Report: Sony Claims 1 Million PS3s Sold In Europe

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) boss David Reeves has claimed that the PlayStation 3 has now sold over one million units in Europe and other PAL territories, since its launch on March 23rd this year. In an editorial for British trade magazine MCV, Reeves claimed the figures were sell-through, rather than simply shipped to stores, saying: “Early last week we went through the one million mark on PS3. And we did that in nine and a half weeks. That was faster than both PS2 and PS one. And I think that the analysts out there will also realize that it’s faster than our brothers and sisters in the competitive world.” Reeves also claimed around two million units of first party software have been sold “into the channel”, with Resistance: Fall of Man selling around 600,000 units in Europe and MotorStorm just over 500,000. Reeves also notes that around 460,000 users have registered to the PlayStation Network in European territories. With regards to the PlayStation 3’s recent lack of major releases, Reeves states that “our big bangs will be arriving around September and October”, indicating that Phil Harrison would be announcing a series of new releases at a later date, which would be “in the arena of social gaming as well as more traditional games”. With no independent hardware sales figures ever made available in Europe, and figures from console manufacturers only released sporadically the implication of these figures is difficult to ascertain. It is known that Sony made one million units available in Europe for the console’s launch, which suggests that this initial shipment has only just become sold out. It is, however, impossible to be certain where sales of the PlayStation 3 console stands in terms of comparison with the Xbox 360 and Wii. PlayStation 3 software can certainly be seen to have had less impact on the European software charts compared to its rivals, though, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that the PlayStation 3 hardware has never been in short supply.