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Tokyo. – Sony Corporation sold more than one million PlayStation 4 consoles in North America during the first 24 hours of sales, though the company said some buyers reported having “issues” with the new gaming device.
The record sales, which top initial results for the predecessor PlayStation 3 in 2006, come as Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai tries to make the video-game console the centrepiece of a corporate turnaround strategy. Pressure has intensified on Hirai after the company last month surprised investors by reporting a second-quarter loss. Some users said the machine’s power indicator light may have malfunctioned.
Sony is getting a head start on competing for the attention of game players with Microsoft Corp., which is releasing the Xbox One later this week. The Tokyo-based electronics maker has priced its console at US$399, or US$100 less than the Microsoft machine, as it seeks an edge in the US$93 billion-a-year industry before the Christmas shopping season.
“PS4 sales are better than expected. More importantly, I am watching the penetration into the market one month after its release,” Koki Shiraishi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo said by phone.
Sony is aware some consumers have reported issues with their PS4 systems and is closely monitoring for additional reports, Satoshi Fukuoka, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said in an e-mail yesterday. Symptoms associated with the power indicator light issue include the console powering off and no video or audio output to television, according to the company’s website.
“We think these are isolated incidents and represent a very small percentage of total units shipped to consumers to date,” Fukuoka said, declining to elaborate on what the problems were. The company is still making and shipping the consoles, he said.
Nintendo Co. also faced criticism last year after its new Wii U console required an immediate firmware update out of the box, and some consumers complained their machine was damaged during the process.
Sony will have adequate supplies of the PS4 through Christmas and stands by earlier projections for sales of five million units by March, Jack Tretton, president and chief executive officer of the company’s US computer entertainment division, said last week. The device goes on sale in Europe and Latin America next Friday.
Sony shares rose 0,9 percent to 1 862 yen at the close in Tokyo trading. The benchmark Topix index gained 0,2 percent.
Sales between 500 000 and one million units would signal a “strong launch”, Shunsuke Tsuchiya, a Tokyo-based analyst at Credit Suisse, said in a note last Thursday, the day before the PS4 went on sale.
Sony is employing a newer, faster type of memory that could provide an edge with graphics and help win over hardcore game players. The company also will benefit from efforts to woo independent developers, according to Andrew House, head of Sony’s worldwide game operation. Both Sony and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft are responding to shifts in the video-game industry, especially the loss of players to tablets and mobile phones. – Bloomberg.
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