"It’s been a fantastic start”: an interview with Playstation India

The Playstation 4 (PS4) has taken the world by storm. But what opportunities do Sony’s platforms have in India? We talk to Sony Computer Entertainment’s country manager for India, Atindriya Bose, to find out more.

(See: Why finding copies of Sony games is slowly becoming impossible in India)

The PS4 is exceeding expectations

India is not usually a day-one market when it comes to next-generation consoles. As someone who saw the Playstation 2 (PS2) sales take off on advertising the Playstation 3 (PS3), Bose knows that. However this industry veteran sees things playing out differently this time around.

In India, next-gen consoles grow much later in the life-cycle. That’s not the case with the PS4. If I look at this financial year’s numbers and where we’re going to finish off, it’s perhaps in line with the third or fourth year numbers of the PS3. If I compare it to the PS3’s annual sales numbers, it’s around 70 percent of that. It’s been a fantastic start.

Though Bose could not comment on the exact numbers, a previous interview he did pegs the number at an even 50,000 for the PS3 in three years. While it’s not in the millions as in other markets, it is promising. Bose attributes this growth to the global takeoff of next-gen consoles and a changing consumer mindset, along with products that are priced in the same range as the PS4.

India has a substantial number of gamers who are ready to convert and become early adopters of next-gen consoles. Granted that some might find the INR 40,000 ($660) price point steep, but before, the PS3 was the only product in that price range. Now there are a lot of them.

Games are doing equally well

However, hardware sales alone do not make for a successful console. Bose claims that strong software helps, the attach rate (the number of games sold per console) is high in India.