Sony forecasts 5 million Playstation 4 sales by March 31, 2014

Source: Sony

Last night (from the point of view of those of us in North America) Sony held a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show. Things have been fairly quiet on the Playstation front recently so I was expecting some kind of big reveal, but it was not to be. It was a fairly short presser and perhaps what wasn't said was more interesting than what was.

We didn't hear any more about a North American or European launch date for the Vita TV. We also didn't see a new VR visor accessory for the Playstation 4 (something that the rumor mill has been talking about for a few weeks).

Instead the press conference was more or less a recap of what we already know about the PS4 and Vita TV, talking about how the two interact and so forth.

We did hear a fairly impressive sales forecast: 5 million Playstation 4s sold by the end of March 2014 (that's about 4.5 months from when the PS4 goes on sale in North America and only about 5 weeks from when it goes on sale in Japan). For comparison purposes, the Playstation 3 took about a year to hit that number. Presumably pre-orders are looking good.

Sony is preparing a PS4 companion app for Android and iOS. The app will let you control your PS4 as well as access your Playstation Network account to view trophies, chat with friends and it will link out to dedicated gaming mini-sites. While this kind of functionality is more or less to be expected in these days where everyone is talking about 'second screen' experiences, it was good to know that Sony isn't going to assume everyone with a PS4 has a Vita to act as a second screen (though you will of course still need to use a Vita for 'Remote Play' capabilities).

Sony also re-iterated that the Playstation 4's 'real name policy' is optional. You can go on using your PSN handle, or opt to use your real name. I'm hoping there's some nuance available there; that we'll be able to expose our real name on a case-by-case basis, but I guess we'll have to wait to see how that works. The important thing is that if using your real name troubles you, don't worry: you won't have to.

And that was about it. No new games were shown, no new last minute secret hardware projects were revealed. Tokyo Game Show is pretty much the last big event before the Playstation 4 launch on November 15th so I guess now we just play the waiting game.

Read more of Peter Smith's TechnoFile blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pasmith. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.