So the PS3 is too expensive, it has got no games, Sony lied their arses off in the pre-hype, no one cares about Blu-ray, yadda yadda yadda. A barrage of press themed in this fashion hasn’t painted Sony in a pretty light over the last few years and to be fair, each one of those attacks – and many more besides – all have a foot solidly grounded in reality. It has been enough to convince a lot of gamers that the PS3 was a big waste of time and that it was left to Nintendo and Microsoft to duke it out for this generation’s console crown. C’mon hands up: that’s what you thought, right? Well, you’d be wrong… it would seem…

While having a chinwag with the local Sony lads and ladies yesterday they dropped an interesting piece of information – a bumper Christmas period has seen the PS3 race to 175,000 sales in Australia. Buoyed by the new, cheaper PS3 SKU and an influx of quality and brand games (Ratchet & Clank, SingStar, Uncharted), as well as an intelligent marketing campaign (Sony claim 20,000 PS3s found homes on the back of the Sony Bravia HDTV deal) Sony is back in the game, big time.

Given that the PS3 went on sale on March 23rd 2007 in Australia, it has been available for 43 weeks at the time of writing. At its current average of 4070 units sold per week, it would be fair to estimate that the PS3 will hit 200,000 units sold at the end of February, following a shelf time of 49 weeks. Why is this important? In November Nintendo proudly told the world that it was the fastest selling console in history, reaching 200,000 units sold faster than any other system (including handhelds) before it. Nice record, but it took 55 weeks to achieve.

If things stay on track for Sony, they could be trumpeting their own horns in a few short weeks. Despite all its problems, the PS3 could be on the verge of storming to victory as the fastest selling console to date. Even if you whispered those words quietly to your teddy bear in the wee hours of the night a few months ago laughter would have echoed up from the streets below.

We contacted Microsoft to suss out their stance. They’re claiming they’ve sold 340,000 units across Australia and New Zealand. We find that hard to believe. Since Nintendo was telling anyone who listened how the Wii was the fastest ever console to sell 200,000 units only two months ago in November – as in it got there before the Xbox 360 – then we can only infer that this figure of 340,000 is a ‘shipped’ rather than ‘sold’ estimate. Either that or the Kiwis have been punching well above their weight. Certainly we received no ‘First to 300,000’ press release.

To be fair, Sony could be yanking our chains a little too, but it certainly wasn’t said in that fashion. Hell, it wasn’t even said with positive press in mind, just a state-of-play comment from someone in the know, the impact of which only dawned on us a few hours later. If it’s true, and Sony is on the cusp of hitting 200,000, it would be a massive reversal in fortunes for the company, and a devesting blow for its two rivals.


This is particularly true given our report earlier today that the Xbox 360’s 2007 sales were quite disappointing. It would seem that only the hardcore want an Xbox, and the hardcore have already bought one, leaving Sony to tap back into the greater mainstream just like last gen.

Could these stories add further weight to our claims that the Xbox 720 will release in 2009, and the PS4 in 2014?


Via GamePlayer

WOW! PS3 might pull through....I didnt think that it would happen but I guess I was wrong. I really dont care though lol I just hope that this encourages sony to make lots more games for the ps3!

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tm9

Looking forward to the 720!