Sony sells 1 mn units of new PlayStation 4 gaming console

Sony Corp said yesterday that it had sold 1 million units of its new PlayStation 4 gaming console in the first 24 hours that it was available in the US and Canada.

Sony is counting on the console to kick-start a revival of its consumer electronics business. The PlayStation 4 went on sale on 15 November.

In a statement, Andrew House, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment, the unit of Sony which oversees PlayStation, said "sales remain very strong in North America."

"We expect continued enthusiasm as we launch the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Latin America on November 29," he said.

The company had announced earlier that it had received over 1 million advance orders for the console, though the initial sales figures came as Sony's opening shot in its battle against Microsoft Corp's Xbox One console, which will go on sale 22 November.

Sony is also hoping that its console can help build a platform for recovery at its money-losing consumer electronics operations.

Sony was aiming to sell 5 million PS4 units by the end of its fiscal year ending 31 March.

Robert W Baird & Co analyst Colin Sebastian told Reuters he expected 2.5 million to 3 million PS4 shipments in the fourth quarter in North America.

Both the PS4, priced at $399 in the US, and the Xbox One, which carries a price tag of $499, offer improved graphics for realistic effects and processors that allow faster game play as also a number of exclusive video games.

According to the company's projections, it would push out a total of five million PlayStation consoles by March of next year and if it would come to be true, it would beat sales of the PlayStation 3 in a similar time frame by approximately 1.5 million.

According to commentators, the PlayStation's success should help contribute to a turnaround in the console video-game market as a whole, which had slowed ahead of the big console launches from Sony and Microsoft this month.

PwC has projected a 4.2-per cent increase in worldwide game sales this year, as against last year's $24.93 billion to $25.98 billion, rising in 2014 to 6.4 per cent to $27.6 billion.

New consoles,are known to help the sales cycle and back in 2007, one to two years after the big launches of the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation 3, console video game sales jumped 28 per cent.

According to  PwC, the next few years would not see a big spike, but would continue to grow so long as Microsoft and Sony managed to sell at the same or higher levels as against previous console launches.