16 Million PS3s Sold to Date in SCEE Regions, It Says
Sixteen million of the 38 million PS3s that have been sold globally have been sold in Sony Computer Entertainment Europe regions, SCEE CEO Andrew House said Tuesday at his company’s Gamescom news conference in Cologne, Germany. In comparison, about 13 million PS3s had been sold in the U.S. through July (CED Aug 16 p7).
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Driven by sales of the slimmer and lighter PS3 that shipped in September 2009, PS3 sales have grown 57 percent since April 1, the start of Sony’s new fiscal year, versus the same period a year ago, House said. PS3 software sales, meanwhile, are up 38 percent from a year ago in the same period, compared to an overall market decline in software of 2 percent, SCEE said. The sales growth was driven by games including Sony’s God of War III, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 3: Among Thieves, it said.
The two new PS3 models that SCE America announced on Tuesday (CED Aug 18 p5) will also ship overseas, SCEE said. The new 320-GB model is replacing the existing 250-GB model, and will be available as part of an exclusive PlayStation Move bundle at 349 euros in Europe, SCEE said. The new 160-GB model will cost the same 299 euros as the current 120-GB model there, and the older model will be phased out as of October, House said.
The streaming music service VidZone had delivered nearly 500 million videos into homes throughout the SCEE region, SCEE said. House introduced an upgrade for the PlayTV HD/DVR accessory for the PS3 that’s only been available in Europe and Australia. PlayTV Live Chat, launching later this year, will bring community functionality to the add-on device, enabling on-screen text discussion, SCEE said. Six more TV channels are being added to Sony’s Catch up IPTV streaming service, the company said. The new channels are Animax in Germany, TV3 in Spain, ITV in the U.K., Yahoo 7’s PLUS7 in Australia, YLE in Finland, and following its initial success, an expanded NOS service in Holland, SCEE said.
New games for the PS3 that were highlighted at Gamescom included Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, introduced at the conference by Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price. Other coming games include Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet 2, InFamous 2, Sorcery, DC Universe Online and Time Crisis: Razing Storm. PlayStation Move is launching Sept. 15 in Europe, with pricing for the motion controller coming in at 39.99 euros there and the navigation controller another 29.99 euros. A starter pack including the motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera and starter disc will cost 59.99 euros.
Gran Turismo 5, along with Killzone 3 and Motorstorm Apocalypse, will be among the latest stereoscopic 3D PS3 games, following Pain and Wipeout HD, SCEE said.
Global sales of the PSP reached 9.9 million in Sony’s fiscal year ended March 31, SCEE said. The company didn’t elaborate on sales data for its handheld system, which is still selling strong in Japan but not elsewhere. Last year’s sales were “driven by services” including Digital Comics, it said. More than 3 million comics have been downloaded, while more than 1 million mini PSP games were downloaded, it said. New games that will be added to the PSP Essentials line of 9.99 euro titles this year include Wipeout Pure, Patapon, Buzz!: Quiz World, Lemmings and Everybody’s Golf.
Nintendo and Microsoft didn’t hold news conferences at Gamescom. But Microsoft said at the show that several Xbox Live games will launch on Windows Phone 7 and Live-enabled titles including Fable III and Age of Empires Online will launch on the PC this fall. Windows Phone 7 marks “the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft,” said Matt Booty, general manager of mobile gaming for Microsoft Game Studios. “The first wave of launch portfolio titles” will feature Xbox Live games from Microsoft as well as third-party publishers including Gameloft, Konami Digital Entertainment, Namco Bandai, PopCap and THQ, Microsoft said. The initial titles will include Glu Mobile’s Guitar Hero 5, Microsoft’s The Harvest and Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, PopCap’s Bejeweled Live, and PressPlay’s Max and the Magic Marker. “Additional titles in the launch portfolio will be released between now and the Windows Phone 7 launch this holiday season,” Microsoft said. Once Windows Phone 7 launches, new Xbox Live titles “will be added to the games portfolio every week,” it said.