Sony PS 5 is in short supply, and the console King of Glory is expected to sell more than 300 million units in the end

A digital product that is not a financial product is definitely not a good game console.

Sony PS 5 has achieved this. Not only is it currently being snapped up on major platforms around the world, it is also extremely difficult to find in China, with scalper prices reaching nearly 10,000 yuan.

Having dominated the global console game market for decades, Sony's success no longer requires any verbal "Versailles" boasting. Data from VGChartz shows that global shipments of PS4 have exceeded 110 million units, more than twice that of its rival Xbox One series.

How Sony Became the King of Consoles

When each next-generation console comes out, there are netizens who are keen to compare the configuration differences between different consoles, and then start to recommend products with higher configurations. For example, the floating-point computing power of the PS 5 is 1.875 TFLOPS lower than that of the Xbox Series X, and public opinion immediately tilted.

It is true that since game consoles need to run various 3A masterpieces in a long product cycle, powerful configuration is a strong guarantee for game operation. But it cannot be ignored that game consoles are highly integrated products, and the ultimate product orientation is "gaming experience". If consumers only pursue configuration, then they don't have to consider game consoles. Isn't it good to buy an "RTX 3090" and watch quietly?

In fact, since PS1, Sony’s product orientation has never been to take the lead in performance indicators, but has always been based on the "best gaming experience" as the criterion. On PS5, we can also see many product features guided by this.

In terms of core configuration, the PS5's solid-state drive has a read and write capacity of 5.5GB/s, while the Xbox Series X has a capacity of 2.4GB/s, which means that the game startup and transition time of the PS5 will be faster than that of the Xbox Series X. This configuration advantage for experience is definitely not something that can be matched by a little bit of floating-point computing power that is formally increased.

The handle will directly transmit the gaming experience. Sony has added many features to enhance the sense of presence on the new PS5 handle Dual Sense. For example, the "adaptive trigger" function can give different force feedback according to different game states. When actually experiencing Sony's "Astro Robot Playroom", if we draw the bow, the L2 button of Dual Sense can simulate the linear elasticity of the bowstring, giving players the illusion of being in the game. In the future, with the rapid popularization of PS 5, I believe that third-party game manufacturers will also bring more surprises to consumers based on these features.

The configuration of PS 5 is definitely in the first tier of game consoles, but unlike Xbox Series X, PS 5 is more "watered down", more focused on the actual use of the product, and does not skimp on configuration in areas that can significantly enhance the gaming experience. Considering that the prices of PS 5 and Xbox Series X are almost the same, it is not surprising that PS 5 was snapped up by consumers after its release.

Content is the key to success for game consoles

Although the PS 5 is a new gaming platform, the PS 4, which is in service and has a brilliant reputation, has determined that it will inherit and carry forward the brand and content accumulation accumulated before it goes on the market. There is no reason for Sony not to use this unique brand advantage to help the growth of the PS 5.

From the user's perspective, PS 4 has laid a solid foundation for PS 5. According to Sony's official introduction, PS 5 will be compatible with more than 4,000 PS 4 games. This kind of inheritance means that more than 100 million PS 4 users will prefer PS 5 rather than Xbox Series X when updating their devices.

We saw this first-mover advantage at the beginning of the PS 5 pre-orders. Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, once said: "The number of pre-orders for PS 5 in the first 12 hours of pre-orders in the United States was equivalent to the sales of PS 4 in the first 12 weeks after its launch."

Secondly, PS 5 will continue the strategy of exclusive games from the PS 4 era. At the press conference in June, 9 of the 28 games Sony introduced were exclusive to the PS platform, and the other 14 were also limited-time exclusives.

This is not to say that Sony's exclusive games will definitely meet the expectations of all consumers, but Sony's exclusive games are often a symbol of high quality. According to statistics, from 2012 to 2019, three Sony games, "The Last of Us", "Uncharted 4" and "God of War", won the TGA "Game of the Year" award in succession, while Xbox's exclusive games have never even been nominated.

NOWRE's survey data shows that 90% of people would choose PS 5 over Xbox Series X, and 33% of them are attracted by Sony's exclusive games. This shows that this exclusive game resource is actually a killer weapon for PS 5 to leverage market demand.

Two-way circulation continues the legend of Dafa

Since PS 4, Sony has basically completed the task of "conquering the world" in the console game market. Before the advent of the cloud gaming wave, the role of PS 5 is more of a link between the past and the future. While allowing the console market to move forward steadily, it can also steadily cultivate user usage habits in the cloud gaming era.

From the perspective of product strategy, Sony did not attack on all fronts, but instead narrowed its front line, allowing PS 5 to focus on "games" itself and build a gaming position with high barriers through the abundant content and time-tested product concept of PS 4.

This is exactly the same as many successful business experiences. For example, many people criticize the iPhone for not supporting cutting-edge technologies such as fingerprint recognition, super fast charging, and 100-megapixel cameras, but the iPhone, which focuses on being a "humanized phone", can still be highly recognized by the market.

From this, we find that PS 5 is also building a two-way cycle of "humanized hardware + immersive experience + high-quality games". In this cycle, the PS 5's targeted optimized hardware can bring users a unique gaming experience, and on this basis, exclusive games, backward compatibility and other content features, in turn, inject strong and long-lasting vitality into the gaming experience.

It can be said that the biggest focus of Sony's PS game console is no longer the superficial configuration at the hardware level, but has turned to the specific use at the emotional level. This product realm that is closer to consumer concepts actually indicates that PS 5 will dominate the user's console game platform in a wider range. Based on this optimistic situation, Rakuten Securities analyst Norio Nakayama boldly predicted: "In the next five to six years, Sony PS 5 may sell 200 to 300 million units."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.