Sony’s Original Target Was to Sell 3 Million PS1s in 3 Years in Europe

by
William D’Angelo
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Sony originally set a target to sell three million units of the PlayStation in the first three years in Europe. However, in the end the console sold 10 million units during that timeframe.

This is according to Chris Deering, the former president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe from 1995 to 2005, who spoke during EGX in London and reported by GamesIndustry.

“I had worked in the industry way before PlayStation at Atari in the mid-80s,” said Deering. “Since that time, Nintendo and Sega were the dominant factions on console. I was happy to get involved with Sony’s entry because I thought it would legitimatise console gaming in some countries where it was seen as very downmarket, or even criminal like the arcades down by the train station.

“I knew that the Sony name would legitimise the concept. But what excited me the most was the disc, which would allow us to get games that were selling fast into store a lot faster than eight weeks, which was the time it would take to order new discs from Japan.

“So I was optimistic, but not too optimistic to think it wasn’t going to be a fight. What we set out to sell in the first three years of the European division was three million units and 14 million games. It ended up being ten million units and 40 million games.

“We were very conservative in setting the objectives, but we had the ability to scale up. Then we had a lot of fun with the marketing, and developers coming in with new games and super better looking versions of old games, and that all helped to make the phenomenon happen. And it’s been here ever since.”

The PS1 would go on to sell 102.49 million units worldwide.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

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