When it comes to game consoles, Sony's PlayStation series is definitely a mountain that can't be avoided. As a heavyweight in the console industry, Sony's PlayStation series has contributed a series of products to consumers, such as consoles, handhelds, peripherals, integrated audio and video terminals, and even game TVs, but the most well-known among the many product lines is still home game consoles.
The original PS1 was the first home game console developed by Sony. It was officially launched in Japan in 1994 and was launched in Europe and North America the following year. By the end of production in 2006, more than 100 million units had been sold. PS1 is also the white moonlight in the hearts of many veteran players, and they still remember the classic games played at that time, such as "Final Fantasy 7", "Fantasy Water Margin 2", and "Resident Evil 1".
It is worth noting that Nintendo, another giant in the gaming device industry today, also cooperated with Sony back then. They originally planned to release a Super Nintendo PlayStation jointly developed by the two in 1992, but then things changed, and the Nintendo PlayStation was not released, and the cooperation between the two giants came to an end. Otherwise, the situation in the gaming device market may not be what we see now.
Source: Lei Technology.
In the past 30 years, Sony has updated a total of 5 generations of main series game consoles, and the most recent new product is the PS5 Slim, which was first launched in the United States in November this year. Every time the PlayStation series launches a new product, it will cause gamers to carnival, and it is not uncommon for scalpers to hoard and increase the price to buy. But what is very interesting is that not only the new products are sought after, but also the power of the fan base of old products should not be underestimated.
According to the recently leaked documents,Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), a console that has been in release for 17 years, still has a whopping 1.9 million monthly active players as of February 2023.
It is important to know that the life cycle of a game console is usually only 6-7 years, and with the introduction of a new generation of game consoles, game resources are bound to tilt towards new game consoles, and most users of old game consoles will soon transition to the new game console camp in order to experience the latest games.
It's surprising that PS3 still has that number of monthly active players to this day.
On March 17, 2017, Sony Interactive Entertainment officially announced that the Japanese version of the PlayStation 3 with the model number CECH-4300 will be discontinued, which also means that the PS3 has officially ended its career.
Looking back on its 11 years of development, the PS3 successfully delivered two generations of Nintendo's home consoles, and staged several rounds of exciting console wars on the Xbox 360. Sony and Microsoft have been wrestling since the launch event, and during the competition, Sony has also spawned features such as PlayStation Network (PSN), controller feedback, and the trophy system, which are still widely received by players today.
Although in the process, there are also projects with development potential such as PS Home that have been forced to terminate their services. But it's no exaggeration to say that PS3 has laid a solid foundation for the PlayStation series, and it can be said that the success of the subsequent PS4 and PS5 is inseparable from PS3's efforts in exclusive games and basic building.
Of course, the PS3 wasn't perfect, and its Cell processor was notoriously difficult for software developers at the time, and its special architecture greatly increased the difficulty for developers to make games. At that time, CPUs were basically made of symmetrical synchronous multi-core, but Cell was made into a specific SPU coprocessor multi-core, so even if it had 3The main frequency of 2GHz is also very difficult to actually develop, and it is a thankless task.
Source: Sony.
The shortcomings of the Cell processor have made it difficult for PS3 to sell, but the 88 million units are not blowing in the wind. In addition to the hardware game, the many excellent exclusive games born on the PS3 have also contributed to the promotion of this console.
Classics such as "Uncharted", "God of War", "The Last of Us", "Gran Turismo" and other classics, even after many years, still impress countless players, and the sound of any BGM in the game is enough to make people tremble with excitement and even goosebumps.
Even if these games have been remastered and inherited on the PS4 and PS5 platforms thanks to excellent player feedbackBut the PS3's massive advantage of being able to play games without a subscription is the main reason for its longevity.
The PS3 was released in 2006, and although it sold 88 million units worldwide, it was actually the lowest-selling generation of the 5 generations of consoles.
The game**vgchartz posted a few days ago that as of October 2023, the cumulative sales of Sony PS4 have reached 1171.5 billion units, and PS5 cumulative sales were 45.37 million units.
The hot sales of two generations of consoles have helped Sony replace Nintendo as the number one player in the global console market with a 54% market share in total global console shipments in the third quarter of 2023. The most exaggerated thing is that in the third quarter of this year, even Nintendo plus Microsoft, their total shipments were lower than Sony's.
PS5 As one of the contributors to the huge increase in Sony's game sales, although PS5 has been released for 3 years, according to Finbold statistics, as of October 2023, Sony PS5 has sold 14.36 million units year-to-date, with an average of about 1.43 million units sold per month, which translates to about 47,666 PS5 units sold per day in 2023.
Source: Lei Technology.
The increase in console sales will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the number of active players, with 70.3 million monthly active users for PS4 and 37.1 million monthly active users for PS5 as of February 2023. It is believed that with the growth of PS5 sales, the number of monthly active users of Sony's PlayStation series will continue to increase.
As for whether Sony's subsequent console products can continue the monthly miracle of PS3, Xiaolei believes that it is still very possible. On the one hand, Sony's share of the global game console market share continues to expand, and the number of players increasesOn the other hand, when the source is sufficient, how to retain players has become Sony's top priority.
In addition to the dual qualitative metrics of exclusive game quantity and quality, Sony's next-generation PlayStation Plus subscription**, which launched this month, has also played a key role in retaining more players.
Compared with the previous version, the biggest change of the new generation of PS Plus is that the membership service is differentiated, divided into 3 gears, namely the basic version, the upgraded version and the advanced version, and there are certain differences in the membership ** in different regions, every Spring Festival, mid-year, and black week.
5. Christmas and other nodes will be membered**.
To put it simply, players spend 1-2 games a year, and they can experience hundreds of games of the corresponding gear by purchasing a membership, and there is no need to buy a physical chuck. Sounds pretty good, but you can experience a lot of different games for a fraction of the cost of a physical disc.
Source: Sony.
But whether it is suitable or not depends on the needs of players. After all, the games in the member library,It's all up to Sony updates.,Generally, popular new works won't be put into the library.。 Therefore, it is recommended that you learn more about the specific services of different members before purchasing a PS Plus membership before making a decision and choosing the most suitable plan for you.
It has to be said that the benefits of subscribing to ** are more beneficial than disadvantageous for most beginner players. Xiao Lei also often encounters the situation of being full of excitement to buy a new game, and quickly getting tired of playing it for a while. The lesson of this situation is that you can try more if you spend a small amount of money to try it first, so that you can try to avoid the problem of being difficult to get rid of or even losing money after purchasing.
Although the physical chuck can also recover part of the loss through the second-hand platform, the time cost is also a pain point that is difficult to ignore.
As for veteran players, the appeal of a subscription system isn't necessarily enough. Whether Sony's future console products can maintain such a strong monthly active performance as PS3, I think the key is to see Sony itself, whether it is a subscriber or a non-subscriber, to work for the welfare of users to ensure their activity.
With its current market share of game consoles, it is not an exaggeration to say that Sony is leading the industry. As a gamer, Xiaolei still hopes that Sony will increase its voice while also considering the feelings of old users. Similar to the behavior of member*** and making up the difference, it really hurts the user's heart.
PS3 was also almost shut down by Sony in 2021**, but the decision was reversed after a backlash from users. Facts have proved that Asso is not blindly willful, and Sony can still tell which is more fragrant when he is satiety.
All in all, Xiao Lei hopes that Sony will not only celebrate the longevity of PS3, but also think more about future game consoles, and also hope that Nintendo and Microsoft can continue to focus on the game console market, after all, it is not good news for players to be dominant.
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