Andrew House, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), has said the console maker is hopeful that PlayStation 4 will outlast its predecessor in terms of market life.
Speaking at Tokyo’s Investor Relations Day (via DS), House remained unsure whether or not the PS4 would be able to match the PS2’s lifecycle, a console that only ceased production in January 2013—nearly 13 years after its launch.
“In terms of the console life cycle of the platform, I think it’s extremely hard to judge in the first year on the platform, as to whether this will be smaller, bigger or in line with previous life cycles. What I can say is that all of the early indicators have been extremely good. I’m sure you’ve seen yourself that sales of PlayStation 4 in its first year on the market are significantly outpacing those of PlayStation 2,” he said.
“That being said, again in the spirit of taking a conservative and reasonable view of our business outlook, we are very conscious of the fact that in contrast to say, the PlayStation 2 lifecycle, consumers are now faced with a panoply of different choices and devices on which they can play games. We have to feel that that will have some impact on the life cycle overall.
“Again. Not giving hard numbers, but the best guidance that I think I can offer based on the landscape that we see right now, is that we have high hopes that the PlayStation 4 will exceed the overall life cycle of PlayStation 3. It remains a significant question mark as to whether this will approach or exceed that of PlayStation 2.”
PS4 was released in November 2013 and has sold 13.5 million units worldwide. PS3 hit retail stores in November 2006 (March 2007 in Europe) and is still selling decently eight years on.
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