Sony has confirmed the PlayStation 4 console has hit 100 million lifetime sales – and it’s the fastest system ever to hit that landmark.
The current-get system, which went on sale in 2013, has racked up a huge lead over the competing Xbox One console, over the course of its lifetime. The speed of the achievement beats even the mighty Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation 2. The PS4 beats both to the achievement by a matter of months.
The news comes via Sony’s quarterly earnings report. The company says it sold 3.2 million in the three months from April 1 to June 30. That pushed Sony past the 100m landmark. The figures were actually below the company’s expectations and have prompted Sony to revise its yearly sales estimates for the year.
It’s hardly a surprise PS4 sales are starting to stagnate somewhat. The market is somewhat saturated, and gamers may be looking towards the next-generation PS5 vs Xbox 2 console war, scheduled to kick off in 2020.
“PS4 hardware unit sales in the first quarter were slightly below our expectations primarily due to the news regarding our next-generation console,” Sony said (via VentureBeat). “Taking this into account, we have decided to prioritize profitability going forward and have revised downward our forecast for hardware unit sales by 1 million units to 15 million units.”
Related: Sony PS5
So what was that statement? Well in an interview this spring, PlayStation boss Mark Cerney revealed plenty of what’s in store for the PS5.
For starters, it will boast an advanced AMD Ryzen processor alongside a GPU with AMD Navi architecture capable of ray tracing, a feature currently only available in high-end gaming rigs. It will also support 8K graphics, although whether or not this will be upscaled remains unknown given how such resolutions are exclusive to the high-end PC and television space.
Microsoft will be looking to bounce back from the disappointing PS4 vs Xbox One defeat with its Project Spectre console and the forthcoming xCloud game-streaming service. However, the battleground for the new console war is likely to remain the same as the old one; which system is going to have the most and best exclusive games.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
