US PS3 sales up 40 per cent year-on-year
Sony feeling "confident" about 2009.
Xbox 360 may be outselling PS3 by nearly 2 to 1 in the US, but Sony has said it's "confident" 2009 will be a great year for PlayStation.
More than 3.6 million PS3 units were sold in the region during 2008 - that's a 40 per cent rise over the previous year's figure.
PS3 game sales reached nearly 6 million units in December, and were up by 116 per cent for the full year. Top sellers included LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Call of Duty: World at War and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
The most popular PSN titles for December were Super Street Fighter II etc., Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer and Linger in Shadows. More than 330 million bits of content have now been downloaded via the service.
More than 1 million PSP units were shifted during the same month, along with 3.7 million games. The best-sellers were Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and God of War: Chains of Olympus, selling a combined 1.31 million units.
Overall, the PlayStation brand generated more than USD 6.4 billion revenue, according to Sony. "We remain confident in our momentum into 2009 as we continue to deliver to our consumers the best entertainment content and technology out there," said exec Peter Dille.
"And we delivered on that promise this past year with one of the best software line-ups in the industry, a dramatically expanded PlayStation Network with the launch of the video delivery service and the beta of PlayStation Home, as well as extended hardware offerings with the PSP 3000 and Uncharted 160GB PS3 bundle.
"We also hit a remarkable milestone for the PlayStation 2 platform in North America with 50 million units sold. It’s truly an amazing testament to the power and legacy of our brand," he added.