SONY PLANS TO SELL 5 MILLION PLAYSTATION 4 CONSOLES BY THE END OF THE FISCAL YEAR

SONY PLAYSTATION 4

The company just announced during its Tokyo Game Show keynote that it plans to sell a solid five million PlayStation 4 consoles by the end of the fiscal year. It's a bold enough goal on its own, but doubly so when one considers the bomb the company dropped last week: the PS4 won't even launch in Japan until February.

To put that number into perspective, Nintendo's floundering Wii U only sold slightly more than half of that much during its own launch window.

Perhaps a better comparison would be the sales of its own predecessor, the PlayStation 3, which didn't reach the five million mark until almost a year after launch.

Although five million is little more than a drop in the pond for the kind of numbers Sony undoubtedly expects to sell over the next several years, it could give the company a competitive edge over its competition.