PS3 Price Cut Doubles Sales

Weekly PlayStation 3 sales in the US have more than doubled since Sony cut the console's price and introduced a new stock keeping unit (SKU), according to the platform holder.

Sony said it had sold over 100,000 PS3s in the week ending November 11th. That compares to figures of around 30,000 and 40,000 in the weeks preceding the price cut.

Howard Stringer, Sony's CEO, seemed relieved. "It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating", he said. "We've been holding our breath." (For a whole year!)

"Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the year on PS3", Stringer went on. "Finally, the turning point has been passed."

Since the US price cut on October 18th, punters have been able to get their hands on an 80GB PS3 for $499 (£244) and the 40GB model for $399 (£195).

Sales apparently hit 75,000 in the week ending November 4th, jumping to 100,000 the following week.

Stringer reckons that shortages of Wii hardware have helped the PS3. "It's a little fortuitous that the Wii is running out of hardware", he said.

As of October, the PS3 was trailing the Wii in terms of worldwide sales by 9.3 million to 5 million, with both consoles having seen their initial release at around the same time. The 360, meanwhile, which launched two years ago, has sold around 11.6 million units.

Sony also seemed pretty chuffed about what this means for the Blu-ray HD DVD format. "It puts us vastly ahead of where the other format is going to be in terms of an installed base in people's homes by the end of this holiday season," said Sony's chief marketing officer, Andrew House.

^{Source: Forbes}