much, much better holiday with the Wii U than anyone expected. For that matter, I think XB1 may pass Wii U worldwide LTD soon unless its sales have fallen off a cliff.


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

It is a foregone conclusion that PS4 has likely passed the Wii U in total install base unless Nintendo had a much, much better holiday with the Wii U than anyone expected. For that matter, I think XB1 may pass Wii U worldwide LTD soon unless its sales have fallen off a cliff.


Icemage

That could still be a possibility as we're left wondering just how many 360 owners are making the switch over to the PS side? When XB1 was unveiled, there was so much loathing even from the most loyal and rabid XB owners that I thought it was enough of a disruption to leave Microsoft in a weak position at launch. But that could still be the scenario after you bleed out most of the "first-adoptors" on the Microsoft camp. You're then left with a vast middle ground of consumers who've yet to feel that they need to leave behind their Wii/360/PS3 and move on to newer pastures...

(In other words, Sony has momentum, and if they keep building on it, this will serve to convince both developers and consumers that they ought to only look at PS and not anything else)

[Malacite]

Re: Sony PR: 1 million+ PS4s sold in North America in first 24 hours

Well, I'll be curious to see what the NPD figures are when they come out next month to see if InFamous moves a lot more PS4's.