Hirai: PS3 can beat PS2

The man standing at the top of Sony’s games business believes PS3 has shrugged off its stuttering start and is on course to become the firm’s most successful console to date.

Speaking in an interview with MCV, SCE CEO Kazuo Hirai says the aim is still for PS3 to outsell PlayStation 2 – a platform that has sold 146m units worldwide in a decade.

38m PS3s have been sold globally since launch in 2006. But Hirai is confident his flagship console can grow to 150m, and by 2016, too.

The high point, looking back at our console business, has been PS2,” he told MCV.

For PS3, that is one level of success we’d like to emulate and hopefully surpass at the end of the ten-year lifecycle.”

Already Sony has seen momentum switch in its favour, with PS3 sales up 57 per cent year-on-year. And the firm has high expectations for Move, which launches in two weeks.

But Hirai feels that in order to go a step further, the company must improve its international focus. He told MCV he’s restructured SCE’s HQ in Japan into three business units – console (PS3 and PS2), handheld (PSP) and accessories. And each unit is charged with looking after its businesses on a global scale.

If it’s right for Japan it’s probably not right for the rest of the world,” he said, acknowledging that power has shifted away from its Tokyo HQ, which will now take a more international approach to business decisions.