Sony PlayStation 3 Hits One Million Milestone in PAL Regions

by Anton Shilov
06/10/2007 | 11:48 PM

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) said that one million of end-users have acquired Sony PlayStation 3 gaming machine in all countries. Even though one million sell-through units seems to be quite an achievement, not everything is that bright.

“Early last week we went through the one million mark on PS3. And we did that in nine and a half weeks. That was faster than both PS2 and PSOne. And I think that the analysts out there will also realise that it’s faster than our brothers and sisters in the competitive world,” said David Reeves, president of SCEE, in an interview with MCV web-site.

Despite of the fact that PAL regions that are services by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have considerably higher population than the U.S.’s 300 million (population of the European Union alone was estimated to be 728 million back in 2005), it took nearly ten weeks to sell through a million of PS3 game consoles. It was earlier estimated that in the U.S. customers acquired one million PlayStation 3 machines in about 8 weeks.

SCEE earlier said that that on the launch weekend of PS3 it sold about 600 thousand of consoles, which means that during the following weeks the demand towards the new PlayStation have been gradually decreasing, an alarming fact for Sony. Though, not a surprising one, as the PlayStation 3 carries an unbelievable price tag for PAL regions.

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., wireless network and Bluetooth connectivity and is 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.