At PlayStation Experience 2016 this past weekend – which took place just over three weeks after the PlayStation 4 Pro debuted – Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida revealed that the system is selling very well so far, and it looks like more first-time buyers are picking up the Pro rather than the PS4 Slim.
Here’s what Yoshida said when he was asked if PS4 Pro is meeting or exceeding Sony’s sales expectations:
Yes, it’s selling very well. We were hoping that people who purchased a PS4 day one would upgrade to PS4 Pro, and people who have a 4K TV would see it as their console of choice.
We need more time to analyze the situation, but it seems that more people who are buying PS4 for the first time are choosing PS4 Pro. I think that’s driving a larger demand than we had anticipated. In many markets it’s sold out and hard to find.
Asked if PS4 Pro’s success might lead to more incremental hardware updates, Yoshida said “making PS4 Pro is not an easy thing to do,” as it’s carefully designed as a part of the PS4 ecosystem. He added, “So we don’t talk about future plans, but doing something like PS4 Pro takes a lot of effort. We are very happy with PS4 Pro, and we’re happy with the reaction and analysis of the games that have already come out.”
In Japan, PS4 Pro saw launch week sales of 65,200 units, but it dropped to 11,100 and 8,200 in the weeks following. In the UK, PS4 Pro sold over 40,000 units in its first week. We’ll know a little later this month if PS4 Pro’s launch helped the PS4 win November 2016 in the United States.
Although Sony hasn’t released sales figures for PlayStation VR yet, Yoshida noted that it’s “selling out pretty much everywhere,” and the reception has been “very, very strong.”
So far, the most surprising thing for Shuhei about the way people are using PSVR is how long they’re spending in virtual reality. He was expecting the intensity of VR to keep the playtime low, “but looking at the data, people are spending many hours on the system every day. So that’s a great thing to know.”
[Source: Digital Spy via WCCFTech]
