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PS4 Sales Surpass 40 Million Units

Sony's latest console reaches new milestone; Software hits 270 million sales.

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PlayStation 4's sales have now surpassed the 40 million milestone, Sony has announced. The figure represents units sold to consumers globally, as opposed to shipped to retailers.

"We are truly grateful for the enormous support from our fans and partners across the globe, which helped us achieve this significant milestone in such a short span of time,” said PlayStation chief executive Andrew House.

No Caption Provided

"We will strive to deliver even more exciting gaming experiences to our users, further driving the momentum and accelerating the expansion of the PS4 platform and its business this fiscal year by offering an unparalleled lineup of games, bringing our virtual reality system, PlayStation VR, to market and providing ground-breaking features and network services."

In the 2015 holiday period, Sony sold 5.7 million units of the PS4, bringing its sales tally to 35.9 million units globally by January. This means that, in the five months following, Sony has sold more than five million more consoles.

In a financial report detailed on May 24, Sony forecasted it will 20 million PS4s in its current financial year, which ends on March 31. This would bring global lifetime sales of the PS4 to 60 million.

For comparison, the PlayStation 3 has sold more than 80 million units worldwide as of November 2013, which was seven years after its initial launch. The PS4 is in its third year on sale.

Analysts, meanwhile, have projected the PS4 will go on to sell more than 100 million units worldwide before its lifecycle is over.

In terms of game sales, Sony said "software sales also remain strong, with more than 270 million" titles sold through retail and digital downloads as of May 22.

Reports have indicated an upgraded PS4 might be in the works. This new PS4 is codenamed "Neo" and features upgraded CPU, GPU, and RAM.

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Avatar image for lrdfancypants
lrdfancypants

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"The PS4 is in its third year on sale."

Lol, Tamoor.

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JoePiervincenti

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@lrdfancypants: he didn't say it's been three years he said it's in its third year, which would've began November 2015...

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lrdfancypants

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@JoePiervincenti:

Again, not what I'm referencing.

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LiveDreamPlay

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@lrdfancypants: He's right though, it is in its third year on sale...

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lrdfancypants

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@livedreamplay:

I know. That's not what I'm referencing.

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lostn

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@lrdfancypants: He is correct.

If it's past 24 months, it's in its third year.

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lrdfancypants

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@lostn:

That's not the point.

For a few months he's been saying it had already been 3 years.

He gets corrected by people each time.

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lostn

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@lrdfancypants: The statement you quoted him saying is correct. Unless he originally said it had already been 3 years and corrected it to what you quoted. But that would only make sense if what you quoted was the pre-corrected text.

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lrdfancypants

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@lostn:

He has been incorrectly stating it for awhile.

I quoted it because he finally adjusted what he has been saying.

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suicidesn0wman

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@lrdfancypants: He replaced his normal 'out 3 years' by saying they've sold 'over 5 million consoles' when it's clear that 40-35.9 = 4.1

Tamoor is fanboying as hard as some of the hardcores who infest this site.

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lrdfancypants

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@suicidesn0wman:

Yeah it's obvious.

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DaVillain

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DaVillain  Moderator

3 years have pass and PS4 made it to 40 million units sale, most impressive. Time flies when your having fun gaming and who knew it already hit 40 million sales in 3 years? Congrats Sony.

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suicidesn0wman

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@davillain-: Honestly, I thought they had passed 40 a while ago and have little doubt they'll be close to 42 by the end of E3.

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lrdfancypants

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@davillain-:

Time did fly fast indeed.

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neowarrior793

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@walidras: you do know that sony has been making profit on every ps4 sold, even now at the reduced price there cost of creating the console has gone down just as much that its belived that they still hit profit (even tho its only a little after shipping costs)

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jenovaschilld

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@neowarrior793: No that is a myth, Sony as does MS and Nintendo with its Wii U have sold at loss like they have for generation after generation of consoles - since the gaming consoles is a razor vs blade business. Much of this silly nonsense started with the components cost 387, sold at 400 thus Sony making $18 per consoles bullshit that the simple minded can digest because they read it on facebook and thus it must be true.

The components costs does not include labor, production, factories, R&D, Shipping, Inventory taxes, varying tariffs, and a million other little expenses that it takes to sale a consumer electronic device around the world. Console makers easily make their money back through licensing fees through games that are sold. For instance the xbox 360 console only sold 85million console last gen but made a killing by having a huge tie in ratio (software per console), at 15-25% on each game sold .... it is easy to take a loss on hardware because they make it up through software.

Nintendo, since the SNES have tried to keep their hardware close to MSRP, because those that sit on the board of directors own much of the production factories allowing them to make alot of money through the back end. The wii -7th gen, sold very well and cost little to make, allowing Nintendo to actually make a profit off the hardware which is good since the wii had the worse tie-in ratio 7th gen.

But again that is just ... wrong.

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neowarrior793

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@jenovaschilld: actaully you will find most of the external costs are pre paid for befor the console are even made, so yea you could subtract thoes cost from the begginig but they make up for thoes costs later on (most likly the large boost of psn+ subscribers). on hardware sales they are making profit on each sale, they had actaully covered the orginal cost and hit pure profit by febuary at the 10 million mark. from that moment on they simply covered the later costs from the profits made even earlyer, now that the costs have gone down and they lowered the price of the console, the parts have cheapen shipping costs have most likly cheapened and even labour costs as they probably dont need as many hand to build consoles. yes some of what you have said is correct and i dont disbute it but in terms of making money sony on hardware sales alone have made more then there costs and hit profit.

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jenovaschilld

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@neowarrior793: There is no doubt that sony ms is now making profit on their 8th gen consoles but the machine itself is NOT making a profit per sale, http://www.gamesindustry.biz/, even with lower hardware components and the asian currency crisis last few years, console makers are still subsidizing their hardware machines. Which is great for gamers, you have a machine much much lower then an equivalent PC that will be supported for years to come. Though software is high - $60 for 1886 something that was only 5-7 hrs long was pretty brutal.

One other thing, no external costs are pre-paid for, even factories that are built to make the consoles are an ongoing per console expense that has to be calculated in, even the warehouses where parts and consoles are stored are an ongoing expense- even the shelf space at walmart (it just setting there, is an expense per console), -is the machine cheaper to make now then when it launched - YES, but it continues to be sold subsidized as they make their money through software, not hardware.

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neowarrior793

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@jenovaschilld: the thing is, you will find that they already had these ongoing cost befor the console were made, where do you think they stored all there ps3's? they also simply stopped stocking ps3's and start stocking ps4 so they never really had new costs, its the same for store shelves they simply took up the ps3's slot so these costs arn't really costs there nothing new or somthing you can add on. its the same for maual labour, they may have stopped production of making ps3's but all they did was add extra staff to creating ps4's on the productionline to keep up with demand and quantity goals.

anyway sony confired themselves that they hit profit at the 10 million mark with console sales and by the third quater of 2015 they had completly covered all costs when they included software sales.

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suicidesn0wman

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@jenovaschilld: The $381 cost analysis is nothing more than an estimate, no one knows how much Sony paid for the individual parts at a bulk price. i.e. The PS4 launched with a Seagate hard drive that was 'estimated' to cost $37, but for all we know Sony ordered 5 million of them at $20 per. Seagate could have had a ton of them just sitting around and wanted to clear space for other product that would make more money.

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jenovaschilld

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@suicidesn0wman: The article that came out at the beginning of the 8th gen was so misleading, and tons of gamers repeat the same errors in the articles still today. Like the above com-mentor. That cost analysis, was just a poor guess on the parts that make up the console. And included nothing else that it takes to actually bring that consumer product to market. It is worse then Eddie Makuch articles on here.

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suicidesn0wman

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@jenovaschilld: The point remains the same, the cost to build the PS4 could go in either direction. Factor in the position Sony was in financially with the fact retailers were buying PS4 consoles for below the $399.99 MSRP and there is a highly likely chance that Sony was at least breaking even on every PS4, if not making a very small($1-5) profit per unit.

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suicidesn0wman

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@neowarrior793: I'm guessing he's talking about the entire company, not just Playstation, which is great because they make some fantastic TV's too. Hoping to get a much larger Bravia sometime in the near future.

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jenovaschilld

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@suicidesn0wman: The Bravia tv is a really high quality tv, but with a huge price tag. Other TVs may not be as good, Vizio, Samsung, Phillips- but are a whole lot cheaper and really not that far off from Sony's.

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suicidesn0wman

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Edited By suicidesn0wman

@jenovaschilld: I got my current 40" Bravia for $400 on a black friday, same price they had the 40" Samsung TVs. The only brands that are comparable are Samsung and Sharp, every other brand is complete crap.

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deactivated-5ae060efb3bf6

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Congrats Sony. Now gets some racing games and I'll join in the fun.

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DaVillain

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DaVillain  Moderator

@Triton: Racing games you say, Driveclub is a good exclusive racing game I recommend checking out. The upcoming Gran Turismo game is coming out this November, so be on the lookout.

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suicidesn0wman

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@davillain-: I think this guy said the same thing on another recent PS4 article, had no reply when I rattled off the 4 current racers on the PS4 plus the two coming out this year. If he can't find a decent racing game on the PS4 he's simply not trying.

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DaVillain

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DaVillain  Moderator

@suicidesn0wman: Well I'll be, I been REKT!!!

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BabeNewelll

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Edited By BabeNewelll

If we reach the 50 million stretch goal they will let us change our names.

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wexorian

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@BabeNewelll: It won't reach 50 million, Because superior neo get's released and you'l be forced for upgrade to get better resolution and tech "like PC users do" ,

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harlemsfinest27

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@wexorianYou not FORCED to by the new system, you f*cking moron

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lrdfancypants

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@BabeNewelll:

TbagsMcgee here I come!

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