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PS3 saw year-over-year sales increases during the holiday shopping period following a sluggish November.
Not to be bested in the battle of marketing spins by Microsoft, Sony has released figures of their own to spin people's perception of the PS3's success. Sony claims that the year-over-year drop in sales during November was simply an anomaly and that the system has actually seen much better numbers overall.
There was understandably some concern following the release of the November NPDs when the PS3 was the only system of the three current-gen consoles to sell fewer consoles than in November 2007. But Sony claims this was an unusual set of circumstances that can be traced back to "an abnormally strong month due to a price cut (with) the introduction of the 40GB PS3," referring to that SKU's release on November 2, 2007.
Sony Computer Entertainment America VP Ian Jackson said (via CNET):
We've had a solid holiday season and have delivered consistent growth throughout this year. 2008 was a pivotal year for PlayStation with the best software line up in the industry, a dramatic expansion of PlayStation Network including the launches of the video delivery service and the beta of the PlayStation Home.
Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 percent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season -- since Black Friday -- and we're also seeing a growth of nearly 40 percent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year.
For Sony's sake, hopefully things really are looking up. After the recent Reuters report that suggested Sony may be shutting down "major division" in early February, the company could certainly use a little help.
