Success Sales of Playstation 4 Consoles

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
References

Introduction

In January 2015, Sony reported that more than 18.5 million PlayStation 4 consoles (PS4) had been sold since the product launch in November 2013 (Stuart, 2015). The initial volume of sales had been unbelievable: over 5 million items had been purchased during the first four months (Freeman, 2014). This success seemed stunning back in 2013 and is still considered outstanding, even though the new Xbox One console shows similar results (Freeman, 2014; Stuart, 2014; Stuart, 2015). We are going to attempt to find out what factors had contributed to this exceptional sales volume that reflected the demand for the product existing at that point in time.

Main body

One of the decisions that appear to have conditioned the success of PS4 is the reasonable distribution strategy adopted by Sony (Stuart, 2014). Before that year, the company had tended to start the launch of its products on a certain territory and later proceed to work with other countries. This time, however, the product was launched in several countries simultaneously, and this turned out to be a fortunate decision. It resulted in a marvelous sales volume due to the excitement caused by the event, and this could explain the rush and huge sales of the first four months (Stuart, 2014). Still, the success that PS4 had in the following year could hardly be attributed to this decision.

Another factor that defines the demand of any market is the existence of similar products which means competition. In case two comparable products that do not differ significantly are present on the market, they may coexist for a period of time; but it is in the seller’s best interest to change the situation, which leads to either qualitative changes or a decrease in price (Bailey, 2012). The consumer and the market appear to benefit from both outcomes, which is why competition is favored, dangerous as it may be for the competitors (Lai & Yu, 2003; Bailey, 2012). As it also turns out, competition may be beneficial for a product’s image, and this is exactly what happened to PS4. An idea has been proposed that PS4 partially owed its success to the failed launch of its rival, the Xbox One, earlier that year (Stuart, 2014). Another important factor is that the difference in price between the two products was significant, PS4 being cheaper. When the quality offered by market rivals is more or less the same, which was the case with the consoles, it is their price that matters (Lai & Yu, 2003; Bailey, 2012). It appears that PS4 was the cheapest console at the time, which also made it the most competitive market player, and this could be another explanation of Sony’s success.

Finally, an important factor contributing to the sales of PS4 is the admiration and fascination the product seems to inspire in many of its users, who may be called its “fans” (Stuart, 2014). Although it is a rather vague characteristic that is difficult to assess, the high prestige value of a product has always been a major advantage. This is especially important for a product that cannot be called “necessary” and that satisfies the needs that are not vitally important, which is definitely the case with game consoles (Bailey, 2012). It appears that PS4 has this advantage, and Sony directs much effort to preserve it. Definitely, the quality of the console along with its additional features serves to maintain the number of dedicated consumers and to attract new ones.

We may come to the conclusion that among the factors that conditioned the stunning success of Sony’s PS4 and the demand for the product were such important features as the price and the quality of the console along with its image in relation to its rival and the adoration of its devoted users. However, as the market saturation was growing, the demand for the product was decreasing, sharply at first and then more gradually, the supply following suit (Stuart, 2015). The price, determined by the demand, was at its highest at the time of the launch (339$) and then was gradually lowering (Freeman, 2014). This appears to be a natural course of events for a highly popular product.

Conclusion

Still, it seems that PS4 may yet attract new customers, still being competitive due to its quality and price. Besides, with so many consoles sold, Sony has turned its attention to peripheral technologies and features, for example, the virtual reality headset or the PlayStationTV (Stuart, 2014). This decision should serve to preserve the existing circle of customers and also to attract new ones. It is obvious that PS4’s rivals, Xbox One being the main of them, will work to improve their services as well, creating competition on the market. This fact makes it more difficult to predict the future of the console, but one may say with certainty that Sony is not ready to give up its business segment and is going to proceed to make its product more enticing.

References

Bailey, D. (2012). How markets work. New York, NY: Rosen Pub.

Freeman, W. (2014). PlayStation 4 hits 10m sales as Sony announces SharePlay initiative. The Guardian. Web.

Lai, L., & Yu, B. (2003). The power of supply and demand. Hong Kong, PRC: Hong Kong University Press.

Stuart, K. (2014). Why has the PlayStation 4 been so successful? The Guardian. Web.

Stuart, K. (2015). PlayStation 4 v Xbox One – where do they really stand? The Guardian. Web.

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Success Sales of Playstation 4 Consoles

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