PS2 climbs to 120m sales

Sony has happily reminded us all that the PlayStation 2 has sold more than 120 million units after nearly seven years in the shops. That is considerably higher than rivals Xbox with 24 million and GameCube with 22 million.

The figures come as part of a gloomy earnings report for the electronics giant (well spotted, Gamespot), which saw operating losses double in its entertainment division even though revenues were up by nearly 50 per cent.

In Sony's own words it was "due to the loss arising from the strategic pricing of [the PlayStation 3] at points lower than its production costs and PS3-related inventory write-downs."

During the summer months Sony managed to sell 1.31 million PS3 consoles around the world, 3.28 million PS2s and 2.58 million PSPs.

Software led on PSP at 12.6 million, followed by PS3 at 10.3 million and PS2 at 9.2 million.

Some observers feel the continued success of Sony's last generation console to stump up income has lead to backwards compatibility being removed from the new 40GB PS3 SKU.