Sony’s PlayStation 3 Sets Launch Record in Europe

by Anton Shilov
04/02/2007 | 10:29 PM

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has reportedly sold 600 thousand of its latest PlayStation 3 game consoles in just two days, which is a spectacular result for <%BANNER[article]%>Europe, a region that Sony has not been considering as critical for its business.

Sony said it estimated that about €400 million worth of PS3 consoles, games and peripherals were sold across Europe on launch weekend, reports Financial Times. Since in addition to the European Union the console was also launched in Australia, New Zealand and other PAL countries and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe typically reports on those regions as well, it is unclear whether 600 thousand of consoles were sold in Europe only or across all PAL countries.

Sony’s sales figures for the PlayStation 3 in Europe are higher compared to the launch weekends in Japan and the USA, where demand significantly exceeded supply. However, by late March the company managed to substantially improve the number of consoles manufactured.

Considering the exceptionally high price on the PAL version of the PlayStation 3 and its limited backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 games, selling 600 thousand of such consoles is a spectacular achievement, as Sony succeeded in selling more consoles than its rivals Nintendo and Microsoft managed to during the launch weekends.

Initially Sony only sells higher-end PlayStation 3 version of the console, with 60GB hard disk drive, for €599 ($777) in the most of the markets and for pricing close to that in variety of countries (UK – £425 ($837), Ireland – €629 ($816), Australia – AUD 999.95 ($777), New Zealand – NZ 1199.95 ($840)).

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. There are two versions of the PlayStation console available in the USA and Japan: one is equipped with 20GB hard disk drive and priced at $499, another features 60GB hard drive, card reader and some other improvements and is offered for $599.