Sony CEO Claims PS3 on Same Sales Rise as PS2

Sony's recent PlayStation 3 price cut and introduction of a 40GB baseline model spurred PS3 sales this month, which had been relatively weak since launch. In light of this, Sony CEO Howard Stringer told Hollywood Reporter the PS3's momentum at this point rivals that of the PlayStation 2 in its era.

"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," Stringer told Hollywood Reporter. "It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now--particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party--is the same as it was with PlayStation 2."

Though momentum is a somewhat general term, the PlayStation 3 sales at this point certainly don't match that of its predecessor's first year on the market--even with the PS2's 8-months of territorially exclusively Japanese sales. The PS2 had shipped 10.04 million units one year after its Japanese launch.

As of September 30 this year, Sony had sold only 5.59 million units of the PS3. The bump given by 100,000 consoles sold following the recent price cut do little to reconcile the difference between its current console's sales and that of the PS2.

Stringer also emphasized the difficulty developers have had adapting to Sony's new platform, although he claims this was the same of the PS2, furthering the argument that the system's "momentum" should not be considered on par.

"The amount of bandwidth and the processing power of Cell give game manufacturers a lot more work to do to use this system to its full benefit--and it's taken awhile to do it," Stringer added. "The same was true of PlayStation 2."