Breaking: Sony Confirms 1 Million PS3s Shipped in U.S.

Author: by Staff

As part of an initial press conference at CES in Las Vegas, officials from Sony have confirmed that the company has shipped 1 million units of the PlayStation 3 in the United States up to the end of 2006, still promising 6 million worldwide by the end of March 2007. The overall theme of the press conference, which included all of Sony's product lines and focused relatively little on the PlayStation 3 product line, was that of Sony "continuing its transformation into an entertainment powerhouse". In fact, the most significant announcement related to Sony's Xross Media Bar (XMB), already used in the PSP and PlayStation 3, making its way to television GUIs in 2007 to help deliver IPTV and streaming online video. According to the company, the majority of new Sony televisions -- starting with several Bravia flat-panel LCD TVs this spring -- will accept an attachable module that can stream broadband high-definition and other Internet video content with the press of a remote control button. The module will be available this summer, and content will come from sources including AOL, Yahoo! and Grouper, now part of Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as Sony Pictures itself and Sony BMG - however, none of this streaming video content has yet been confirmed for the PlayStation 3. For the PlayStation 3 portion of the talk, Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, officially announced that the company shipped one million units of PS3 in the United States by the end of December. He also pointed to 6 million by the end of Sony's financial year. More information on Sony's plans are possible in a separate PlayStation 3 conference later in the week, and Gamasutra will cover news from CES, including Microsoft's new announcements, in the near future.