Sony: PlayStation Portal 'Demand Has Continued to Exceed Our Expectations' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2024 / 10,006 Views
PlayStation vice president of product management Hiromi Wakai in an interview with Game File discussed the PlayStation Portal and demand has exceeded their expectations.
"Although we don’t have any numbers to share, the demand has continued to exceed our expectations," said Wakai.
The device was never designed to be a dedicated handheld and wanted to make sure there was no extra work required for developers.
"We also did not want to ask for any additional work from game creators to achieve this goal," said Wakai.
"The initial discussions of this product started out from the question of how to expand the PS5 console game experience, not launch a separate handheld device."
Wakai added, "The original idea of [the] PlayStation Portal remote player came from our goal to provide high quality console gaming experiences in the players’ hands.
"We presumed that we would be able to achieve this goal at an affordable price by utilizing a technical solution often referred to as ‘Thin Client’ (A system that performs a majority of the processes on the servers instead of the local hardware), while maintaining the full features of a DualSense wireless controller and a screen that is capable of displaying content with crisp image and text."
The PlayStation Portal released in November 2023 for $199.99 / £199.99 / €219.99 / 29,980 yen. The device is a remote player that connects to your PlayStation 5 over your home Wi-Fi to allow you to play your PS5 on it.
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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On one hand, this seems impressive. On the other hand, since they won't share any numbers, it might not be impressive sales at all.
Basically, it's just empty PR talk at this point.
Sony has openly stated that the intention of the device was not for high profits, but to increase engagement. Even if it sold low numbers it would not be considered a failure
Right. So them saying that it exceeded their forecasts could mean very little, since they hedged and tamped down on expectations ahead of time.
Executive rushes into office, breathing heavily with excitement. "Sir, we have good news!"
Ceo raises hands, touches fingers together in a point and then rests his elbows on top of his lavish, solid-oak desk. "Go on."
"The Portal... it's sold five units as of an hour ago!"
"Five? Are you sure?"
"Yes, we were skeptical at first too, so we triple-checked. Five, exactly!"
CEO pauses, realizes that that's four more units than expected, then swivels around and looks out at the Tokyo skyline, grinning. "Excellent. Prepare a public statement."
I don't think anyone would expect otherwise. Sony barely marketed this and it's only available in a few countries.
It was clearly designed for a limited market. If they're seeing this positive reaction to gen 1, then hopefully a gen 2 with better battery and cloud support is being considered.
It's not empty PR talk, this is them literally saying it's exceeding the expectations they set for the device which means it's an initial success. Whether that success is "impressive" or not is another question altogether. I think the only real data we have is from weekly sales in Spain where it's doing a handful of hundred per week compared to the 3-5k the current consoles (bar Xbox) are selling.
But glad to see Sony is getting postive feedback on the portable side of things, hopefully they take it more seriously with future iteration+PS6. Cloud stream + a direct connection built into the functionality of PS6 and maybe even the PS5 pro.
It's literally just an extension of the PS5., aimed at driving more engagement towards the PS brand. NOT massive sales. You are being so unnecessarily critical of it's sales and Sony's statement regarding it's sales
I didn't make any comments about the product at all, nor its sales. I commented only on the statement. It seems that you are hearing what you want to hear, and arguing against something that was not said.
Yes you didn't make any comments about it's sales directly, but your said it's just an empty PR statement which implies that you don't believe their statement is genuine about it's success. Your just being a smartass, it's not me being obtuse and deliberately hearing you wrong.
It really is empty statement PR statement. It means nothing because it cannot be measured against anything because they gave no data. Nothing wrong with companies making such statements but in reality, it can basically be ignored. It's not that we do not believe what it says, its just doesn't really mean anything of importance.
I'm not sure how something exceeding or failing to meet internal expectations for which it was commissioned can be defined as empty? A game can sell 100k units or 10million and the significance of that raw data will be entirely dependant of the criteria for which it was set to succeed/perform.
If a developer said a games sales is exceeding expectation we wouldn't call that empty PR talk lol
As I said, determining whether something is impressive is distinct from determining whether it's successful according to it's goals. Communication of the latter is not empty PR. Although in fairness we didn't need this quote to know this considering the peripheral has been sold out since launch.
Lets be honest here it has nothing to do with empty PR talk and everything to do with whenever there is positive news for Sony people flood in to put them down. Being successful sure does make you a lot of enemies.
This is among the dumbest things I've ever heard. I am a Sony fan. I have a PS5 in my basement right now. If anything, you are evidence of the opposite of what you have alleged is occurring. I absolutely did not "put them down". I simply made an observation about a statement Sony made. My observation was not positive or negative in nature. But, because I dared to question how significant the statement was, a couple of you seem to have gotten hurt. You are hurt by hearing someone question the significance of a statement released by a megacorp.
It sold out at launch. It charted on places like amazon. In some regions it beat other consoles. The evidence suggests a surprise success for Sony but all that isn't enough for you? Your just going to dismiss their statement as false? I don't care about Sony but I care about what's true and what's false.
Sold out at launch really does not mean anything if the sales were low. Meaning they shipped a limited supply because they did not believe sales would be great or they made the wrong estimate and under shipped the device. Either way that really doesn't mean how successful the device is. Also you really are taking his statement a little to personal as he did not claim the statement was false, he stated the its an empty PR statement with nothing behind it besides words. Without numbers you cannot really make any comparison on how well the device is selling lets say compared to the Vita, or other handheld devices. It might always be just a niche device which isn't bad but its not like it setting the world on fire.
I can't believe this. Saying something is just an empty PR statement is at least implying that the statement from Sony is false, cos if you felt it was true you wouldn't be saying that. Doesn't matter Sony has no competition anymore anyway. I think I'm just going to wait until Xbox brings over more games to PS and watch everyone have a meltdown again
Your comment just reinforces the point at hand lol
In your head you want to compare its sales to a dedicated handheld console, which misses the point that the measures of success of a peripheral of this kind is very different.
Simply having a number does not tell you much. As I said, a game can sell 100k, 1million or 5m and that raw number would mean wildly different things for different products. This is why the fact that it is exceeding internal forecasts of demand is not empty PR talk. How often do companies say a device/product that has bombed is exceeding their expectations? Legit question.
If you can find an example of that, then I would concede the point, but devices are normally not commissioned with the expectation that they fail lol
"Good" sales are relative. Success is in accordance of goals. If they said it sold 200k units, what would that mean to you? What would that mean about the future of the device?
For me it's nothing personal about Sony/Playstation, but merely understanding how business works. Something looking "impressive" is not the measure of success, and shouldn't be the yard stick we use to measure value in any given statement. The statement reads neither impressive, nor empty. But good news for those hoping Sony continues to invest in the area.
Otter, your first comment got thumbed down 7 times, and your second comment 5 times. Both were fair and reasonable comments. They would rather just label us as fanboys and thumb us down than understand how business forecasts and expectations work. It's not worth it. Hopefully one day the fanboyism here can stop. I think Xbox will have to bring their games day and date to PS for the Xbox fanboys to give up. Not sure about the Nintendo ones
I've seen no one talk about this, i highly doubt they moved many units.
Do you guys think this outsold the Steam Deck? If not then they must've had a very low expectation.
Does Sony even see them as competing products though?
I seriously doubt it. I don't see them as competing products. One is a standalone device, the other is a PS5 accessory.
How the fuck is that possible the usual gaming biz experts from vgchartz told me it would be dead on arrival🤷
Everyone on YouTube too. All the hate just just gave it some nice free marketing
No idea why when without a decent internet it's worthless. Digital foundry said it's worse then a Wii U controller 😆
Now imagine it could store games on the device
That's beyond the design remit of the device. But if it could directly connect to Sony's servers to stream games without connecting to your home PS5; now that's a big value addition.
Really this has a lot of demand?
Looks like they'll abandon ship with vr2 and focus on the next stage for this portal lol
Yes, I do not understand the purpose of this device.
You could have your PS5 in the basement, but play in the living room or bedroom on your portal, for example. Or, as others have suggested, if you have more people than TVs in the house, this adds another screen on which to play (however, with the low price of TVs these days, if that was your issue, you could just buy an additional TV that has more functionality that this device).
You can also use it to play your PS5 when you’re out of your house, like at work etc.
Yeah, I guess there are family situations where you can't just buy everybody their own PS5. Would hate to have to make do with that little screen, though.
To 'exist' and people are more open to having separate devices again not 'my phone can do everything' mentality I guess. Business speak then numbers though hmm. Android but no Android, PPSSPP on it as possible. Will sales change for that reason or people keep using their other devices more likely I'd say. That 6GB internal isn't going far.
For a device with a off the tv purpose and they can watch sports/other shows sure. Or just off the TV in general. It has a place for people into that getting into remote play that didn't or were fans prior with PSP/Vita/the phone app on Android/iPhone when they came out officially (besides the third party apps on Android that were always there) because Vita/Pixel Stadia apps were exclusive apps prior. How much was it a sign of 'do people want a handheld'? I mean many of us handheld fans are not impressed.
I know supporting a new storefront is a lot of effort but they already have PSVR2 like Vita was, no first party support because too expensive, too much effort. Let alone a PS4 handheld if they did.
I get having a half solution with remote play on Portal but still. I don't think it's that much a jump for people to go yeah a remote play companion device to a full handheld hmm..... It's a lot more work A lot of work that is very deciding for many handheld fans that have the Switch, have other consoles, PC or other means.
But it's based on Android, no Android support because that requires a lot of moderation and more effort and they didn't want to make a tablet with Dualsense grips because just selling grips would be ridiculous so they needed a screen/image processing and to sell market remote play again.
Yet Logitech G Cloud is cloud focused but still has Android so it's not a complete waste of money and does have a purpose in the future.
No dual screens either for split screen games is sad. Indies can't use it for anything cool either. The hacking and the 6GB internal isn't much but PPSSPP is on it so that's something.
The Portal can orbit the PS5 of available products alongside it and have a place but for how long? How much will sales go up because it's been hacked too and not for just the PS5 use case it has. That and when people already have their handheld PCs and Switch at this point.
Launch the PSP2/PSVITA2/PSP3 already
Why does this keep making news ? Company X never ever publicly reveals its expectations, but it’s apparently “news” that an invisible number that no one has any idea how they calculated supposed made company x happy. Truly absurd.
Depends on the context, a lot of hearsay around this product has been "What's the point?", "it's too expensive.", or "who's this for?", so the longer things go on if people search for it, all you get on google is negative press. Sony releasing a short press release saying it's doing well based on what they expected is positive press, which might be needed. Especially for a niche product.
EDIT: Case and point, Dante9's post. :P
because most of them have ended up on ebay
Do you have any evidence to backup this assertion? I know there has been a lot of scalping. But, it's hard to evaluate how big of a factor that has been, since we don't know sales numbers.
