PS3 Sales Setting the Stage for a Solid Holiday Season; Total PlayStation Sales Up 20 Percent Year-Over-Year
PlayStation 3 Hardware Unit Sales Top 232,408
PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) again experienced consistent momentum in September 2008, with 232,408 hardware units sold according to The NPD Group, an increase of over 94% year-over-year and an increase of more than 25% over the previous month. Additionally, software sales for PS3 experienced year-over-year growth of 130% with 1.72 million units sold.
Software sales are expected to continue their upward projection in October as SCEA kicks off the holiday season with the highly anticipated launches of LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and NBA ’09: The Inside.
PlayStation®Network remained a popular destination with newly added games and entertainment content such as WipEout HD, Linger in Shadows and PAIN: Amusement Park. There are currently more than 12 million registered accounts worldwide and over 240 million pieces of content have been downloaded worldwide.
PSP also experienced strong sales, with 238,056 hardware units sold.
Fueled by enthusiasm for the limited-edition LEGO Batman: The Videogame PlayStation®2(PS2) Pack, PS2 generated solid sales in September, with 173,527 hardware units sold, 20% growth from last month. An impressive 42.9 million PS2s have been sold in the U.S. as of September 2008.

Power of the PlayStation Portfolio
The PlayStation brand experienced strong sales across all three platforms, earning $379 million in September.
Year-to-date (Jan-Sept), the PlayStation brand has generated $4.03 billion in revenue, representing an increase of 20% year-over-year.
PlayStation total hardware revenue was $160.5 million in September, representing a year-to-year growth of 11%.
PlayStation total software revenue in September was $180 million, representing a year-to-year growth of 17%.

CEO Perspective

“We remain confident that our footing is solid as we enter the holiday season this year. Our new 80GB PS3 model has made its way to retail shelves and into consumers’ living rooms as the best value for both their gaming and entertainment needs. If the impressive pre-sale numbers and ratings for LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, and Resistance 2 are any indication, we anticipate hardware and software sales to continue to lift in October as we officially kick off the broadest and deepest software line-up this holiday, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and NBA ’09: The Inside.

- Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Nintendo News

Unique Controls Put Wii at No. 1 for September NPD; Nintendo DS at No. 2

Backed by a variety of unique interfaces, Nintendo’s Wii™ console topped the U.S. video game hardware sales charts with nearly 687,000 units sold in September, according to the independent NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. Nintendo DS™ was the No. 2 best-selling system, with nearly 537,000 sold.

Wii enjoyed the biggest monthly unit sales increase with 234,000 more units sold in September than August. Wii also saw a year-over-year increase of more than 37 percent over September 2007.

Four games made for Nintendo systems placed in the top 10 best-selling games of the month, including Wii Fit™ at No. 2 with nearly 518,000 sold, Mario Kart™ Wii at No. 4 with more than 353,000 sold, Wii Play™ at No. 7 with nearly 243,000 sold and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Wii at No. 8 with more than 223,000 sold.

“The four Wii games in the top 10 all feature controls just not possible on other video game systems,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “The Wii Balance Board and Wii Wheel give players new ways to interact with their games, while the Wii Remote controller transforms into a pool cue, table tennis paddle or lightsaber. Consumers have truly responded to this variety of entertainment options.”