New PS3 has sold over one million

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 September, 2009

Tretton reckons shortages are possible.

Sony has announced that the new slimmer PlayStation 3 unit has sold one million units since its worldwide launch at the beginning of September, based on the platform holder's internal estimates.

"We are up about 300 per cent over where we were pre-price drop," Sony of America boss Jack Tretton told Reuters this week. "If things continue at this pace, it is conceivable that there will be product shortages."

The slim PS3 - officially just called the PlayStation 3 - is considerably thinner and more efficient than its predecessor, and comes with a 120GB hard disk and all the other features the previous unit had from the 40GB/80GB revision onward.

You can see what we made of it in our massive slim PlayStation 3 hardware test, which also demonstrates just how little power the thing sucks up under load compared to the old one.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bag-in-box #1 2 years ago

    250Gb?

  • LazyDan #2 2 years ago

    I've never even been remotely tempted by a PS3 before, but now I am.

    Guess their marketing's working!? I think I was impressed by the fact they managed to get a very brief image of Dot Cotton in their super flash youthy TV ad, which is amazing.

    New phone, netbook or PS3 slim?! DECISIONS!

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 2 years ago

    That brilliant for Sony and shows new pricing and hardware cuts it far better and positive start for Xmas battlefest.

  • Johnsters #4 2 years ago

    If only they had brought out the Bitsteam 7.1 DTS MA capability from the start, I wouldn't have had to buy a 2nd Bluray player :-(
    That and the Bravia link would have been welcome feature that the Slim offers.

    Curse my early adoption

  • Arwin #5 2 years ago

    No, 120GB. There are a few 250GB versions announced, but that is not what this report is about. So hopefully Eurogamer will correct that. ;)

  • Beek4257 #6 2 years ago

    @Johnsters
    Cheer up, at least your PS3 is backward compatible :)

  • Dave52 #7 2 years ago

    @Arwin: "No, 120GB. There are a few 250GB versions announced, but that is not what this report is about. So hopefully Eurogamer will correct that. ;) "

    Agreed, but it's still a piece of piss to put a large hard drive in (got a 320gb in my PS3 chunky).

  • shotgun44 #8 2 years ago

    I even want one and I already have the BC 60 gig one!

  • Darren #9 2 years ago

    Ah no... shortages... I'm just about to send my launch 60 GB HDD model off for a repair to TCR and I've been told that if they can't repair it that I'd be issued with a voucher entitling me to a new PS3 from GAME. Knowing my luck I'll need to use it and there won't be any slim PS3s available locally. If I'm forced to get a new PS3 then it's that one I want if only for the Bravia Sync feature (as I own a Sony Bravia HDTV).

    I wouldn't have been so desperate to get my PS3 back if it wasn't for the fact that Uncharted 2 is being released mid-October. That's the game I've been most looking forward to playing all year so I simply MUST have a PS3 by then. Fortunately, I bought a standalone BD player a couple of month's back (ironically so I had a backup player!) so I can at least watch my Battlestar Galactica BDs while I wait. I'd have been pissed off otherwise.

    Good news on the sales figures though.

  • Doctor_What #10 2 years ago

    @ EarlBassett: drum up publicity by deliberately not selling consoles... Yes... I see their cunning plan.

    Not everything in the world is a marketing conspiracy.

  • el_pollo_diablo #11 2 years ago

    Sony are in no position to be playing the 'shortages' game, shirley?

  • comissars_handgun #12 2 years ago

    Hmmm I still remember the huge piles of unsold PS3s we had when it launched and I worked at Game, and Tretton was going on about how well it was selling. That man could tell me the Pope is Catholic and I'd have to call the Vatican to check.

    Having said that the slim PS3 does look very nice and I'd probably buy one if I wasn't so broke.

  • El-Dev #13 2 years ago

    1m in under a month, that's pretty good figures. I wonder how it will do over the Christmas period. I'm interested to see how the release of FF13 will impact sales in Japan, they generally tend to go bat shit crazy for those games.

  • BOFH_UK #14 2 years ago

    Hmmm.... while I'm sure they have sold that many I'm not entirely convinced that it's a decent trend line. After all, we know that sales in the week(s) leading up to launch were very very low so there's definately some pent up demand being satisfied there. In addition at least some of those sales were actually trade ins where users with the old model basically paid £80 for the new console and the new warranty that came with it.

    The real interesting fight begins about now as the initial price drop sales burst for both PS3 and 360 dies down and we head into christmas. Personally I can still see this being a very close fight, especially if Microsoft bring the US rebate offer over here...

  • moggsy #15 2 years ago

    'yes great plan, have a shortage of consoles deliberatly in the leadup to your biggest selling period of the year'

    No, you're missing the point. You don't actually have a shortage you just say that you do.

  • theiceman #16 2 years ago

    @ Darren

    I'm also waiting for my ps3 to be delivered to me. But i'm in too minds as what to do with my 60gb.
    a)keep it and hope it doesn't mess up again
    b)Sell it and get a slim with a 12 month warranty
    Decisions decisions decisions.....
    Edited by 1 at 24/09/09 @ 11:40

  • des #17 2 years ago

    uh,oh PR is mentioning shortages...how exciting

    The best part is "based on Sony internal estimates".
    There where 0 PS3 slims on market before September and other models have gone the way of the dodo...stuff the channels Sony,to avoid shortages...lol

  • fjharps #18 2 years ago

    Don't get people with the original 60gb PS3 that wants to trade it in for the newerslim model but yet inferior one in the end. The original PS3s has 4 USB hubs has a multi memory card reader and to top it up it plays most of the ps1/2 games all this things for me are priceless as my ps3 apart from playing games is a media hub.

  • Grayvern #19 2 years ago

    Because on a 40" tv ill never be able to finish persona 3 because it gives me headaches after an hour or so. The multi card reader is no loss it adds literally 1 step in the transfer process. Which is no great shame, I don't think the PS3 even displays sony's own brand raw files.

    And if the PS3 is a media hub then surely you have your computer as a server and don't need the card slots. Who the hell uses cards not memory sticks to transfer files anyway.

    They are handy but you can get along without them and the new fan and energy saving are very tempting esp if you can trade in the old PS3 and get a slim for £80.

    Although I don't get the fuss about the bravia link because it's only a fun addition not a buyers incentive. However given that sony may put 3d processing in ps3 so it can be used on most HDTV's then I'm inclined to wait and see.
    Edited by 1 at 24/09/09 @ 14:47

  • davisorle #20 2 years ago

    so what ever happened to the 999% sale increase? lmao

  • makeamazing #21 2 years ago

    That was in the first week of launch or something I think.

  • VMerken #22 2 years ago

    1.000.000 > 9.000