PS4 Could Very Well Become The Best-Selling Console In History

There was a Common Refrain around the PS4 Launch. Sure, it Shattered Launch Records, Everyone Said but, there was No Way that Sony’s New Machine Could Ever Outsell the Indomitable PS2. The PlayStation 2 was a Product of its Time, they Said and there was No Way any One Machine could Capture the Complete Attention of the VideoGame World Ever Again — we Have Smartphones Now after all and, I mean, 155 Million Units. It just Seems Unreal. I’ll Cop to Saying Pretty Much that and More but, the Past Few Years Have been Good to Games Overall and the PS4 in Particular. The PlayStation 4 Surprised a Lot of People at Launch and it Continued to do so, throughout its 1st 2 Years as it Solidified its Place at the Top of the Current Generation of Consoles. Could the PS4 actually Outsell the PS2 ? Now that, we’ve Watched the Trajectory, we’ve Seen the Way the Gaming World has Responded and we Can Start to Think about the Future, the Question Becomes: Why Not ?


The Other Day, I Saw a Little News Piece that Said the PlayStation 4 had Reached 2 Million Units Quicker than the PS2 in the UK. It’s just a Couple of Years in One Region, of course but, it’s still Telling. At Launch, it Seemed like the Massive Burst of Sales was a Result of a Dedicated Fanbase and Pent-Up Demand but, it’s still Impressive that, this Phenomenon has Continued through 2 Holiday Seasons in a Region that was Dominated by the XBox 360 Last Generation. Of Course, it’s Folly to Judge the Long Term by the 1st Years of a Console’s Lifespan. The PS2 Didn’t Rack Up such Impressive Numbers by Launching Big: it was a Long Tail and Steady Growth that Got it Way Up to 155 Million. But, there’s No Reason to Think that, the PS4 Couldn’t See a Similar Trajectory. Sure, we Have Smartphones and Tablets but, if Anything that’s Only Helping a Continually Growing Console Industry. The Simple Fact is that, VideoGames, as a whole, are Getting Bigger All the Time.


Not Only are Games Becoming More Socially Acceptable and Ubiquitous, the Average Console Gamer is Older and Wealthier than they were in the Era of the PS2. And the Population of the World is Getting Larger. So, we Have More People Playing More VideoGames than Ever before – that’s Good News for the Console Industry. And while Japan Hasn’t been Wild about the PlayStation 4, New Games Could Change that and the Completely New Chinese Market is Opening Up. When we Think about the Long-Term Question, we also Have to Remember, Project Morpheus. While Nobody has the Slightest Clue What the VR Fight is Going to Look like, it’s Not that Absurd to Think that, Sony’s Headset (which is Excellent) could Drive Future PS4 Sales. I Predict that, the Early Stages of Modern VR are Going to Play as a Competition between Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus and I think Morpheus, with its Standardized Hardware, is Going to Have the Advantage there.


In the Worst Case Scenario, a Small Number of Hobbyists Pick Up a PS4 to See What the Fuss is about. In the Best, Sony, Finds itself at the Center of a Decades-Old Technological Dream Finally Realized. A Lot of Things could still Go Wrong, of course: Game Streaming could Eliminate the Need for Powerful Local Hardware (though Sony is Well Geared to Take Advantage of that too), Steam Machines could Stage a Miraculous Coup, or the Continually Improving Processors on Mobile Devices could Advance to the Point Where they Make Serious Competition for a Console. People could Decide they really, really Care about 4K Gaming. But, I Think that, the PlayStation 4 Stands a Real Chance of Outselling the PlayStation 2, Even with those Factors Considered. The PS4 was Outpacing the PS2 Even Past the Point When I would Have Guessed it would Have Normalized and there’s Plenty of Reasons to Feel Good about the Future. Past Predications Assumed that, Console Sales Reached a Mythical High-Watermark in the 2000s but, I’m Not Sure Why Things Look that Way. The Best-Selling Console of All Time could be Yet to Come. Why Not ?




Info Sources:

http://ps4daily.com/2015/05/playstation-4-sales-hit-2-million-in-uk-faster-than-ps2-and-ps3

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/14/playstation-4-continues-to-outpace-ps2-challenging-wii-for-fastest-selling-console