Sony: PS3 Sells 3.8M Units Over Holiday, 1.7M In US

Retailers sold through 3.8 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide over the course of the 2009 holiday season, 1.7 million of which were in the U.S., Sony announced today. Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai revealed the figures during a press conference held at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Hirai said the worldwide figure makes for a 76 percent year-on-year improvement, and the PS3's best holiday sales. The company noted that it treated the "holiday season" as the period from November 26 (thus including the post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" shopping day) to December 28 in North America, November 21 to December 25 in Europe and other PAL areas, and November 23 to December 27 in Japan and Asia. Hirai also said PlayStation Network, its online service for PlayStation 3 and PSP, has reached a user base of 38 million accounts since its 2006 launch, and now spans 36 countries and 12 languages. Its content streaming service includes 2,700 movies and 16,000 television episodes, with a monthly download volume of 780 million pieces of content. Sony plans to take that content service beyond its gaming devices. Next month it will extend PSN to Bravia TVs, Blu-ray devices, and "all Windows-enabled PCs." Hirai touched on Sony as a conglomerate, admitting that "it's clear we need a more centralized organization structure to maximize the opportunities before us." As such, Sony has established the subsidiary Sony Network Entertainment, Inc., which Hirai leads. "SNEI will drive vision, strategy, and execution for network services across the entire Sony group," Hirai said, claiming the group will be a "key driver for Sony's future growth." With SNEI, "We establish a more intimate relationship with the customer, and increase the visibility and desirability of Sony products," he added.