Sony's Ceo Says Over Half Of PS4 Owners Have PS+
More and more people join the PS+ movement.
According to statements from Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai in a corporate strategy meeting, at least half of every two people who own PS4’s has a Playstation Plus account.
The high percentage of PS4 units tied to Playstation Plus subscriptions goes well with Hirai's statements that the PS4 will go on to become more profitable than the PS2, as Hirai cited digital services like Playstation Plus as a major factor for his prediction. 
Sony´s CEO. Mr Kazuo Hirai.
Hirai noted that Sony raked in more than 200 billion yen (~$1.9 billion) through network services in the fiscal year of 2013, and he expects that number to increase going forward. Here’s his speech excerpt concerning the plans for the Playstaton Plus program well into 2015:
"Let me begin by talking about our Game and Network Services business.
This fiscal year we are set to consolidate our leading position in the home console market by further expanding PS4 sales around the world. Following its introduction in North America in November 2013, in 5 months, PS4 has launched in 72 countries and regions achieving cumulative sell-through of 7 million units as of April 6. It’s been a hugely successful launch, but the key to the long term success of the platform lies in how solidly we can continue to grow the installed base.
In terms of game titles for PS4, as of April 13, 47 titles had been launched with a total of 20.5 million units being sold via retailers and over the network on the PlayStation Store. By extracting the best creativity from all of our partners in the game development community, PS4 has dramatically expanded the possibilities of game play. But at the same time, PS4 is also designed to provide the kinds of social experiences via the network that offer users a richer gaming experience than ever before.
PS4’s remote play function also allows users to easily enjoy the PS4 experience on their PlayStation Vita, expanding the PS4 gaming experience beyond your living room, and making it available anytime, anywhere. From a profitability perspective, PS4 is also already contributing profit on a hardware unit basis, establishing a very different business framework from that of previous platform businesses.
The network functions that are possible with PS4 continue to evolve by the day. Approximately half of PS4 users are registered to the PlayStation Plus subscription service, while the number of active users on the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network exceeds 52 million worldwide. Many of our users now enjoy an array of game, music and video content via the network.
And our PlayStation App for smartphones and tablets that lets players share their PS4 experience to their mobile devices, is also proving hugely popular, with the total number of downloads already exceeding 4.5 million. Sales from our network business including game, music and video services exceeded 200 billion yen in fiscal 2013, and we intend to further expand that figure going forward.
When I was telling you about our entertainment business earlier, I said that the shift in digital content delivery from downloads to streaming is only going to accelerate. In the case of game content, the data format is completely different from movies and other video content, so there needed to be a technological revolution before we could switch from distributing game content via downloads to streaming.
But starting this summer, we will begin distributing PS3 games via streaming to our users in the U.S. on an open beta version of our new PlayStation Now streaming service, first for PS4 and then PS Vita. And that’s just the first step. Going forward, we will use streaming to deliver the PlayStation experience worldwide. We also plan to make PlayStation Now compatible with new “BRAVIA” LCD TVs to be launched in the U.S. market this year. And in the future, we intend to extend its availability to a wide range of networked devices.
Our vision for network services at Sony -- a vision of launching a revolution in entertainment with cloud-based services -- goes beyond games. Within the year we will be introducing in the U.S. a new, cloud-based television service that is even more personal and dynamic, and even more attuned to our customers’ tastes and viewing habits. It combines the television programs that have received such strong praise from our customers on cable TV, with the dynamic viewing experience people want from a digital media service.
Because it will be possible for our customers to enjoy both the most popular new TV programs, and a broad video-on-demand content library on this new service, they will be able to see all their favorite movies, TV shows and sports programming in one place. We are also working to make it incredibly easy to access exactly what you want to see from this vast library of content.
At Sony we plan to provide a revolutionary experience that intelligently brings together cloud-based live television, video-on-demand, and content saved on customers’ digital video recorders -- that also makes it possible to easily and seamlessly access it all, at any time, on any device.
So, as you can see, in the Game and Network business we are set to secure even greater sources of profit by further expanding our content, software and network services on the firm foundation of a platform business that continues to generate stable profit itself, and offer our customers even more new and exciting entertainment experiences. This year marks the 20th anniversary of PlayStation. The PS2 platform was the biggest success until now in terms of profit, but I believe that PS4’s hardware, software and services have the potential to combine and develop into a platform capable of generating even greater profit." - Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai
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