Sony Computer Entertainment America Projects Fifth Record-Breaking Holiday Season for Playstation

Business Wire, Nov 18, 1999

FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1999--

Consumers Pick PlayStation(R) Over Movies as Dollar Sales for October

Top the Overall U.S. Box Office Intake for the Month

As an early indicator of what promises to be a successful holiday season for retailers nationwide, sales for industry leader Sony Computer Entertainment America's PlayStation business surpassed movie box office receipts for the month of October.(1) With its market share for both hardware and software exceeding an impressive 60 percent, PlayStation outsold its competitors by an average margin of more than 2 to 1 during this period, despite new entries into the market.

Strong sales for the category overall and increased market demand for PlayStation products has caused the company to recast its overall holiday retail outlook for 1999. Sony Computer Entertainment America expects overall retail sales of PlayStation branded products - including hardware, software and peripherals - to top more than $1 billion for the 1999 holiday selling season. Currently, more than one in every five U.S. homes owns a PlayStation game console, bringing the total PlayStation installed base to more than 22 million units in North America.

"As anticipated, sales have increased significantly this year but moving into the holidays, the PlayStation momentum has exceeded even our own expectations as the demand for hardware may outstrip supply this season," said Jack Tretton, vice president, sales, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "With PlayStation we have been able to break down the conventional barriers in entertainment by bringing together interactive games, music and cinematic visuals in a variety of games. This mix of entertainment has opened the door for our industry to a host of consumers who traditionally were not interested in games."

To support this increasing consumer demand, the company unveiled its most expansive marketing campaign to date with a $150 million spend. With $75 million allocated towards fourth quarter alone, extensive activities include an array of strategic partnerships with national brands such as MTV, Pizza Hut, Fox Kids and The Cartoon Network, and an aggressive broadcast advertising campaign airing during major network, cable and syndicated programming.

"There are very few consumer entertainment products that have been able to dominate their category for five successive holiday seasons," said Sean McGowan, executive vice president and director of research, Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. "Sony Computer Entertainment America's PlayStation business continues to demonstrate momentum fueled by a strong library of titles and aggressive pricing structure."

With continued strength in both hardware and software, Sony Computer Entertainment America continues to retain its commanding lead in the videogame industry, a lead it has held for more than 30 months. Based on the life-to-date figures in the October TRSTS reports from the NPD Group, a leading source of information on the videogame industry, PlayStation commands more than 60 percent of the overall next generation hardware market and 67 percent of the overall next generation software market. In addition, PlayStation continues to lead the industry with an impressive software-to-hardware tie ratio of 7 to 1.

In October alone, PlayStation titles accounted for five of the top 10 spots on the videogame chart and more than 60 percent of the unit sales - more than double the software sales of its closest competitor. Based upon this sales data, top hits for the holidays include Driver(TM) from GT Interactive, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater(TM) from Activision, CTR (Crash Team Racing)(TM), Dino Crisis(TM) from Capcom, Final Fantasy(R) VIII from Square EA and Pac-Man World 20th Anniversary from Namco, among others.

As consumers continue to purchase the PlayStation game console at an escalating pace, demand for software has also dramatically spiked, particularly sales of new titles to the "Greatest Hits" library. The "Greatest Hits" line-up is a series of the most popular PlayStation games, available for as low as $19.99. Recent "Greatest Hits" software blockbusters have included Crash Bandicoot: WARPED(TM), Gran Turismo(TM), Final Fantasy(R) VII and Frogger(R) from Hasbro Interactive.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, a division of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., markets the PlayStation game console for distribution in North America, develops and publishes software for the PlayStation game console, and manages the U.S. third party licensing program. Based in Foster City, Calif., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Note (1): According to movie receipts complied for Variety, total domestic gross box office for October 1999 was $505.2 million.

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