14 DAY TRIAL // The PlayStation 4 might be in direct competition with the Xbox One from Microsoft, but Sony says that it has not designed the console to win a race but to deliver the best possible gaming and entertainment experience to gamers.
Fergal Gara, the leader of the United Kingdom division of the company, tells CVG that, “Beating the competition is not the most important thing here. There is definitely an ambition to reduce that gap, but first and foremost the ambition is to be the gamers’ choice, and I think one leads to the other.”
The executive believes that if the PlayStation 4, both in terms of hardware and software, delivers the kind of experiences that players want, then gamers will be quick to also make it a commercial success.
Gara adds, “So we will certainly compete better this time, we’ve certainly got a better shout with a really great machine at such a great price. We’ve entered the cycle on time at the target price, with a great feel-good factor among gamers. The support we’ve had from the community has been humbling.”
Before the Sony and Microsoft devices were launched, most analyst firms predicted that the PlayStation 4 would edge the Xbox One in terms of sales for the rest of 2013 and for the entire life cycle of the devices.
The PS4 has been available on the United States market since November 15 and has moved 1 million units in its first 24 hours to players.
The Xbox One has been launched in 13 main countries on November 22 and has also sold 1 million devices in the same time frame.
Both Sony and Microsoft are promising that more high-profile video games for their platforms will be launched in 2014, when they will also have to deal with competition from the new SteamOS powered machines licensed by Valve.