Sony: world PS3 sales pass 12.8m consoles
Sony not worried about Xbox 360
Strong sales across all of Sony’s PlayStation hardware range over the past financial year have left the electronics giant feeling confident that it can still fend off Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2008, Sony sold 9.2m PlayStation 3 consoles globally – an increase of 5.6m on the previous financial year's total. That's over-the-counter sales, not shipments to shops, the company stressed. Software sales for the console also increased by 44.6m units, to nearly 58m.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has yet to publish a directly comparable console sales figure. Last month, it said it had sold 19m 360s since the console made its debut, in the US in November 2005. Sony's numbers show PS3 sales total 12.8m units since the machine first went on sale, in November 2006.
Nintendo claims to have shipped 25m Wiis in much the same period.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK spokesman David Wilson told Register Hardware, that Sony is "very pleased" with the PS3’s global sales performance for the past 12 months.
“We’ve quietly beavered away and it’s paying off," he said. "Software titles have been an issue, but things are improving and Grand Theft Auto IV has been a huge success for us.”
Wilson didn’t mention recent GTA IV sales figures from market watcher Chart-Track, which revealed that the Xbox 360 version of the game outsold the PS3 release 62 per cent to 38 per cent.
Although Wilson said little about what’s driving gamers to splash their cash on a PS3 – games or Blu-ray Disc support – he claimed that games will still be the big sales factor going forward.
If you thought that the death knell had already rung for the PS2, then think again. Sony also revealed that although sales for the unit dropped by 980,000 compared to the previous financial year, the company still shifted 13.7m PS2s globally.
But the real success was the PlayStation Portable (PSP) – a firm favourite among Japanese gamers - which notched up sales of 55.5m units globally for the year – an increase of around 800,000 units.
COMMENTS
PSP Numbers?
I checked the Sony Annual Report and it's showing 13.9 million units in FY2007 up from 9.9 million in FY2006 and forecasting 15 million for FY2008.
@Mark
boohooooo. stupid idiot, last ditch attempt, weak. FAIL ahahaaa
WOW!
Nearly 56 MILLION PSP's sold?!!
Christ almighty.
If only Sony hadn't cocked up the easily hackable firmware and lovely pirate game boot-a-bility(much more convienient having games on a card than juggling those poxy discs about), the thing might have had some software selling.
@AC
"Ah, more lies and hearsay...
GTA IV for XBox - 39.99
GTA IV for PS - 39.98"
I'm not sure who the moron is here, I've never paid more than £30 for a 360 title but can't seem to ever find the PS3 title discounted.... that was pretty much my point but thanks for the insult any way ;-)
Oh and as for GTAIV, I wouldn't rate it 10/10 like some of the games magazines but it is pretty good and I guess it's going to take me a lot longer to finish than Halo3 or CoD4 did.
Why bother?
I dont know why I even bother, people are so lost in their <insert multinational corporation> fanboi-ism that they cant even go two seconds without assuming someone who is speaking against the company they worship is in bed with the company's competitor (and their arch-rival). It's as bad as Red vs Blue politics here in the USA.
Shroeder, I despise microsoft, and i never said they were better or less harmful to the world than Sony. In fact I made an effort to state the fact that I consider M$ just as bad as Sony. The point is simply that Sony is bad for all of us, just as all other multi-national corporations are. You stating that M$ is worse thru it's OS monopoly than Sony is thru its harmful (and illegal) activites and anti consumer formats does not take away from the fact that SONY IS BAD FOR US! Get that thru your head, and if you respond, please dont mention M$ I hate M$ like you! Convince me that Sony is not bad, and dont do it by comparing it to another company. Another's actions does not absolve the one in question's guilt.
I own a Linux computer, I search the net with Scroogle (not google), I dont buy proprietary gaming consoles, I use unlocked GSM phones with VoIP, etc, etc. so I'm speaking from a position as one who is very concerned about the future of our world and individual freedom. The corporation is fast overtaking government as the biggest threat to our personal freedoms in the western world. Wake up, your loyalty to a company that does not care about anything but the bottom line is severely misplaced.
@Alex, we got here by what individuals developed, not what corporate entities developed. If anything the corporate model has stagnated many markets (look at the operating system market), and I would say the HD formats are attempting to keep us in the disc age longer than neccessary. Ultimately tho, its not about needing to change anything, its rather more about understanding the realities and working as an individual to free yourself from these attempts at control over you and your life. It is not as hard as it looks, the world we live in has options outside of the ones the multi-national corps give us, they just are not as well advertised.
Alien, because the ideas I have seem to be alien to most people.
