Reasons for Ps4's success?

Ps2 was the highest selling home console of all time despite being the weakest hardware-wise compared to GameCube and Xbox (not sure about Dreamcast), but it had a big library of exclusive and non exclusive games.

This gen we have PS4 with a clear advantage in terms of graphics capabilites, but when it comes to Its library I'd say it's not that much superior to the Xbox One's.

My question is, if power is not what matters (see Ps2/Wii success), what is the reason, according to you guys, as to why Ps4 is trumping the competition?

The social domino effect. "My friend(s) have a PS4, so I'm going to get a PS4 too."

PS4 got off to the better launch since it was; more powerful, cheaper priced, better spotlight due the Xbox One criticism.

That allowed it to get a bigger base from the beginning and the social domino effect kicked in shortly after.

Hardware capabilities are rarely a factor when it comes to a system's commercial success. The strongest systems haven't been the most successful since 1983. NES was weaker than the Master System. SNES and Genesis were both weaker than the PC Engine. Saturn and PS1 were weaker than the N64. PS2 was weaker than the GCN and the Xbox. Wii was weaker than the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Not to mention the handhelds, where the Gameboy was weaker than the Game Gear and the Lynx, the DS was weaker than the PSP and the 3DS weaker than the Vita.

This is actually the first time in forever that the strongest system on the market is leading. It's more down to marketing than anything else, I think. How successful a system is depends on how much it permeates the society through its marketing and/or word of mouth.

And, well, the games, of course. A killer app that is high quality and popular amongst the masses and instantly synonymous with the system is also a very important factor. Like Wii Sports, Gears of War, Halo, Metal Gear Solid 2, Super Smash, Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and what have you.

The 1080p argument killed its sales

Also, the Playstation brand has always been more popular, at least in Europe is.

Hype.

@khoofia_pika: what this guy said

For over 2 years? You're in denial.

For a good part of it,then it snowballed.

No accounting for fools and their money is mah best guess. :P

I ran into people in Gamestop in Brooklyn as late as spring 2015 that were still asking if an Xbox One could play used video games. The mistakes made at E3 2013 were insurmountable. The Xbox brand is not, I repeat NOT ever going to be more popular than the PS brand, so I never thought X1 would outsell world wide. But it wouldn't be anywhere near the numbers it is if Mattrick and MS hadn't bungled that reveal and E3 2013.

Simply put, more exclusive games is what made a different and the Xbox One is totally falling behind Sony's exclusive games.

Whenever I go to an electronic store in Italy and check the gaming section, the Xbox one is not even turned on, whereas the Ps4 is and people wait in line to try the games out. I find it unfair that a store purposely keeps one if the consoles turned off, but it is what it is I guess. Not to mention the WiiU which is hidden in some forgotten spot.

It's just a better system overall.

@davillain-: I don't think so. As a matter of fact it's the Ps4 disappointing on the exclusive games aspect. What Sony is doing right is marketing.

But Bloodborne and...annnd..uh...Bloodborne new expansion!!

Mostly hype, it has little else going for it. Hype and promises for games far in the horizon.

And overselling capabilities that it can barely achieve.

Then again hardware wise it is better then the competition, and it was cheaper for a long time :) So not without reason that it is successful. It is just that I have'nt seen much of what was advertised on my PS4 to be honest. SO I will chalk much of it up to hype, and price.

Certainly ain't the games, which we are STILL waiting for. I am looking forwards to having more games that are more "unique" (read more japanese games). We do know they are coming but how many of them have been pushed how long now?

The PS4 is sold on its potential and not what it currently is, that's for sure.

Who is we? If you can't find anything to play on PS4 then you need a new hobby.

It was cheaper than the competition on launch, and Sony took advantage of MS's screw up which they are still working on fixing the damage from. Nintendo was off doing its own thing like they always are and so were not competing for the same crowd.

Its successful mostly because of hype and taking advantage of others mistakes, and not for its own blockbuster library- on which we are still waiting for that greatness.

But the better question would be, [not just you but others who thinks PS4 doesn't have games] what games are you looking for exactly on PS4? While I can't speak for the others, I been enjoying my PS4 since launch and with pretty good exclusive games such as:

• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Infamous: Second Son
• Onechanbara Z2: Chaos
• Bloodborne
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection [got it as a Christmas gift]
• Rocket League
• Until Dawn
• SOMA

Of course, Xbox One had some okay games but Rare Replay was the only, only exclusive game I totally enjoy and played the most of 2015 then Halo 5.

Microsoft screwed up the initial debut of the Xbox One which allowed Sony to capitalize off of the early backlash against the Xbox One's debut.

Even though Microsoft has now corrected pretty much all of their early mistakes and has been more pro-consumer and working harder to improve their product than Sony as of late, first impressions are everything and it is very difficult to make a comeback from a bad first impression like the Xbox One had. To this day, I still come across people that think the Xbox One still has to always be online and can't play used games.

And as ShadowDeathX mentioned, there is also the social domino effect. The PS4's cheaper price and the Xbox One's bad first impression led to the PS4 getting an early lead and now because of that, one reason that the PS4 will continue to sell well no matter what is simply because people will buy the PS4 because their friends already have a PS4.

Nah my issue is that I also have a PC (and a vita and a Wii U). Hense the "Unique" which there is nothing much of, so far the PS4 seems like a discount notebook more then anything. My issue is not that I need a new hobby, my issue is that gaming IS my hobby and such I have multiple platforms.

@khoofia_pika: Hear Hear!

Because Xbox messed up at their e3 announcement and have been trying to recover ever since. Sony pretty much catered to everyones xbox hate

It won the hype/marketing war before the consoles launched. Microsoft blundered through their first presentation and the price announcement. They also took the unpopular stance on used games and even tried a console-level DRM. Sony capitalized on this and gained a sizable lead in hype by the market.

The worst part of the launch for the Xbox One was the price. It was $500 while the PS4 was coming in at $400. The Xbox One was bundled with a mostly unwanted Kinect unit that drove the price up. Considering most of the first year titles were multiplats, the $100 cheaper price was very appealing.

Post launch the woes continued for Microsoft. Their library was thin, the console had a dreadful UI, there were some slight controller issues, XBL was and is still not as great of a value as PSN (even if PSN is now a paid service), and the console was proven to be less powerful (which hurts it's hype on the internet). There also seems to be less exclusives coming for the device and the Halo, Forza, Gears franchises aren't as powerful as Microsoft was hoping. The Xbox 360 got big off of multiplatforms with Call of Duty leading the way. The PS4 has the edge in that department now and that's going to always haunt the Xbox One.

Sony didn't really have to do much to get the lead. Microsoft kind of buried themselves early on. They changed up their management and have been salvaging the Xbox One ever since. Sony has had a few knocks against them too with the PSN outages over Christmas.

In my eyes, the reason PS4 is winning because there is no real competition. And because the PS4 looks the best looking out of all of them.

Pretty much says it all. MS screwed up more than Sony doing anything. All Sony had to say was "can play used games & $400" that was enough.

Microsoft's unwarranted arrogance in pre-release marketing, much like Sony's with the PS3. Hell, they even had their own version of "two jobs" comment with the "get a 360 if you want offline." Charging $100 more for a slightly weaker machine definitely had it's effect too.

@italygamer: it seems to me game consoles have their dedicated "bases", then a group of "independents" who go with the the flow.

The PS4 launched with better hardware at the same price point. Sony folks flocked to it. Independents, who flip one gen to the next, saw a console that was more powerful at the same price. The value added features of XB1 have not, to date, really overshadowed or equaled the hardware performance difference (even though, IMO, the difference is a little exaggerated).

So, this gen is Sony fans + independents vs. Microsoft fans. Given that there are more Sony fans than MS fans overall; it's no wonder why the PS4 is out selling the XB1.

from what i see im very interested in ps4 exclusive so far.
pc+ ps4 is what you need in this generation

Sony could have easily charge PS4 $500 at launch if they wanted to. Sony got away with the PS3 being $600 as they already had tens of millions of loyal fans and despite whatever the Xbox One situation could have been good or bad, Sony knew they have loyal fans to support them, even if PS4 were to be price at $500, Sony was gonna win, one way or another. But yes, back in 2013, MS did the work for Sony and Sony all they had to do is just play it cool.

MS got a shady image with the way they released the 360 with faulty hardware RRoD. Then they wanted to require DRM, No used games allowed on other X1s, require an internet connection to play the X1 etc. Sony played it cool and took advantage of MS's (shooting themselves in the foot) they made an affordable PS4 that is the best hardware, good online PSN, and importantly didn't do things to look bad to the gaming world like MS did.

Halo games are old now. Gamers are into other games. Halo used to help sell Xbox's, but not any more.

I disagree. I don't think the sales would have been nearly as high at $500. The PS3's sales were noticeably slow and I think the PS4 would have been no different at $500. At least at $600 back in 2006 you got a blu-ray player and full BC with the PS2 and PS1 and also had free multiplayer. That really helped drive early sales. The PS3's were expensive but had a lot more value. The PS4 didn't have BC, blu-ray playback wasn't really a big deal anymore (since Netflix and other streaming services took over), and you have to pay $50 a year for PSN to play online.

$400 is the most people on a large scale were willing to pay for that. That's partly why the Xbox One did so poorly.

Sony bet on a large early following as it would help the whole "domino effect" of gamers. If you get get a lead early it's easier to keep it as people are far more likely to purchase the console that their friends have. If Sony would have launched at $500 their initial sales would have been lower and I think the race would be much closer than it is today.

Do they play multi plats?

PS4 - Yes

Xbox one - Yes

Exclusives?

PS4 - Yes

Xbox one - No

Power?

PS4 - Yes

Xbox one - No

Diverse library of genres?

PS4 - Yes

Xbox one - No

I'm only concerned about my tastes and just like everything else in life, I purchase items that I think are the best fit for me. I would rather not state my personal opinion on the matter, simply because I do not care(just like I don't care why Apple phones are so popular for instance)

But I will just say this, The question you are asking TC, not even the Playstation execs know the answer, I remember a few months ago there was a story stating they don't even know who is buying all those PS4(something along those lines, my memory could be fuzzy on that).

@Wasdie: This is all spot on. Very poor early PR for the X1, significant price point advantage for PS4, and the resulting domino effect.

Check the library again, you glossed over a huge deficit of games on one of the machines. The PS4 has a 300+ game library advantage over the Xbone. More exclusives, more games at retail, and more digital games. That gap has only been growing, and with great games according to metacritic.

That is why the PS4 is trumping the competition. Games.

Another few reason is the multiplatform advantage between consoles as well as the PS4 has more juice under the hood. The Xbone reveal was also very poor (huge blunder), and finally the price point in the beginning was in the PS4's favor in the early days. The PS4 launched at $399 which was a crucial pricepoint vs. the early Xbone + Kinect price of $500.

That said, this generation isn't my favorite by a long shot and I bought all three machines at launch (Wii U 2012, Xbone/PS4 2013).

All of this is untrue.

The Xbox One has plenty of exclusives, and is about to get even more of those.

The PS4 has more powerful hardware, yes, but the Xbox One is not exactly a weak system either.

The Xbox One has a pretty diverse library (and it's bound to get even more diverse, considering the games that are about to be released in the next couple of years).

antidepressants and lack of judgement

@Random_Matt: What Matt said. The best of everything that equal to the best sales, because gamers are smart.

The only thing on that list he had right was power but both consoles are weak with the X1 being slightly weaker in terms of what we see on screen.

It was "slightly" better than the ps4 upon release which has made the ps4 get more popular, which has allowed more focus to be put on it and so the gap grew and grew.

If we're talking about sales, our "gamers" point of view greatly differs with the biggest chunk of people who buy a console.

For most people, I believe, it's all a matter of word-to-mouth and how successfully those gaming companies push their prodcuts on the media.
I remember as a kid/teen, I wanted to buy a ps1/ps2 so badly because that's all people/friends and media talked about. Overtime I realized that I liked gaming and wanted to explore more into this world, so I started to look for info around, buying magazines (when the internet wasn't a big thing yet) and later on reading reviews online and registering to forums like this one.
I don't think things have changed much now, except for the vehicle people get their information from, and as someone stated here, social networks play a big role in this day and age.

Now, the so called "true gamers", those who really are deeply interested in the gaming world represent a very important slice of the whole gaming population, but the biggest slice is taken by those who don't look that deep into the details, so as long as they're buying a console that is not too expensive and can play Call of Duty (or whatever popular game), then they're fine with it. The casual crowd is also the reason why the Wii sold so much, until smartphones and tablets got so popular that most of those people flocked to it, but among those there were also others who developed a greater interest in gaming and are now part of the "core" community. Therefore casual and non casual gamers coexistence is important for the industry to thrive and whatever company manages to successfully cater to both is the winner. Sony's been obviously doing it better than the competition.

The PS4 is succesful because most gamers are casuals who just want to play COD, Destiny, GTA & Sports games. The PS4 was cheaper than the Xbox One and the Xbox One had a bad reputation from launch so that's why people are gravitating to the PS4.

PS4 has 907 total games and 102 exclusives. Xbone has 499 total games and 38 exclusives.

When you say exclusives you are saying games that are PS4 only?

Yep and if we expand it to games only on Sony platforms the number rises to 200 total. This is excluding anything on PC.

^^^^^^^ THIS

MS did everything they could to shoot themselves on the foot.

*Announced games.

About half that are currently available

Sony cashed on XB1 reveal and launch

Right price point

Over hyped

Rabib fanboys helped aswell special helped xb1 hate bandwagon

Gaming media has helped loads aswell to the point not hiding the bias and pushing agenda