PS4 The Result of Deep Soul Searching,Eager Listening

It’s no secret that Sony‘s PlayStation brand comfortably led the console space during the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 eras. The brand name actually became synonymous with videogames at some point for the outside world, but something went wrong with PlayStation 3, at least initially. There were many reasons for this, but ultimately the result was a disappointing start for the third home console created by Sony, with gamers flocking to the main competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Not too long after, Mark Cerny started planning PlayStation 4. For the first time a Western designer led the new project, choosing to listen to developers and gamers alike. The results are well known today, with almost every single game studio praising PS4 and gamers still fighting to get one. Speaking with EDGE, in this week of special occasions (PS4 was announced one year ago, and today it’s finally launching in Japan, Sony’s homeland), Sony’s UK Marketing Director Fergal Gara shed some light on the process that the company went through in the transition from PS3 to PS4:

It’s the result of some deep soul searching, very hard work, eager listening – and some very clever people putting together a plan, and sticking to it

Indeed, this seems to be the case as Sony looked into itself and found the strength to rise back from a difficult situation, mainly due to the critical decision to actually treasure feedback since the very beginning of the new console project.

This is all paying off, with record breaking sales for consoles: as of 8th February, 5.3 million PS4 units were sold, and in a few hours there will be another boost thanks to Japan. Gara recalls the team’s amazement when the preorders didn’t drop over the Summer.

A week later [than E3] you’re thinking ‘well, it’ll settle down’… but it didn’t. We got into July and then August thinking ‘oh my God, these forecasts are rubbish – they’re just way too low.

We’re talking about numbers we’ve never seen before. We started from quite a conservative position because all of our reference points – the best part of 20 years in the business – are based on much lower numbers. Our worry was that we’d be unable to meet the production volumes.

But they did, even though PS4 is still in short supply. Considering that most of the biggest hits still have to drop, including Naughty Dog’s Uncharted, it seems safe to agree with the mockup image we featured above - the King has returned indeed.