Sony Versus Microsoft: Corporate Handbag Waving

With the NPD US games industry sales figures for May now out, Sony and Microsoft have both piped up to point out how well they've done compared to the other in GTA IV sales.

From Sony Computer Entertainment America we have a statement from its president and CEO, Jack Tretton, reading, “The dual platform release of the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV title reaffirmed its legacy on the PlayStation platform with a 6 percent higher attach rate than Xbox 360, reinforcing consumer choice of PS3.”

'...reinforcing consumer choice'. Nice one.

From Microsoft, we have a statement telling us, “Grand Theft Auto IV continues blistering pace on Xbox 360 platform, beating the other platform version by 2:1.”

'The other platform'... Nice one.

All that posturing and neither company saw much in the way of a hardware sales boost thanks to the release of GTA IV...

For earlier corporate bickering over GTA IV, click here.

Nintendo, with no GTA IV to chat about, makes do with pointing out that it took a 63% share of the console hardware market and a 71% share of the handheld market in May. Lifetime US sales of the Wii now stand at nearly 10.2 million in the States, with the DS at more than 20 million. Nintendo also points out that 19 out of the 30 best selling games in the US for May were on Nintendo platforms. Remember that NPD breaks down the top-selling games into sales on individual platforms.

Also of note from Sony is the assertion that “PlayStation total hardware revenue was $133 million in May, 98 percent higher than Microsoft, and representing a year-over-year growth of over 20.4 percent.” The company also brings to light PS2 hardware sales, telling us it shifted, “132,708 units, up 6.7 percent over the previous month”. 32% of US PS3 owners have bought themselves a copy of GTA IV.

In the 'also of interest' column for Microsoft we have the fact that the 360 now has a global installed base of “more than 19 million”. There was also a bit of a tease. After pointing out the titles it showed off last month, Microsoft tells us, “We still have quite a few aces left up our sleeve; see you at E3 next month!”

We'd like to point out that our Dad is bigger than all of their dads put together.

^{Sources: Nintendo, Videogamer, Xbox-Scene}