PlayStation 4 poised to hit 80 million, says analyst

Sony's latest console could prove as popular as the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 before it, according to multi-year predictions made by consultancy firm Strategy Analytics.

Sony-PlayStation-4-Photo-AFP

Sony's latest console could prove as popular as the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 before it, according to multi-year predictions made by consultancy firm Strategy Analytics.

The firm foresees an emphatic victory for the PlayStation 4, if indeed the home console manufacturers can be said to still be engaged in war only with each other.

Looking ahead to 2019, Strategy Analytics anticipates 80 million PlayStation 4s sold through to customers, in comparison to 57 million sales for Microsoft's Xbox One.

Using existing data for legacy consoles as well as more recent numbers for newer machines, the firm's report has first-year sales for the PlayStation 4 closely matching those of the 2000s' PlayStation 2, with 18.5 million units shipped to stores relative to the PS2's 20.1m figure.

By contrast, the Xbox One's first year on sale saw 12.4 million consoles sent to retailers, playing into Strategy Analytics' prediction of a 40% margin between PS4 and XBO unit sales by 2019.

Initial uptake of the Nintendo's Wii U is comparable to that of Nintendo's pre-Wii GameCube, the Connected Home Devices report suggests.

Even so, the Wii U is now far better developed in terms of software library: having released in 2012,a good year before the PS4 and XBO, 2014 saw a clutch of critically acclaimed titles, -- 'Mario Kart 8,' 'Bayonetta 2,' 'Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker,' 'Donkey Kong

Country: Tropical Freeze' and 'Super Smash Bros.' -- leading to confident statements from company executives.

But the gaming landscape has changed since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were launched.

Not only have online retailers such as Steam, Amazon, and other dedicated sellers made PC gaming much more budget-friendly with regular deep discount sales, but mobile technology and uptake has advanced considerably.

The first iPhone was released in 2007, with Google and its partners making Android devices available the following year.

A game like 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic,' which made its debut on Xbox in 2003 to a rapturous and genre-defining reception, was re-released for iPad in 2013, with an Android version in 2014.

In fact, even more recent major console and PC releases like 'XCOM: Enemy Unknown' (2012) have been rereleased on iOS and Android almost intact.

And mobile gaming has caught up to the consoles in another big way: if it took the Xbox One the best part of a year to clear 10 million sales, the iPhone 6 managed it in a weekend.