PlayStation Move Controller Shipments Hit 4.1 Million Units [Updated]

[Update 1:00PM - BL] Sony has clarified to Joystiq that it meant these were units shipped to retailers, not sold to consumers. The original wording of the press release only mentions "sales". One might contend that Sony was trying to spin the news a bit by casually referring to units sold to retailers as pure sales.

[Original Story] Doubtless spurred on by Microsoft's boast yesterday that its Kinect motion controller for Xbox 360 has sold over 2.5 million units, Sony today announced that over 4.1 million PlayStation Move magic wands have been sold shipped worldwide since September's launch.

Accurate "as of November 2010," the figure is purely for the Move controller itself, excluding the PlayStation Eye camera also required to use the Move and the optional--but preferable--navigation controller. PlayStation Move launched on September 15 in Europe, September 19 in North America and October 21 in Japan.

Not intending to draw a meaningless comparison or stoke furious Internet shouting matches, for the sake of completeness we state simply that Kinect's 2.5 million sales were made in the four-ish weeks following its launch on November 4.

According to Sony, "The number not only shows clear success of the launch of the new motion sensing controller but also indicates positive momentum going in to the holiday season and to the year 2011." Microsoft is similarly optimistic about the power of motion control, forecasting that Kinect will sell 5 million units by the year's end.