- The PlayStation 4 controller and console on display during the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
- Bloomberg News
Sony Corp. said its PlayStation 4 videogame console will reach store shelves in North America on Nov. 15, around the same time that rival Microsoft Corp. is expected to begin selling the Xbox One.
The two companies are battling for initial purchases among gamers seeking to play a new generation of videogames.
At an event in Germany Tuesday, Sony said its PlayStation 4 would be introduced in 32 countries before the end of the year. The device is slated to arrive in Europe on Nov. 29.
Sony last released the PlayStation 3, in 2006 and has since sold more than 70 million units.
Pre-orders for the new PlayStation 4 indicate strong demand, with more than one million units so far, Sony said.
Microsoft has said it plans to launch its competing Xbox One in 13 countries sometime in November. That will be its first console since 2005 when it introduced the Xbox 360, which has since sold more than 78 million units.
The debuts of the new consoles come at a trying time for the industry. Sales have fallen precipitously without attractive new hardware, and world-wide console-videogame sales estimates for the next few years indicate expansion at a far slower rate than in years past.
As more people play free or inexpensive games on PCs and mobile devices, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Co. are feeling pressure to attract more gamers to their consoles.
Sony has taken a nearly pure videogame tack, building and acquiring new technologies to help it stream games to handheld devices. It is also creating a streaming game service, which does all the computational work for intricate visuals on a server, and then beams the images over the Web to the videogame console. At $399, the PlayStation 4 will also cost $100 less than Microsoft’s offering.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is emphasizing broader possibilities than game-playing for the Xbox One, focusing on multimedia capabilities such as live television viewing and interactions with its Kinect motion controller. Microsoft has also developed streaming videogame technology that layers images from a server into images created by the videogame console.
Analysts expect both consoles to sell strongly at first, but whether those devices, along with the Nintendo Wii U released last year, can experience the same success as their predecessors remains unclear.
Additionally, Sony said it is reducing the price of its PlayStation Vita handheld videogame console to $199 from the $249 price it launched with in the U.S. in February 2012.
The device will be one of the standout accessories for the PlayStation 4 when it launches. It can stream PlayStation 4 games to the hand-held, allowing gamers to continue playing in other rooms of their homes.
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