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[Herp Derpington]

They need a cheaper version because MS will have one .
Sony not going to push a $400 only system with MS have a $200 to $250 around XMAS time.

I don't agree with MS keeping the S around either for what it's worth. I know they're going to and I understand that it wouldn't make sense for Sony to drop the PS4 given the price disparity that would ensue but I think it's defeating the potential of the new systems to always have them be viewed as optional.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

My gut and bias is telling me that Sony had hoped to sell more PS4 Pros than that. 1 in 5 sales being a PS4 Pro means that of 1 million PS4 sales only 200,000 are PS4 Pros. It was only a few months ago that Sony was saying that PS4 Pros were selling more than PS4 Slim so I guess the OG 500 GB model is still the reigning king?

I don't remember Sony ever saying the Pro was selling more than the slim .
They don't even make the OG model after the slim came out.

 

[Dunlop]

That seems quite low.

Then again, since I got mine, several of my mates got the regular or slim model. I'd been telling them good the Pro so I asked them why they didn't get it and they all said something along the lines of they didn't think it was worth the extra cost.

Do they have 4K TV's? If not I would agree with them.

I got mine due to an insane EB Games (Canada) promotion, but with a 1080p TV the differences are marginal

 

[jdmonmou]

I don't remember Sony ever saying the Pro was selling more than the slim .

In this article Yoshida was quoted saying that Pro sales were stronger than the slim.

 

[BebopMcJigglypuff]

In this article Yoshida was quoted saying that Pro sales were stronger than the slim.

I think you are misinterpreting what he is saying, and that he is saying sales are "stronger" wrt internal forecasts, not in terms of total sales #s.

 

[Plague Doctor]

I am pretty sure we are learning that price point is king with items that aren't a new generation but a mid cycle upgrade. When comparing the two, many people are just opting for the cheaper version as being good enough. I really do think that past the price the library matters more than squeezing some extra juice out of the hardware.

Edit: Not to invoke comparison to another system, I believe Phil Spencer went on record as saying he expected the Xbox One Slim remaining the highest selling version of the console even after the Scorpio release. It really makes sense that consumers will overwhelmingly side with the most cost effective option of the same hardware.

 

[Primethius]

My gut and bias is telling me that Sony had hoped to sell more PS4 Pros than that. 1 in 5 sales being a PS4 Pro means that of 1 million PS4 sales only 200,000 are PS4 Pros. It was only a few months ago that Sony was saying that PS4 Pros were selling more than PS4 Slim so I guess the OG 500 GB model is still the reigning king?

When this is all said and done I hope Sony comes to the conclusion that mid-gen upgrades are unnecessary and just stick with the traditional console generation. The best strategy to rejuvenate sales is not new hardware, but rather new and exclusive games. If Sony played their cards right they could've released a PS5 in 2018 that's more powerful than the Scorpio. If they plan on doing that there will be backlash from PS4 Pro owners that will be screaming too soon.

Your gut and bias is wrong.

Consider that PS4 sells/ships around a million world wide every month. 200k are Pros. That's roughly what XB1 sells in its biggest territory, NA. Not to mention that the sales seem in-line with what they expected pre-release.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

In this article Yoshida was quoted saying that Pro sales were stronger than the slim.

I don't think he meant that number wise since that would make no sense.
The Pro and slim came out around the same time and the Slim always sold more.
For eg in NPD the Slim out sold the Pro over 5 to 1 last 2 months of last year .

 

[johnny956]

I don't think he meant that number wise since that would make no sense.
The Pro and slim came out around the same time and the Slim always sold more.
For eg in NPD the Slim out sold the Pro over 5 to 1 last 2 month of last year .

I'm curious what he actually said. I'm sure someone translated it poorly

 

[jett]

This doesn't seem great.

I wonder what Microsoft thinks about how the Pro is being received in relation to their own upcoming higher-priced, high-powered version of the Xbone.

 

[Drey1082]

It will be interesting to compare this to Scorpio results. Scorpio will do a much better ratio than 1/5, and if it doesn't, they're in big trouble. It all comes down to how their marketing it, (or lack of marketing in Sony's case). Sony is treating this as a luxury product, with low mass market appeal, while Microsoft appears to be positioning this as more of the next Xbox. It will be interesting to see what the E3 messaging is but I don't see them deviating much from this strategy. I think, similar to Nintendo and the switch, it appears that Microsoft is going all in on Scorpio, while PS4 Pro is much more of a stop gap.

It should be remembered that the OG PS4 is still more powerful than an current Xbox One. That means that power starved Xbox fans are going to really value Scorpio, more so than I think PS4 fans valued the power jump on the pro.

 

[Renekton]

My gut and bias is telling me that Sony had hoped to sell more PS4 Pros than that.

I spoke with a local Sony store manager and they were instructed to prioritize the slim especially with bundles. The Pro was downplayed, even hidden early on until I asked for availability.

 

[Sheroking]

There has never been a console revision like this before. Console revisions are usually just smaller and cheaper. There is no comparison to this, Scorpio will be the next.

There's not much to compare it to because nobody has released a mid-gen upgrade as a premium option alongside a standard model.

Other console revisions were not optional midgen consoles. There were what you described, tbe revisions for cheaper manufacture and less power consumption. When they appear, the old version are no longer manufactured.

Going from LaunchPS4 >CUH1200 all matte>PS4Slim changed nothing rendering and compatibilty wise. The same seamless upgrade cycle happened to many other consoles [PS1, PS2, PS3, X360, Xbone...].

All this means is PS4 Pro adoption should be higher than past revision adoption, as it offers more features for the cost increase.

So once again, I'd love to see what percentage of Xbox One's sold in it's first 8 months were Xbox One S'.

 

[timberger]

That's more than I would have expected tbh. That was never the type of product that's going to appeal to casuals in any notable way I always believed.

Still, good to hear it's doing well.

 

[Art Vandilay]

I haven't seen one in a store ever. I guess that's good
edit: nvm. looks like it's in stock at every best buy around here. guess i just haven't been looking

Was just about to say it's never been out of stock at Best Buy when I went.

 

[SprachBrooks]

It would have sold better if it had a 4K bluray drive....

You're overestimating the importance of 4K Blu-ray drives.

 

[jett]

You're overestimating the importance of 4K Blu-ray drives.

I think people overestimate the importance of 4K anything.

 

[Gestault]

I think people overestimate the importance of 4K anything.

If nothing else, think of actual 4K as an almost universal solution to IQ via downsampling on 1080p displays. In that context, it's more important than people might assume. I think the PS4 Pro may be just short of this in the "universal" sense, but that's at least part of the intent.

 

[Soldiussnaku]

It's a great number. The PS4 Pro targets a core gamer niche that owns a 4k set with a significantly higher price point. It's actually quite fantastic.

Well, there it is.

I trust Matt's take on this far more then the average armchair analyst gaffer, for good reason, this news also matches and likely exceeds Sony expectations for the pro. Remember they had very conservative numbers/expectations for the sales of the pro before it came out.

Also, guys Jim Ryan in the interview was very positive about the sales. Shaun Layden also sounded happy with the sales so far.

Personally I pegged the numbers being around 15% optimistically, so it's betel mine by a good extent.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

My gut and bias is telling me that Sony had hoped to sell more PS4 Pros than that. 1 in 5 sales being a PS4 Pro means that of 1 million PS4 sales only 200,000 are PS4 Pros. It was only a few months ago that Sony was saying that PS4 Pros were selling more than PS4 Slim so I guess the OG 500 GB model is still the reigning king?

When this is all said and done I hope Sony comes to the conclusion that mid-gen upgrades are unnecessary and just stick with the traditional console generation. The best strategy to rejuvenate sales is not new hardware, but rather new and exclusive games. If Sony played their cards right they could've released a PS5 in 2018 that's more powerful than the Scorpio. If they plan on doing that there will be backlash from PS4 Pro owners that will be screaming too soon.

Source?

Sony wouldn't be reporting these numbers if they weren't at least somewhat pleased with them.

 

[RoboPlato]

I spoke with a local Sony store manager and they were instructed to prioritize the slim especially with bundles. The Pro was downplayed, even hidden early on until I asked for availability.

I think Sony really wanted to make people not think that the base PS4 was being compromised with the release of the Pro. Even big first party titles like Horizon had very little in the way of Pro footage before launch. That seems to be changing this year. Destiny 2 was premiered on the Pro.

 

[hanspampel]

Source?

Sony wouldn't be reporting these numbers if they weren't at least somewhat pleased with them.

there is no source
people just can't comprehend statements and context

Ps4 Pro sold better than slim initially in regards to Sonys own expectations
Ps4 Pro overperformed while Ps4 Slim underperformed
not Ps4 Pro sold more units than Ps4 Slim

 

[stargateheaven]

That doesnt sound like alot but isnt that like 2 mil?

So this will be the new trend going forward.

Ps5
PS5 pro

Etc.

Just hope the next pro maybe has a little more beef to it.

I dunno.. MEGA DRIVE 2 YA'LL!!

 

[10k]

So someone take the amount of PS4's sold since November and multiply by 0.2 for a rough estimate of Pro sales.

 

[The Albatross]

I'm surprised, i thought it would be higher. I think that the sales/deals make a big difference here. A lot of base-model PS4s go on sale for $250 or with a bundle for a good deal, so it shouldn't be surprising that the Pro model at $400 sells fewer units especially because the marketing really hasn't been strong at all around what differentiates the two. I think as an 'enthusiast' I can really only think as an enthusiast, not as a general consumer.

 

[jdmonmou]

Well, there it is.

I trust Matt's take on this far more then the average armchair analyst gaffer, for good reason, this news also matches and likely exceeds Sony expectations for the pro. Remember they had very conservative numbers/expectations for the sales of the pro before it came out.

Also, guys Jim Ryan in the interview was very positive about the sales. Shaun Layden also sounded happy with the sales so far.

Personally I pegged the numbers being around 15% optimistically, so it's betel mine by a good extent.

Can you provide a link to an interview where Sony was anticipating conservative sales figures for the PS4 Pro? I looked but could not find any information indicating that. If I recall correctly, they were just being conservative about PS VR demand. They've always been very dodgy about releasing concrete sales figure for PS4 Pro as well as their own expectations of success for the console. That way any news that is released they have the freedom to spin it as a success. All I found is that Sony hopes to sell another 20 million PS4s this year but they never disclosed how many of those anticipated sales they expected to be Pros. I think they really wanted the PS4 Pro to take the lead in sales and eventually phase out the OG PS4 and Slim. Otherwise why bother with developing and releasing a PS4 Pro to begin with. But that's my assumption.

 

[Iksenpets]

I would've honestly expected Pros to be the majority of new ones sold, since in the past it's always seemed like consumers prefer buying the top model, but maybe the supply constraints are affecting it? Have there been any reports of people unable to find Pros? I haven't seen any.

 

[EventHorizon]

Price is a huge factor in sales which routinely gets ignored. Also the Pro was never intended to be a replacement product. It is only the high end version of the base PS4. It just happens to be a much better deal than the hard drive capacity increase we are use to seeing. The base PS4 is going to be the lead platform for 1-2 more years, and will only likely get upstaged when the PS5 is announced.

Remember the importance of price when predicting Scorpio sales. It will follow the same trends. However it will do a higher ratio over the base XB1 due to it being a bigger break with that console and the relatively weaker sales of the XB1 to the PS4.

 

[10k]

The only thing that seems odd is Sony usually loves to give sales figures but they're looping the PS4 Pro with the base model to hide the numbers. If they're pleased with it exceeding their conservative estimates why not share the info?

 

[prag16]

Severe supply constraints? Ever since launch there have been stacks of them at my local Best Buy stores.

On the surface this sounds like a slightly disappointing ratio for Sony.

 

[Zarth]

Not sure if this is a sign of price or the adoption rate of 4k TVs.

I wouldn't expect these #s to be huge because the # of 4k TVs in the consumer market is also still close to only 1 in 5.

I think one important thing here is the 40% rebuy. This is what I figure Microsoft is hoping for with Scorpio. Even higher rebuy.

 

[Padinn]

Snagging mine for $280 during launch week was sooooo awesome. I love it and I'm a 1080p player...for now.

 

[cakely]

20%! My estimate was spot on.

I expect very similar numbers from the Xbox One Scorpio ... about 20% of total Xbox One sales will be for Scorpio.

 

[schwabdizzle]

I guess people are not liking these half iteration consoles. I think its bad business personally.

 

[FlutterPuffs]

I would've honestly expected Pros to be the majority of new ones sold, since in the past it's always seemed like consumers prefer buying the top model, but maybe the supply constraints are affecting it? Have there been any reports of people unable to find Pros? I haven't seen any.

For a while PS4 Pros were nearly impossible to get in SEA until around March this year.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I think that is probably acceptable overall. I mean it's a niche product the general consumer is probably not going to give a shit about the difference, just like they probably aren't going to give a shit about the difference between x1 and scorpio. I would imagine a similar ratio for that, perhaps a little better since X1 sells less overall than PS4. I think in general the half life upgrades if they continue past this generation, which is likely, will more than likely always have a similar sell ratio.

 

[Rymuth]

Impressive

 

[Hoo-doo]

And people thought the XB1 Scorpio would be fine at 499$.

This is respectable, but it underlines how pricing is everything in this market.

 

[ScaryShark]

This seems very solid. Don't really know how one would misconstrue those numbers to be anything but. Price is always king and the Pro mostly services a very specific consumer. I would have guessed less actually.

 

[lukeskymac]

I don't buy this narrative of "is above expectations". Sony clearly released the PS4 Pro with a replacement mindset.

That would be the Slim. FFS, GAF really is a bubble.

 

[Lupercal]

If this is true then Scorpio will be DOA if it follows.

 

[adamsapple]

I don't buy this narrative of "is above expectations". Sony clearly released the PS4 Pro with a replacement mindset.

If that were the case, they wouldn't have launched a much cheaper Slim SKU 2 months earlier and still continue to put out most game-bundles with the Slim.

 

[Nocturno999]

That's not bad at all.

These could mean a new iteration every few years. I am Ok with an upgraded PS4~ every 4 years.

 

[horkrux]

I would've honestly expected Pros to be the majority of new ones sold, since in the past it's always seemed like consumers prefer buying the top model, but maybe the supply constraints are affecting it? Have there been any reports of people unable to find Pros? I haven't seen any.

What gave you that impression? I'm sure people generally prefer the cheaper models, like f.e. the 2DS or the 360 without an HDD etc.

 

[RichiRamjag]

Can you provide a link to an interview where Sony was anticipating conservative sales figures for the PS4 Pro? I looked but could not find any information indicating that. If I recall correctly, they were just being conservative about PS VR demand. They've always been very dodgy about releasing concrete sales figure for PS4 Pro as well as their own expectations of success for the console. That way any news that is released they have the freedom to spin it as a success. All I found is that Sony hopes to sell another 20 million PS4s this year but they never disclosed how many of those anticipated sales they expected to be Pros. I think they really wanted the PS4 Pro to take the lead in sales and eventually phase out the OG PS4 and Slim. Otherwise why bother with developing and releasing a PS4 Pro to begin with. But that's my assumption.

That should be obvious tbh. It's just a slightly more powerful system to entice people to stay within their ecosystem. If I want something to take advantage of my 4K tv, then this provides that option. Even though I want a Scorpio, my ps pro still make it a very hard purchase to justify(if I get one, I'll be moving purchases to that mainly). I imagine they hope to discourage others from going to PC as well with it. In any case, any ps4 they sell is a win for them.

 

[yurinka]

Good numbers, and another thing that make us think that they won't have to worry about Scorpio if this is a reference.

 

[CambriaRising]

What gave you that impression? I'm sure people generally prefer the cheaper models, like f.e. the 2DS or the 360 without an HDD etc.

The premium 360 sold a lot better iirc

 

[Nocturno999]

I don't buy this narrative of "is above expectations". Sony clearly released the PS4 Pro with a replacement mindset.

They are not leaving behind the budget market share for the hardcore audience. That's why they keep releasing slim bundles. Win/win if they can appeal both audiences.

 

[Gestault]

The only thing that seems odd is Sony usually loves to give sales figures but they're looping the PS4 Pro with the base model to hide the numbers. If they're pleased with it exceeding their conservative estimates why not share the info?

Something can be within (or even exceeding) internal estimates but still not be the sort of figure that works for promotional statements in a broader context. That's true with both software and hardware.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

And people here mocked me up when I said PROs may represent 10-15% of PS4s. They told me you would be lucky if PRO sold around 5%.