By Nicole Campea
Sony’s PlayStation 4 has sold over 1 million consoles within 24 hours of being released on November 15, breaking their previous record sales.
The console retails for $399 in Canada, and is only available at selected retailers including EB Games, The Source, Toys ‘R’ Us, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Future Shop, Sony, and various online retailers like Amazon, eBay and GameStop.
Justin Amirkhani, a Toronto-based game developer, told Humber News he is not surprised with the success that the PlayStation 4 has had in its first hours on shelves.
“The market has been waiting a long time for new consoles,” Amirkhani said. “The price point is reasonable, and Microsoft’s poorly received policies, messaging blunders, and more expensive price tag for the Xbox One, drove pre-orders for the PS4 an estimated two to four times higher than its competition.”
Microsoft is releasing its Xbox One for suggested retail price of $499, which is $100 more expensive than the Playstation 4.
Amirkhani constantly keeps up to date with gaming trends and news, but is still unsure whether he will purchase a PlayStation 4.
PlayStation 4 is Sony’s first new video game console in seven years.
Anthony Foster, an employee at EB Games, told Humber News the store has started a waiting list for when their new shipment of consoles comes in.
“The amount of calls that we are getting is outrageous,” Foster said. “We get at least 100 calls a day asking if we have any available to buy.”
Foster said he’s gotten one return since the release date, and that console went to the next person who was on top of the waiting list.
“We had a midnight launch, so tons of people lined up outside our store to buy the console at midnight,” he said. “Then when I got to work in the morning, there were a few hundred more waiting for us to open. We didn’t even have close to enough consoles for everyone in line to buy.”
George Paravantes, Multimedia Design and Development coordinator at Humber College, told Humber News expectations for the PlayStation 4 were set high even before its launch because of the new lead architect announcement.
Mark Cerny is the lead architect for the Playstation 4, and took six years to create the new model.
“It is the next generation gaming console from Sony,” Paravantes said. “It has been totally reengineered from both a software and hardware perspective.”
Paravantes said he was surprised at the number of consoles sold in 24 hours, but he said it’s an indication the gaming console market is still a viable game platform.
Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO, Jack Tretton is predicting three million consoles sold by the end of 2013.
The console is only available in the US and Canada right now, but is being released in Europe on November 29, and Japan on February 22 2014. Sony is looking at a target of five million consoles at those launches.