PlayStation Boss Says “First-Party Lineup is a Little Sparse” in 2015, Thinks E3 2015 Will Be An “Exciting Show” (Update)

Update:

GameSpot uploaded slides from Sony’s 2015 Investor Relations Day, offering further insight into what House was talking about. One particular slide lists an image of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End in their Fiscal Year 15 plans, suggesting it will be released before April 1, 2016.

You can see the slides in the gallery below.

Original Story:

Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House spoke at Sony’s 2015 Investor Relations Day today, reiterating that the PlayStation 4 is “the fastest selling hardware platform in our history” (currently sitting at 22.3 million worldwide), and is currently exceeding growth expectations.

In fact, House said Europe is the strongest market for the PS4, and outside of Europe, “I think we’re almost approaching an 80% market share of next generation in many of these territories.”

To help continue their success, House brought up next year’s Project Morpheus launch, further cost reduction efforts, and quality software.

While their software lineup this year will likely expand following E3 next month, Sony is lacking a big exclusive title this holiday now that Uncharted 4 is delayed until Spring 2016. During his talk today, House admitted their first-party lineup is a bit lacking this year:

We are working very hard to continue very strong support from third-party pubs and devs. Our first-party lineup is a little sparse this year, so I think this places even greater emphasis on getting good third-party support.

Highlighting that third-party exclusives are “few and far between” these days due to “publishing dynamics and development costs,” House pointed towards their deal with Capcom that makes Street Fighter V a PlayStation 4 console exclusive as third-party support.

Other ways in which Sony has offered good third-party support is through exclusive content for titles like Destiny. According to Sony’s Fergal Gara, this year will also see them treating Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky “as if it was from one of our internal studios.”

According to House, 2015 will be the “beginning of a harvest period for the PlayStation 4 platform,” with 2015 also the year of investment.

For those investments, he called out Project Morpheus, Powers season 2, the expansion of PlayStation Vue, and, according to Games Industry’s report on the event, a ‘continued re-architecture of its PlayStation Network with an eye toward increasing stability and reducing maintenance downtime.’

While things are going extremely well for the PS4, House noted that PS3 sales have decline due to its high price and the market shifting towards more connected console experience.

As for the PlayStation Vita, sales remain “strong and vibrant” in Japan and Asia, but a decline is expected in the United States and Europe this fiscal year. Then, when discussing a write-off of hardware components for the two, House referred to the PS Vita and PlayStation TV as “legacy platforms.”

Looking ahead to E3 2015 next month, House thinks it will be an “exciting show” where “we see the next generation of hardware really start to deliver great content and great experiences that, if not take full advantage of the platform, will take a lot more advantage than we’ve seen before.”

Referring to media reviews of Bloodborne that called it “the first proper next-gen title,” he hopes to see “more of these experiences emerging at E3.”