Sony Goes All In on PlayStation
The 2016 Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Sony hasn’t had much to cheer about over the past decade. Samsung and Apple crushed its smartphones, and even its TV business was eclipsed by rivals from China and South Korea. So forgive the proud home of the Walkman for boasting about the PlayStation, its one item consumers are buying in droves.
Since 2013, Sony and its PlayStation 4 have decisively reclaimed the lead in video game consoles from Microsoft and its Xbox One. Sony has 55 percent of the global market, compared with 29 percent for Microsoft and 16 percent for Nintendo and its Wii U, according to industry website VGChartz. (There are 45.3 million PS4s in consumer hands, 23.5 million Xbox Ones, and 13.5 million Wii Us.) Sony is hoping to deepen its advantage with the Nov. 10 release of the PS4 Pro, which offers more detailed graphics. “Environments come alive like never before,” the company said in its online pitch, calling the Pro “the world’s most powerful console.”