Sony recently reported that it sold 6.5 million PlayStation 3s worldwide between the months of October and December 2009. That is 2 million more units sold compared to the same quarter last year. The increase in sales is largely driven by the reduced price tag, and the slimmer model.
The same Q3 quarter for 2009 saw a decline in the sales of Sony’s other gaming systems, the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 2. The PS2 sold 2.1 million units in Q3 2009 compared to 2.5 million the year before. Still, given the age of the console, 2.1 million units pushed is impressive. The PSP saw the biggest drop in sales, 5.1 million in Q3 2008 compared to 4.2 million in Q3 2009. It appears the introduction of the PSPgo has not had a great positive impact.
In addition, Sony is profitable for the first quarter in more than a year. However, the games division is still running even. Sony attributes this to the decrease in PS2 and PSP sales and the cost of the PS3 hardware.