Sony doesn’t want to harm ‘fragile retail’

PlayStation has vowed not to risk damaging the ‘fragile’ UK retail market with new business models.

The firm responded to Xbox One’s sales restrictions, which could have impact trade-ins. But Microsoft has since changed its mind on its new policies following a consumer backlash.

PS4’s business model remains the same as PS3’s.

We understand the importance of used games for consumers and retail,” said SCEE boss Jim Ryan. We think the current model works and it should not be tampered with.

The retail ecosystem is rather fragile. It’s consumers that have driven the decision. But equally, trying to shore up a very fragile ecosystem in the retail area is something we are quite happy to do.”

Ryan hopes that the PS4 launch will also boost sales of PlayStation consoles in the UK, which has fallen behind Xbox 360.

We have the building blocks in place, I hope, to make a step change in the UK,” he added. Because over the course of the cycle I don’t think we got it quite right in the UK. We now have a number of things in place to help address that. And PlayStation 4 is hopefully the time all those things come together.

PS4 is going to be a proper PlayStation marketing launch. In the UK Fergal [Gara, managing director], Murray [Pannell, marketing director], and the team have been given their orders to go out and do a bang up job. And we will be investing accordingly.”