PlayStation 3 Sales Up, PS2 and PSP Down

Posted by Chris Lansdell on 02.04.2010

Sony happy with these numbers...

Sony's third quarter financial results were announced earlier today, and it would appear that the new slim PS3 and the price cut have done wonders for the company.

6.5 million PS3s were sold worldwide in the quarter ending December 31, an increase of 2 million year-over-year. Software sales went up even more, from 40.8 million in 2008 to 47.6 million in 2009. However, sales numbers for the older Sony hardware were less impressive.

PSP unit sales dropped from 5.1 million to 4.2 million, while software sales mostly held steady (15 million as opposed to 15.5 million). The PS2 hardware saw a small drop from 2.5 million down to 2.1 million, but it was in PS2 software that the dip was most noticeable, dropping from 29.7 million down to 11.2 million units.

With lower manufacturing costs for the PS3, Sony has been able to balance out the losses. "Despite a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, as well as PSP hardware unit sales, profitability was relatively unchanged mainly due to an improvement in the cost of PS3 hardware," the company said in its report.