A report by Japanese media claims that Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has managed to sell nearly ninety thousand of PlayStation 3 game consoles in the first two days of sales in the country. The number is two times higher compared to the amount of Microsoft Xbox 360 sold in the first weekend a year ago.

Citing Enterbrain video game magazine publisher, Reuters news-agency reports that Sony sold 88 400 units combined on Saturday and Sunday, depleting stocks at most electronics retailers that were able to get their hands on a limited supply of the console. In total Sony could supply around between 80 and 100 thousand of PlayStation 3 units for its domestic video game fans.

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest producer of software and the maker of Xbox 360 game console, reportedly could sell about 42 000 of its Xbox 360 in Japan in the first weekend of sales back in 2005. But despite of the fact that Microsoft could not outsell Sony in the first couple of days in Japan, the company could supply about 150 thousand of consoles to the territory.

Both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were launched in Japan for reduced price compared to other regions, but even though the Xbox 360 was more affordable, the PlayStation 3 still has managed to demonstrate higher demand towards itself at launch, meaning that at least so far Sony’s main problem is to supply enough gaming machines.

Sony earlier said it would only be able to ship 400 thousand of PlayStation 3 game consoles to the U.S. and 100 thousand to Japan for the launch in November, 2006. During the whole calendar year 2006 the company aims to distribute, according to news reports, two million new-generation consoles, two times less than anticipated. Still, Sony expressed uncertainty about shipping two million of PlayStation 3 game consoles this year and claimed that the figure was more of a target rather than ability or capability.

Sony PlayStation 3 will be launched in the U.S. on November, 17, while residents of the European Union will have to wait till March, 2007.

Sony PlayStation 3 console is based on the Cell processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the RSX graphics chip by Nvidia Corp. and will be equipped with Blu-ray optical disk drive, a hardware part, which is merely available today.