Though the slimmer, lighter PS Vita — and its upcoming North American release — was squarely in the spotlight of this week’s PlayStation Showcase, PS4 wasn’t left behind. Today, I caught up with Sony Computer Entertainment America Marketing Vice President John Koller for a status check on PS4’s global rollout – an especially relevant topic, with the Japanese PS4 debut less than two weeks away.
| PlayStation.Blog: Can you share any updates on PS4’s global sell-through? |
| John Koller: The response has been fantastic. In the US, PS4 was #1 in sales for next-gen consoles in January, nearly doubling the nearest next-gen competitor. And PS4 remains the cumulative leader here based on today’s report from the NPD Group.
Globally, we announced last month that we’ve sold through more than 4.2 million units as of the holiday season, making PS4’s launch the biggest in console gaming history. I think the PS4 demand is indicative of how we’ve tapped into something special – and that’s that gamers want to be recognized for their greatness and want to enjoy experiences together. We’re looking forward to what 2014 has to offer, starting with inFAMOUS Second Son next month, Destiny in the fall and The Order 1886 later in the year . There will be lots more games to come too – more than 100 total in North America this year. |
| PSB: How’s the PS4 supply chain holding up to demand, especially with the Japanese launch in just a few weeks? |
| JK: Since we launched on November 15th, we’ve sold every PS4 available in the US. It’s clear that PS4 is seeing strong appeal all over the world, and we’ll continue doing our best to provide additional inventory in all of the 53 countries where PS4 is available. We’ve got supply refreshing throughout the channel regularly, so I encourage everyone to check in with their local retailers regularly. |
| PSB: How are PS4 owners taking to PlayStation Plus? |
| JK: I’ve been a bit taken aback by the explosion of PlayStation Plus memberships, where we’ve seen more than 90% growth since PS4’s launch. Instant Game Collection is a big hit, with gamers sharing their experiences across Resogun, Contrast, Don’t Starve and now Outlast. PS Plus members are not only discovering great games on PS4, they’re also playing together online, logging a total of 172 million hours. It’s a great start, we’re delighted, but clearly we’ll continue to work on making PlayStation Plus the best value in gaming.
Engagement for PS4 is through the roof in general, though. More than 90 percent of PS4s in the US are connected online already. PS4 is clearly helping to define a broader cultural shift centered on social connections and sharing. We’ve tapped into something special here with PS4 – and while it’s easy to look at the incredible topline demand, the engagement numbers are equally revealing. This is the beginning of something big. |
| PSB: How about the Share button? Are players embracing livestreaming, video capture and image sharing of gameplay? |
| JK: What people love about playing games are all of the great moments you experience; that’s what you remember long after you’ve played through a title. During PS4’s development, we knew we wanted to take that a step further by connecting players socially and emotionally, which is why we made it easy for gamers to celebritize themselves with Live from PlayStation. Livestreaming has really picked up steam, with 1.7 million gameplay broadcasts via Twitch and Ustream globally. Overall, the DualShock 4’s Share button is certainly getting a lot of action. More than 48 million “shares” have been captured globally, including millions of videos and photos shared via Facebook and Twitter, which proves that the desire to show off your accomplishments has become a cherished and regular behavior in gaming. |
| PSB: Exporting gameplay videos is a promising feature, but the editing process is currently a bit limited. Down the road, will there be more ways to add post-production to PS4 Share videos? |
| JK: We’re just scratching the surface of the potential of PS4. We know that there’s a lot we can do to expand the available toolset for editing, but I don’t have anything specific to announce right now. We’re constantly looking at ways to improve the system and are seriously evaluating various areas of enhancement for PS4. |
| PSB: On that note, PS4’s latest software update 1.6 brought long-awaited official headset compatibility. Do you have a sense of features that might be included in an upcoming update and approximately when they might happen? |
| JK: Nothing to share for now, but I can say that we are listening carefully to feedback from our fans. But on the headset point, I do hope that PS4 gamers are enjoying the new Gold Headset. It was developed specifically to emphasize the audio that developers place in their games – and because it’s from PlayStation, gamers know that this is how their games were meant to sound. |
Extremely pleased with my PS4s (Got two of ’em in my home). Of course there’s always room for improvement.
Would to see the share/record function completely fixed and the addition of Dynamic themes on PS4. Dynamic themes would be freakin’ amazing on the PS4 imo.
Oh…and 8 track support 8)
Thank you
I’ve had my PS4 for a little over a week now, and the only thing that I don’t like about it is the total lack of organization. There is no way at all to group content. It made me realize that the great thing about the PS3 is the XMB. Why has the XMB become obsolete with the PS4? Anyway, I really hope you guys are planning to do something about this with a future update. At least give us a way to group content, or what would really be great would be to have the option of an XMB.
Congrats on getting #1! Can we expect to see PS2 tier takeover this gen? I hope so!
Also, the blog looks different? I can’t figure what it is.
Very nice PlayStation ! … It was very hard to watch the ps3 struggle throughout most of it’s life cycle … The PS4 is doing stellar… I can’t wait to see what the E3 showing will be
Has HDCP been removed for video game video/sound output yet?
Would like to actually have raw footage that I can edit on a PC without having to finagle a bypass.
With the playstation 3 one can enjoy music from their computers or upload MP3 data, right? Well, that’s one of the features I loved the most about Sony’s video game systems is that I could stream or download videos to my playstation. Is it possible that there will be an update for supporting music and video from my computer?
My other question is: will there be old playstation games for sale- or will “Playstation Now” be the only option available for older games?
Suspend/Resume is sorely needed.
I use it all of the time on my Xbox One, and it is awesome to have. To be able to simply shut my game down right in the middle of it, do whatever I gotta do, and simply turn the system back on and be instantly and exactly where I left off is amazing.
It makes me play a game even when I know I won’t have long to play because I won’t have to possibly sacrifice my progress because I’m out of time. I can turn it off and know I won’t be “back at a save point” or something like that, but I’ll be exactly where I should be. It’s brilliant.
Why Sony touted this feature so much early on, missed launch with it, and hasn’t barely mentioned it since is baffling.
I know, i know, as with so many promised features, it’s coming, but where is it and when can we expect it?
*Awaits the usual “we’re working on it” response*
Yes, I am excited about Strider, Infamous, MLB, etc., but what PS4 desperately needs is:
DLNA support, MP3 support, MP4 support, Photo/JPEG/PNG/GIF support, Bluetooth Mic. support, ability to download Sony Unlimited videos, not just stream them (worse quality), Avatars (premium) and themes/wallpapers would be nice too. As for Youtube, well you can watch it via the web browser on PS4 for those who don’t already know…
I was using my PS4 last night and I’m still shocked at how much faster moving around that system is. I love it!
The one thing I’d like to see improved is if you could increase the volume more when you have a headset plugged in through the controller. Even when maxed out, it sounds too quiet.
Same old junk excuses. Nothing to share right now they always say. Its always nothing to share but false sales numbers. I bought a ps4 last month, had it a day and returned it after almost every game I played off plus and free to play had slow downs and screen tear. After seeing that I right away packed it up and returned it the very next day. I have ps3’s and a vita and was mad it had no mp3 or cd support. No way to customize the home screen as the xmb can have dynamic themes and be customized yet a 400 dollar dust collector that is countless times stronger than ps3 can’t? Or at least they SAY its more powerful. Not sure to believe that with all the limited and delayed games and delayed FEATURES. Xbox one is owning you left and right in everything right now.
All we get is…. Nothing at this time…. Then a repeat of sales numbers that is actually a lie. We don’t care what you sale, we care about getting value for what we buy or else it gets returned for refunds as I did. How many more delays are impound last second huh? You idiots always last second delay stuff on purpose so that preorders aren’t canceled. You guys are the biggest cons in business. Constantly lie to us consumers. Whats next? Another delay on ps4 games like infamous last second. Delays in ps4 updates last second and delayed out till the end of 3050. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. You had the rep of delaystation3 and now you’re earning the rep of delaystation4. So sick of waitimg for everything but yet you sure get those hype sale #’s out on time. Jerks!
Also while I’m at it… Hurry up and get the update people off their butt and get rid of this stupid idiot limit of 100 bubbles on vita. Can’t have no more than 100 apps or games on vita. What is up with that junk? Get rid of that junk. You have had 2 freaking years now since vita has been out and we are still stuck with a 100 bubble limit. Just ridiculous if you ask me. Then everyone has been yelling yearly at your team to give us a download list sorting tool to sort thousands of our purchases easier to find things in our download list and now ps4 is now here and even on ps4 we still can’t sort our download list or on vita either. Wow how stupid is your team. You know were complaining now get off your butt and fix these things instead of wasting our time with sale numbers. We don’t care! Only your sony fan boys care.
One more thing…. Go ahead like you always do and delete my comments and block me from the blog for voicing my right to constructive criticism as you always do. I’ll just have to make another psn account to post on here again for the thousandth time. I guess I hit nerves at the blog team a lot lol. If you listen to our complaining and actually fix this stuff we complain about on here 24/7 I wouldn’t have to complain like this now would I? NO! We get sick and tired of this to.
On xbox one they can do so much more features than ps4. Split screen multitasking, aka can play a game and watch tv at the same time or play a game and have Skype going in full 1080p video. Play games and surf the web at the same time or heck, be playing xbox one games and then ps4 games on the same screen to. They can customize their home screen to their liking, they can change it colors and heck they even have editing tools and cool features for their game record dvr feature and they also have suspend and resume working just as well as my vita does. Yet ps4 is so behind and yet hyped to be so much more powerful? Powerful? Where is its power? Where is its games? All I see is indie junk and ports from ps3. Where is full triple AAA titles made for ps4 that is NEW not ports from ps3. Been there done that. Tomb raider for example. Come on already! So far ps4 is a paper weight or dust collector. Ps3 has more features than ps4 heck even my vita has better features than ps4. This is a step backwards if you ask me.
Oh and before some fan boy calls me a troll that never owned a ps4 pr sony product and calls me a so called xbone fan attacking the blog… Or you say this account is fake and has no trophies so Im a troll. Did it ever cross your mind My main psn plus account of SLICK _T is banned or blocked from commenting on the blog. Thats right a plus member and been a plus member since day one and payed up till april 2016. I love my sony vita and the 4 ps3’s tjrough out my house that my kids and wife play on to but by god Im sick of waiting for features we ask for for vita, ps3 and now ps4 to never get implemented and delay after delay. It gets old. All lies and delays. So sick of it. I have invested over 3 grand on psn network and so my voice will be heard no matter how much the blog team tries to shut me up by blocking my comments or deleting them. Start listening to the complainers for once.
I can’t wait for the ability to upgrade my sub-account to a master account so I can use the share features. I am anxiously awaiting Sony to allow this feature so I can get full use of my PS4.
Are you guys ever going to give El Gato the okay so I can use my game capture device?
@slick quit complainin
@hoju99
Stop complaining at my complaining!
Please add Video and mp3 playback from USB and Windows media share option available on PS4.
I would not like to get a downgrade when I go from PS3 to PS4. Video playback is something very basic and PS4 should not lack that.
Looks like sid has not replied. Looks typical, sell and forget.
I’d like to chime in. One common issue is the remote play with Vita for me. I frequently use a wireless keyboard plugged into the ps4. If I forget to unplug it before going out I can’t connect to the ps4 at all remotely or locally. It has to be unplugged. If you could look at this at the very least I’d be immensely grateful.
Wonderful! I appreciate the response and apology.. I look forward to an update on the issue even if small :)
We need MP3 SUPPORT, and a MEDIA SERVER. 2 simple things PS3 had, that there’s no excuse PS4 doesn’t have. I used media server alot to stream movies to my PS3 on the bigger tv, I can’t believe I can’t do that on my PS4. I understand you guys want to get some big early adoption numbers for Music & Video Unlimited, but this isn’t the way an upstanding company goes about it. This is something I’d expect from Microsoft, though X1 has cd playback, media server, and mp3 support. This is one of the dark clouds over PS4’s head right now, and despite people not mentioning it nonstop, it is a big one.
Keep up the great work. Nice to see PlayStation back in the pole position, and getting every game under the sun. Having one console to rule them all is what made gaming great during the PS2 era, and is what gaming really needs to take the medium to the next level.
Now, a couple of things I think are a requirement to keep this momentum going, and build a bigger lead.
-MP3, AAC, Pandora, Sirius, ect.
(People want functionality, and choice. Having Music Unlimited as the only integrated solution for playback would be fine, but give people the options they want.)
-3D, Video, Photo, E-Books, Comics
(Again people want choices, the more content they can access the more potential they have to invest in your platform)
-Streaming and External Storage
With the Cloud TV service coming to the US Sony has the opportunity to truly change the living room experience. The PS4 could be the only device you need hooked to your TV. This is the spark that has the potential to set the company on fire, and bring Sony back to its former dominance.
DON’T LET US DOWN.
I wanted Pause/resume download file please.
I left with the impression that the PSN Plus game for April will be DriveClub as the release date is 31.03.2014 could someone confirm that DriveClub will still have a PSN Plus edition ?
Also About future firmware support i really will be happy to see the media playback which was possible on PS3 to be available on PS4 as well which mean DLNA,mp3, xvid/avi, also support for 3rd party apps will be great as well as software for installing of applications, also a file browser will be great to have.
LoL you sure do got the complaining thing dowm Slick … Mad much bro ? Why not just go and enjoy that nice XB1 you like so much ? If PS4 isn’t doing it for you? Just a thought
Important updates that could be used :)
– Ability to mass delete Notifications. I get a lot of them and I know they filter away after so many days but sometimes the system likes to re-notify me of every single one…
– Ability to sort or search the Download list. I think I have over a thousand downloads. I know I can search to the title in the store but sometimes I don’t even remember fully what I have!
– Ability to adjust individual volumes in Party Chat. Some friends are louder than others. A more obvious way to join a friends game would be good as well.
– Video recording does not always seem to record or records the wrong segment. I have lost a few videos that I would have loved to have but the system recorded just a screenshot for some reason or the completely wrong set of experiences.
– Ability to Mute the Camera Mic indefinitely would be preferred.
– Sorting options for Trophies.
– Ability group / hide / or remove items from the main bar. Sure it moves pretty fast but there are quite a few things on there that I will probably never use and as my library grows it’s just going to get harder to find things.
– Ability to Navigate by voice to sub items such as Netflix.
– Also why is Netflix limited to stereo and not have 5.1 surround?
my suggestion is to have the shopper in the psn store be able to sort through the many year purchase/download list into
type — demo / avatar / add-on / games / movie (tv show)–
system –ps3 / ps4 / ps vita / ps mobile —
so it would be easier to find stuff when i want to find something, i dnt wanna scroll down the 300+ downloads ive acquired to find something. i want to re-download that i took off more more space or accidentally deleted & make it easier to find when i want to put it back on my PlayStation if if i get a new 1 or have space for the game i havent played on a while (6 months-2 yrs)
@ slick
I’ve been on PlayStation since the ps-one ive never had a problem with any of my systems the ps-one, ps3, ps4 & my vita (i never played on a ps2).
i actually look @ the sales #s from several different sources before id spout about the numbers being fake. Wheres ur info source on the over 4 mill ps4 units sold being fake
I personally dnt mind the 2-week to 6-month delay if the game company need to fix the the glitches, & make it a better game (or have more active unites b4 they release the game). I’ve noticed that most XBL gamers R inpatient children who want everything now.
the game u mentioned being ported from the ps3 to ps4 is also ported from the 360 to xbone all the ported games R across all systems not just PlayStation most 360 / ps3 games R 1st built on a 360 then ported over. The games built on ps3 / ps4 R built on that system just for that system no porting over. games in general R usually built on the weakest system (XBox) 1st then ported over to the others
If the PS4 outsells the X1 now each month in the USA i think SONY should say so on this Blog + Sorry i didn’t have any faith in SONY USA in them beating MS in the USA because they failed to do so with the PS3. Well done SONY USA anyway :P
@ carl-G
the NA is 1 SMALL part of of the global market i rather look at global sales than just 1 area of the world
Congratz Sony ! Keep it going. PS4 deserve it. Even more if you´ll add those heavy requested features like DLNA, 3D Blu-Ray playback, MP3 support and so on. I pray to god that you will not destroy all the good will from gamers in the next few years. Playstation could become stronger then ever. Just listen to your fans (and neogaf.com).
All i wont to know is when are we going to see DLNA, 3D Blu-Ray playback, and MP3 support.
Good to hear things are going so well.
I know you have ‘no details to share’ but please work on getting the ability to upload videos to places other than youtube soon. As someone running a small website that features game reviews, having the ability to get video footage without having to use a capture card would make me able to produce much higher quality content than I’ve been previously able to.
It’d be a great feature to have, and ripping the videos off youtube is not really a good solution.
@Slick – make your feedback constructive, concise, and polite and the comments won’t be deleted. But I guess that’s really difficult, isn’t it?
will there be a future update so that when a friend signs on you get the pop up notification that they signed on? cant believe this feature was left out in the first place :(
Are we ever going to be able to DELETE trophy lists from our accounts?
Ask for password each time we want to delete one so no one can delete it willy-nilly.
That would be amazing, thank you!
You know what I want? I want everything. I want my PS4 to play PS1 games, PS2 games, PS3 games, PS4 games, Vita games, PSP games, home console games, portable games, board games, and even hide and seek with my kids. I want it to play music, movies, read my E-books to me, and rub my tummy after I’ve had a big meal. Speaking of meals, I want it to salt my food to my taste. Too many times there’s too much salt or not enough and I’m tired of having to get up and season my own food. I also want an auto-shutoff system because my electric bill’s too high. Where’s The Clapper feature? I want my PS4 to know I’m going to bed and turn itself off AFTER it turns off the TV, the lights, and double checks my doors to see if they’re locked. You think games are all we want from a gaming system? I said PSHAW! (see what I did there? PS-HAW?).
And don’t even ask me about what the PS5 had better do!
Seriously, what I want all PS4’s to do is automatically brick themselves if the owner *****es too much on a forum for a purchase THEY made knowingly…and put that clause in the EULA, Sony. Thank you for a great system time after time. I’ve been with you since the Playstation launched (I refuse to call it a PS1, it was called the Playstation) and i look forward to continue gaming with you for a long time to come.
I just want Sony to provide better music media support on the PS4, especially with physical media. Consumers should not be forced to use streaming services. They want choice.
Please respond to more of the comments.
Being a father who also has an exhaustive work schedule, it is EXTREMELY important for me to have the play/suspend function you mentioned that you would have with launch. This was actually a BIG reason I pre-ordered and bought my PS4. In fact, I have not been able to play killzone because of this, (I tried, but while the checkpoints are plentiful, the save points are not, and hence making it impossible for me to play). PLEASE PLEASE let me know when this feature is coming.
Thank you!!!!
You all will be waiting till 2016 or long for suspend and resume full feature. Go to xbox one they have had this feature since day one. They also have mp3 and cd player support. Full multitasking support unlike ps4. I’m waiting for a bundle to come out before I but Xbox one. I have 4 ps3’s through out the house, a vita and when I returned the ps4 I had bought last month a day after I bought it cause it didn’t impress me at all. I bought a newer xbox 360 and a year of live for just 40 bucks on amazons deals for a online digital code for live and did all that for under 300 bucks and am getting way more enjoyment out this 360 bundle of halo 4 and tomb raider than I did out that ps4 that was a 400 dollar paper weight and dust collector. Sorry but xbox 360 and xbox one is still better than ps4. Sad and true. They gotta get with the program and fast.
Kudos slick t. Sony consistently dodges the real questions. All I want to hear is a definite yes or no, or maybe even a time frame. On pausing downloads? A YouTube app? Playing and uploading my own music? Deleting the things I don’t want under the library and the tv and video section? What about the internet explorer, why do we have to delete the frequently used pages by checking off each box, eight at a time? That is just some of the real questions the consumers want to know, and I am sure all we will hear is crickets chirping.
The PS4 is better piece of hardware than the xbox 1, but the xbox 1 has more features that people want.
@ slick
STOP BURNING ON PSN PPL u go enjoy ur xbone & leave the ppl who have constructive semi-positive things to say talk in the room
the defective ps4 u got u should of called sony / psn (1-800-345-7669) & they would of sent u another 1 with any mass-produced item there’s a small % of defective
if u actually look @ the internal specs of the ps3/ps4 & XB 360/one the ps3 & ps4 have a higher ended structure the multitasking take up ram & actually slows dwn ur system. I personally prefer to have my DVR hooked directly into my TV & MS didnt really future tech-ed there systems the ps4 has been future tech-ed. Going by MS sources there going to pull the optical drive (bluray) in the 2nd gen of the xb1 to make it cheaper. it basically throws out the all in one system that microsoft is pushing the XB1 to be
@ hahpurr
Sony basically built ALL PlayStations to be a GAMING system 1st then plan(ed) on releasing other things like youtube mp3 player, netflix / hulu @ a later date.
To me theres only 2 things thats important in a gaming system:
1) can i play games on it above everything else.
2) can i game with my friends, same system or online.
everything else isn’t important.