With only three days to go before the launch of the PlayStation 4 console, Sony is confident in both its product and its manufacturing process.
Bloomberg this week reported that Sony expects to sell at least 3 million PlayStation 4’s by the end of 2013. The report cites Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton as going even further, stating that the company will sell at lease 5 million PlayStation 4’s by March 2014 and that Sony is “very confident” and “in great shape.”
When building an install base for a next-generation console, manufacturing processes are nearly as important as games and marketing. Sony’s PlayStation 3 console was expensive and in short supply when it launched in 2006, allowing Microsoft to gain traction in markets such as North America and the UK.
This time around, Sony seems to have its production schedule in order. The Bloomberg report states that the company is seeing higher yields for the PlayStation 4 compared to the PlayStation 3 and that production began early enough to rule out any last-minute emergency production. Tretton is quoted as saying PlayStation 4 production has been “…very, very smooth.”
Microsoft has not provided its projection for sales of its upcoming Xbox One console. There are signs, though, that the company isn’t quite as confident as Sony. In addition to rumors of manufacturing difficulties, Microsoft delayed the launch of the Xbox one until 2014 for eight countries that were expected to have it in November. The company’s early pre-order marketing efforts also stumbled over the console’s originally-planned DRM scheme, which has since been eliminated.
