Customer Needs Identified

Technology

Based on the release date of the previous PlayStation (PS), PS 5 is expected to released in
November 2020. The average years of coming out a new version of PS is in between of 6 to 7
years (Dayus 2019). As the new PS 5 needed a higher spec of television, because PS 5’s CPU
and GPU are AMD chips that will be able to support 3D audio, 8K graphics and ray tracing
(Gurwin 2019). Moreover, Sony also uses some way of technology to connect with their
customers and receive the comment by the customers in order to improve their technology.
According to Sony (2019), Sony employees will listen to every customers’ viewpoints in order to
help Sony to deliver product quality as well as provide a customer service that exceed their
expectations. Apart from that, there is a ‘social’ button in each of the game controller, gamers
can simply press on the social button to write a feedback to Sony or communicate with the
community of PS (CodeFuel Staff 2015).

Volume

In year 2016, Sony has dominated the game console hardware, software and service market with
a total of 57 percent share which is 19.7 billion in total spend by gamers. Sony is expected to rise
its sales to 20 billion in year 2017 as the growth of digital console games are rising (Takahashi
2017). According to Michael Pachter (2019), he has predicted the PS 5 will be coming out in
2020 as the sales for PS 4 are still going strong. When the sales for PS 4 goes down, he believed
that Sony will release the latest version of PlayStation which is PS 5.

Playstation 4 has come to very near of 100 million sales milestones, as it is a very great success
for Sony because it is the 4th best selling home console of all time. It is now chasing after Wii
with the 101.63 million number to become the 3rd all-time best selling home console (Minotti
2019). This is the reason why Sony keep coming out with new version of PlayStation.
Form project team

Set timeline
Analysis

Market analysis

According to GameCentral (2018), current home consoles sales for PS4 is the highest with 88
million at 62 percent while Nintendo Wii U only sold 14 million and locate at 9 percent and
Microsoft XO sold 41 million and takes up 29 percent. However, shares of Sony has dropped 8
percent which is the largest decline over the three years period, although PS 4 has sell off about
100 million unit but due to the long period of surviving in console market, the sales of PS 4 has
also dropped which lead to the incoming of new PS 5 in year 2020 (Emem 2019).

Product analysis

Sony PS has come out with various products which included Play Station, Play Station 2, Play
Station 3, Play Station 4 and more. High end graphics and processing power is the main reasons
why PS is having a good sale. Gamers get to enjoy their favorite game with the high graphic that
is beyond their imagination and all of the Play Station have the Blue-ray play back which allows
to watch movies except the original Play Station. Now, PS also allows to download games online
and support online gaming as well which is the main reason why there are increase number of
sales (Bhasin 2019).

Spending analysis

Sony EMCS Kisarazu

Foxconn Yantai, China

Prequalify Suppliers

Sony wants its suppliers to be working as an equal partner as Sony respects each supplier have
their daily basis that they needed to do and they are also an independent company. As having
mutual trust is the most important, so Sony fully make itself accessible to suppliers in order to
maintain a good relationship. Most importantly, the supplier has to obey the laws, regulations
and social standards. Maintaining the required quality standard from Sony is also a must, as the
quality of product will directly affect the customers. Moreover, cooperating with supply chain
management and maintaining reliable supply in order to produce in a timely, efficient and
flexible manner (Sony 2019).

Reference

Takahashi, D. 2017, ‘Sony dominates console market with 57% share worldwide’, viewed 9
August 2019, <https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/16/sony-dominates-console-market-with-57-
share-worldwide/>.

Gurwin, G. 2019, ‘PS5: Here’s everything we know about the PlayStation 5 so far’, viewed 9
August 2019, <https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ps5-release-date-specs-price-news/>.

Dayus, O. 2019, ‘PS5 Details: Release Date, Specs, Games, Price, And What We Know About
PlayStation 5’, viewed 9 August 2019, <https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps5-details-release-
date-specs-games-price-and-wha/1100-6466357/>.

Pachter, M. 2019, ‘Michael Pachter: Sony Will Wait on PS5 Until After The Next Xbox
Releases’, viewed 9 August 2019, <https://www.ps5playstation5.com/pachter-ps5-waiting-
scorpio/>.
Sony 2018, ‘Responsiveness and Customer Service’, viewed 9 August 2019,
<https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/quality/customer/>.

Codefuel Staff 2015, ‘5 Things the Playstation 4 Can Teach Us About User Needs and Software
Installation Monetization’, viewed 9 August 2019, <https://www.codefuel.com/5-things-the-
playstation-4-can-teach-us-about-user-needs-and-software-installation-monetization/>.

Minotti, M. 2019, ‘PlayStation 4 sales near 100 million milestone as Sony readies for PS5
transition’, viewed 9 August 2019, < https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/26/playstation-4-sales-
near-100-million-milestone-as-sony-readies-for-ps5-transition/>.

Bhasin, H. 2019, ‘Marketing mix of Sony Playstation – Playstation marketing mix’, viewed 9
August 2019, <https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-of-sony-playstation/>.

Sony 2019, ‘What Sony Expects of Suppliers’, viewed 9 August 2019,

<https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/procurementinfo/expectation.html>.

GameCentral 2018, ‘The current state of video game console sales – Reader’s Feature’, viewed 9
August 2019, <https://metro.co.uk/2018/12/29/the-current-state-of-video-game-console-sales-
readers-feature-8275051/>.

Emem, M. 2019, ‘SONY SHARES SINK 8% AMID DECLINING GAMING SALES – IS A

PLAYSTATION 5 COMING IN 2020?’, viewed 9 August 2019, <https://www.ccn.com/sony-
shares-decline-playstation-5-save-the-day/>.