On a brief return to Britain, Sony Computer Entertainment’s president and chief executive Andrew House is full of bonhomie and bullishness. We meet at Sony's Soho HQ, on the verge of the UK launch. Any nervousness there may have been has apparently vanished thanks to the success of the machine’s US arrival on 15 November: 1m sold in a weekend.
“I’m more excited about this console launch than any of the ones we’ve done previously," he says. "The decision to slightly stagger the launches has played out extremely well for us, and I’m really pleased with our ability to deliver a good supply of consoles into the markets at launch. It’s shaping up, particular on the back of the US success, to be the biggest console launch in our history, and that has to make you feel very good.”

His confidence has since proved well-founded: 2.1m PS4s have sold in its first two weeks on the market (which is “record-setting”, according to House), and 250,000 units were shifted in 48 hours in the UK alone.
But a console launch is a fraught business, and post-launch, PS4s are hard to obtain for those who didn’t pre-order (as illustrated by the inflated prices for which they are changing hands on sites such as eBay). So, will Sony be able to restock the shops quickly?

House intimates that Sony is doing what it can: “The goal was to have a very good number for the initial launch – that was true of the US, and it’s also going to be true in Europe. The goal then will be to follow that up as quickly as possible, with another tranche of supply prior to Christmas. Then the plan is to keep our production at a sufficient state to at least, by and large, meet demand, if not fully address it.
"So I’d characterise it as being somewhat supply-challenged for the remainder of the calendar year, but hopefully we’ll be able to satisfy that pent-up demand as we get out to January and February. The comparative for me is that we sold 3.5m units of the PlayStation 3 in our first fiscal year – the launch through to the end of March – and the goal for the PlayStation 4 is to sell at least 5m units in that period.”
Hundreds of people queue outside the Sony store to purchase the Playstation 4 in Paris, France, 29 November 2013. EPA/IAN LANGSDON Photograph: IAN LANGSDON/EPABeyond launch games

But is House happy with the launch games line-up? The general consensus states that Microsoft outdid Sony on that score at least. He’s fairly candid: “Yes, a launch line-up is to a certain degree a statement of intent. But we’ve got two games right here which are great. Killzone: Shadow Fall has seen very significant sales during the first part of the US launch, which is very encouraging.
"I’m a big personal fan of Knack, because it’s my kind of game – so I stress that there is personal bias in there, and there’s the fact that I’m good friends with the guy who was responsible for creating it. I think it was a great statement of intent to have something in the launch line-up that was not only exclusive but also addresses a family audience, and is maybe easier to pick up and play.”

“Looking further out, we have Driveclub coming and Infamous. We took the decision with Driveclub to push its launch date out, because we want it to be a really great experience that carries the PlayStation 4 banner, and I’m confident that the guys are hard at work making sure that it does that. Within roughly the same period, I think you’ll see a really fantastic experience with Watch Dogs as well.”

The end of third-party exclusives?

With the exception of Watch Dogs, it’s clear that, at least during this stage of the PS4’s existence, Sony is relying heavily on its internal studios to provide the games we crave. So, have we seen the end of games published by third parties but exclusive to one console?
After all, the Xbox One, strikingly, has Capcom’s Dead Rising 3 exclusively. House says: “I wouldn’t write off the possibility of full exclusives. But what is equally resonant is the presence of some form of exclusive content within a multi-platform franchise.
"What’s more important is not to try and craft something that is just exclusive for the sake of it, but that takes full advantage of the PlayStation 4’s capabilities, in a way that perhaps isn’t possible for the competition. That’s something we’ll develop over time.”

The PlayStation 4’s cloud-gaming service, based on technology that Sony acquired when it bought Gaikai, could play a part in that. So when will that be fully up and running?
“We’re still on track for a 2014 launch of the commercial service. It’s a brand new proposition: we’re pioneering a different way to experience games, ie server-delivered from the cloud. And we’re taking a very gradual, step-by-step approach because, first and foremost, we want to ensure that it’s a good experience for consumers.”

And is the plan still to deliver backwards-compatibility via the cloud with Gaikai’s technology? “I’m not sure I look at it as backwards-compatibility; I look at it as a different way to offer PlayStation 3 gaming experiences – eventually to a much broader range of devices.
"So it starts with PlayStation 4, then it’s possible on PlayStation Vita, but eventually it will move out to things like smart TVs and other connected boxes.”
Sony Playstation 4 Photograph: Sony Computer Entertainment IncDifferentiation from the Xbox One

Design-wise, the PlayStation 4 makes much more sense than the PlayStation 3, which had developer-unfriendly proprietary architecture and a custom-designed, very expensive processor called Cell, as House acknowledges: “It was a strategic decision to have an architecture that was easier to develop for, that was easier to manufacture and which placed less of a financial risk and a financial burden on the company than was true of the PlayStation 3.”
But the downside of that decision was that under the bonnet, there’s very little to choose between it and the Xbox One. So, for those dithering about which console to buy, how would House differentiate the PlayStation 4 from the Xbox One?
“I’d point to price – which, as we’re still in straitened economic times, is going to be a key consideration for a lot of people. We’re very confident that our architecture, particularly around graphics performance, is really going to make our games sing on PlayStation 4 – even those that are multi-platform. And I think we’ve done a really nice job with the interface, and facilitating the social aspects around gaming, in a way that is seamless and very intuitive for people.
"So you can broadcast your own in-game experiences via Twitch, and I think we’re the only platform that has Facebook integration. That’s going to be a key differentiator.”

House also touches on philosophical differences between the companies, claiming that Sony’s remit with the PlayStation 4 reaches beyond hardcore gamers, and especially the online gamers who delight in flaming and trolling: “One of the things that [PS4 designer] Mark Cerny and I talked about a lot is how we could change the overall dynamic of what “connected via play” means. I appreciate that sounds rather vague and high-falutin.
"But does it have to be just around anonymous IDs, highly combative and based on trash-talking? Those are great experiences, and I’m not denying them, but wouldn’t it be great if we could have people connect in different ways, and allow us to broaden the audience as a result? So, having a network that’s based on your real name is really critical.
"I was talking about this with the folks at Facebook the other day: it just makes people behave in a different way online, and possibly makes the whole community a bit more welcoming. It makes it easier to find friends and like-minded players. That’s another core example of how we like to differentiate the platform.”

Finally, In his slightly roundabout, non-confrontational way, House acknowledges Sony’s message about the PlayStation 4 that has resonated most with gamers: that it’s a games console first and foremost, rather than some sort of media hub that also happens to run games: “Partly why we’re seeing such good momentum for PlayStation 4 is because people are recognising that it’s a best-in-class games platform.
"But at the same time, unlike PlayStation 3, it now comes fully baked with a suite of non-games entertainment services. That functions as the secondary reason for purchase. We’ve seen that being very powerful in the past, particularly regarding adoption by families – with PlayStation 2, you got a DVD player, and with PlayStation 3 it was a Blu-ray player.
"The primary purchaser will buy it for playing games. But it’s a great convincing mechanic, maybe, for other people in the family. And it gives you an opportunity for multi-usage within the same household.”
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