Sony Computer Entertainment announced that for the first time ever in the game console history, PlayStation and PS one hardware achieved a remarkable cumulative worldwide shipments of more than 100 million units.
This news comes as further confirmation of the remarkable success that has been the PS One. Launched in Japan on December 3rd, 1994, PlayStation was received with a lot of doubt from the gaming world and many rushed to predict its doom. Nine years and six months later and sales of the console remain strong. This success is a tribute to the marketing genius of Sony which has used a variety of innovations in order to keep demand for Playstation high.
The first innovation was the fact that Sony made Playstation attractive to a whole new target market of adults, increasing the gaming market which was, at the time, focused on children and teenagers. With the launch of Playstation 2, the company made another brilliant move by reducing the price and size of the unit and renaming it to PS One. The most important move however, came from Sony's ability to secure exclusive titles for its console while maintaining an ever increasing library of games for the PS One.
While the market today has become more competitive, all next generation consoles are tapping into the market niche creted by Playstation and even as sales of its younger brother, Playstation 2, seem to have reached a peak, PS One continues to have an appeal for gamers.
The achievement of the 100 million units shipped landmark, couldn't have come at a better time for Sony since for the first time XBox is expected to have outsold Sony's PlayStation 2 for the first time on a monthly basis in April, boosted by a price cut that made the Microsoft console cheaper than Sony's offering. Experts claim that XBox's achievement is not only due to the lower price but also a result of some big exclusive titles such as Ninja Gaiden and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. PS 2 and PS One sales however, remain srong and have put the company on strong footing while it's gearing up for the launch of its next generation of platforms which include the, handheld, PSP (Early 2005) and the Playstation 3 (2005-2006).
The PS One is now being sold in more than 120 countries and regions around the world, including North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Oceania, South-east Asia, South Korea and Central and South Americas. Along with the rich and attractive software title lineup, it has become widely popular to a broad range of users as the standard gaming platform in homes. With the introduction of the compact and lightweight model PS one in 2000, the platform continues to spread further throughout the global market and this important milestone came within 9 years and 6 months after the release of the product.
On the software front, PlayStation title lineup boasts over 7300 titles as of end of March 2004, with cumulative software shipments reaching over 949 million units around the world.
Recent figures show yet strong PS one sales with more than 3.31 million hardware and 32 million software shipments during the fiscal year 2003. PlayStation has broken all records of conventional game consoles in homes, not only with the first 100 million hardware shipment record, but also with a long platform lifecycle and broad expansion within the worldwide market.
PlayStation 2 has achieved cumulative shipments of more than 70 million units in hardware and 572 million units in software as of end of March 2004. Combining PlayStation and PlayStation 2 together, more than 170 million hardware units and 1.5 billion software units have been shipped to users all over the world.
SCEI has been putting its efforts to drive the worldwide gaming market through the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 business and will continue to further expand the gaming market and create a broad entertainment market with PlayStation Portable (PSP), scheduled for launch in Japan by the end of 2004, and with the powerful lineup of exciting software titles.
Sales Breakdown
PlayStation Cumulative Shipments by Territory (as of May 18, 2004)
Japan (including Asia)
20.72 million units (launch date: December 3, 1994)
North America
39.67 million units (launch date: September 9, 1995)
Europe/PAL
39.61 million units (launch date: September 29, 1995)
Worldwide Shipment: 100 million units
