Saying the PlayStation 4 or Grand Theft Auto 5 will "sell well," is about as blanket of a statement as can be made, particularly for an analyst. You don't want some phrase with vague or hollow adjectives from someone who's trying to advise you on financial investments, you want something tangible you can work with: cold, hard numbers.
That's what the Wedbush Securities' infamous Michael Pachter is reporting for PlayStation 4 pre-orders. During a recent episode of GameTrailer's Bonus Round, the analyst was heard to say Sony had crossed another turning point for its next-gen console:
"The only thing they're gonna have a problem with is supply disruption. That million preorders they talked about, which I understand now is up to one and a half million, that's a lot of consoles," said Pachter. Though, there's been no official word from Sony on the matter on an exact figure, only that according to Sony UK's Vice President and Managing Director Fergal Gara, the company is "delighted" with pre-order numbers, saying, "They're the best we've ever seen, so that gives us huge confidence."
After hitting the 1 million mark back in August, it seems like the company has cleared another half-million in pre-orders, all in just over a month's time. Given that various retailers began officially accepting pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 in early summer and took months before the amount of pre-orders hit seven figures, demand for the console seems to be increasing.
"That tells you that there's not going to be a lot of boxes behind the first million and a half, so there's going to be supply shortages," said Pachter. True, retailers like GameStop have had to temporarily stop taking pre-orders as they couldn't keep up with the sheer volume.
1.5 million is truly an impressive number, but Sony has a long way to go before they can outdo the PlayStation 3. In its close to 7 year lifespan, a whopping 75 million have been sold worldwide, a number that will likely increase due to Sony's vow to continue supporting the system at the same time as the PlayStation 4.
But Sony's biggest competition, Microsoft, is certainly no slouch in pre-orders. The two companies have been fighting tooth and nail for an advantage, with gamers favoring one system at one moment, and another the next. While Microsoft seems to be having some interesting PR issues since announcing the system, Pachter has said that Sony's strategy so far has been "pretty flawless" and that the PS4 sounds like it has "value for cost."
