Sony Claims Nearly Half of N. American Console Market
Jan 29, 1998  (MULTIMEDIA WIRE, Vol. 5, No. 19) -- Sony Computer
Entertainment America, basking in the glow of Christmas '97 numbers,
said yesterday that PlayStation controls 49.2% of the console market
in N.  America and the company sees no reason to radically alter its
pricing strategy.   PlayStation will retail for $149 again this year,
COO Kaz Hirai said yesterday during a conference call with analysts.
New software releases will remain at $39.99, with some exceptions, and
older titles will retail for $19.99, VP of Sales Jack Trenton said.
Sony doesn't plan to add modem capabilities, which the forthcoming
CD-based 64DD peripheral will give N64. It will also not enter the
hand-held market, where Nintendo's Game Boy dominates. N64 market
share is about 41%, Sony said. Nintendo did not return calls by our
deadline.  While Sony would not divulge details about the platform's
150-title first- and third-party product lineup for 1998, it does
expect a big seller in racing game Grand Tourismo from its Japanese
parent. In addition, "Crash [Bandicoot] will be back," says VP of
Marketing Andrew House.
Software sales for PlayStation reached 18.4m units in Q4 '97, while
hardware reached 3.8m, raising the console's installed base to 8.7m in
N.  America. Q4 '96 hardware sales were 1.46m.  Of the 3.8m consoles
sold in Q4, 2.4m went in December, 1.01m in November and 408,000 in
Otober.   From the console's launch in N. America Sept. 9, 1995,
through mid-January 1997, Sony had an installed base of 3.2m, 600,000
fewer than it sold during Q4 '97. Through the end of 1997, 47.3m
PlayStation software units have been sold.
PlayStation in 1997 represented 65% of total video game sales in the
U.S., Trenton said after consulting NPD's TRSTS. For the growth of the
console, he credits key third-party titles such as Eidos' [EIDSY] Tomb
Raider, Capcom's Resident Evil, Namco's Tekken 2 and Electronic Arts'
[ERTS] Madden 98.  PlayStation's key to growth, Sony said, is reaching
a broader audience. At present, the average age of PlayStation owners
is 22, 60% are under 24 and 90% are male.
History has shown that console sales plateau because developers were
restricted by the small 12- to 17-year-old male demographic, Sony VP
of Third Party Phil Harrison said. Since Sony wants to reach a larger
demographic, "we actually started to track penetration" of
PlayStations into households with VCRs, he added. PlayStation can be
an entertainment system, "not just a video game system." And
music-themed Parappa the Rapper is a "small step" toward a broader
reach.
It was not until VCRs penetrated 25m households that "we really saw an
explosion" in the home video market, says THQ's [THQI] VP
International Tim Walsh, paralleling VCR growth in the early 80s to
that of PlayStation today. And the VCR is a good comparison, Walsh
agrees, noting that both sit in the living room, connect to a TV and
provide entertainment.
From:  Silicon Times Report / February 06, 1998 / No.1405
... There IS intelligent life on Earth but I'm just visiting.
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