Sony President Kazuo Hirai reflects on the success of the PlayStation 4 console

Президент Sony Кадзуо Хираи размышляет об успехах консоли PlayStation 4

The president of the Japanese company Sony Kazuo Hirai during his interview to the portal AV Watch shared his thoughts on the gaming console PlayStation 4.

Kazuo Hirai is a smiling man who immediately attracts journalists. Due to the fact that he had studied English since childhood and often visited the United States with his father, his Japanese accent is almost not noticeable in communication.


“I won’t deny that even before the launch of the PlayStation 4 inside the company there were discussions that in the light of the success of mobile video games, the success of the fixed console seems extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, we decided to take this risk, carefully thinking through every step and overall strategy. What new can we offer to our customers in this area? We decided to focus on high-quality video games, as well as on the highest quality of pictures on the screens of large TVs - this is something our company can do. ”

Kazuo also admitted that the problems with the launch of the company's previous console, PlayStaion 3, taught him a lot:

“After the sad experience with the PS3, we decided that we would no longer repeat this error, and release the console on the X86 architecture, which will allow us to quickly and efficiently develop new games for PS4. It also played an important role in the success of our new gaming console. ”

The deep integration of the social component, from the point of view of the President of Sony, is key in the new generation of consoles:

“Now it is very important for gamers to be able to share their impressions with friends and other players. Have the opportunity to broadcast your gameplay, comment on it, discuss with other people, show off your skills and so on. We have created a platform with the help of which you can not only play on your own, but also be able to become involved in the gameplay of other players. ”

Kazuo Hirai notes that the dizzying success of the PlayStation 4 was somewhat unexpected for him. To date, more than 10 million consoles have been sold worldwide. PS4 ratings are very high among industry experts and the players themselves, which leads to the conclusion: Sony is doing everything right. However, it is necessary to work more carefully with some individual markets. For example, at the moment Sony is trying to win the love of Japanese consumers. In Japan in recent years there has been a decline in interest in stationary consoles, and more and more people are switching to pocket entertainment in the face of the Nintendo 3DS and smartphones.

“I believe that the success of the PlayStation 4 is due to the fact that the console gives players an unforgettable experience. Nevertheless, we must maintain the interest of the public through new exciting games. For example, for the Japanese market, we have prepared 44 game projects that will be released before the end of this year. ”

Sony is not successful with all its new-generation gaming consoles. Pocket console PlayStation Vita, for example, under the pressure of games for smartphones, is sold quite modestly. For it, they will no longer release large-budget AAA games, since this is simply unprofitable in the realities of the current market.

By the way, Kazuo Hirai recently supported the Ice Bucket Challenge initiative and doused with icy water. He passed the baton to the father of the three first PlayStation consoles - Ken Kutaragi, who is now only a technical consultant to Sony. Kazuo himself did not pass the baton to anyone, explaining that he simply wants to draw public attention to the problem of this disease.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/games/prezident-sony-kadzuo-xirai-razmyshlyaet-ob-uspexax-konsoli-playstation-4.html.

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