PS3 sales up 300%, Sony to release 25 exclusives over holidays, PS3 closing gap on 360

Sony Computer Entertainment of America have revealed exciting and impressive statistics regarding sales of the PlayStation 3 during the first week of September. Sony’s top retailers have announced a 300% increase in PS3 hardware sales and a general increase of 140% in total hardware revenue, since the launch of the PlayStation 3 Slim Edition on the first of September 2009. These statistics, adopted from the first week of September, are in comparison to the week before the $100 (about R760-R800) price cut, which set the PS3 at a total cost of $299 (roughly R2266.94). Also Sony mentioned that in addition, according to the OTX industry survey of August, out of the top10 titles that gamers are looking forward to, five of them are on the PS3, namely God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo 5, and Modern Warfare 2. Sony have revealed that they plan to release a shocking, yet tremendously exciting, 25 exclusives through the “holiday season” and into early 2010. These exclusives could be anything from PSN downloadable titles to full retail ones, which is just as awesome as it is impressive. We await details on these exclusive titles.

Furthermore, NPD, a market research company, figures for August 2009 reveal that Sony sold a massive 210 000 PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S, which amounts to an impressive 72% rise in sales compared to July. This figure of 210 000 puts the PS3 only 5400 units behind the Xbox360, which shifted 215 400 units during this time. Both the PS3 and Xbox360 have recently received price cuts, but take into consideration that the PS3 Slim edition console only released on the 1st of September, ultimately meaning that Slim sales did not effect the August’s hardware sales results. Below is the hardware sales chart for August 2009:

Console	Units Sold
Nintendo DS	552 900
Nintendo Wii	277 400
Xbox360	215 400
PlayStation 3	210 000
PlayStation Portable (PSP)	140 300
PlayStation 2	105 900

Ultimately, this is great news both Sony and PS3 owners, as it seems the PS3 is, at last, dramatically picking up. The year 2009 has been the PlayStation 3′s greatest one without a doubt, which is really exciting when thinking of its future and promise to be around for a complete ten year life cycle.