14 DAY TRIAL // Hardware maker and video game publisher Sony has responded to the information that the NPD Group has released related to hardware and software sales on the United States market for the month of October, saying that the PlayStation 3 is the only gaming platform which has seen an increase in software sales over the previous month of the year.
A statement from Sony says, sales are “incredibly strong in October” and suggests that the increase over September has been close or over 50 percent..
Patrick Seybold, who is the senior director of corporate communications at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, has also said, “With next week’s launch of the industry’s most anticipated title, Gran Turismo 5, we’re sure to carry the momentum through the holidays”.
Seybold was also quick to point out that the PS3 does more than gaming, saying “With the growing content and services options for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network, including recently added Hulu Plus and NHL GameCenter, as well as the pending launch of Vudu on PS3, we’re constantly adding additional value to the hardware and consumers are responding.”
Sony has not offered hard figures for sales of the PlayStation 3 home console and the PlayStation Portable handheld with the NPD saying that the Xbox 360 was the only console which has seen an increase over the same month of last year in units moved while the DS managed the most sales overall, despite a drop in actual sales for both it and the Wii..
Analysts are suggesting that the PS3 sold somewhere under 300,000 units, probably closer to 250,000.
Sony has also talked about the PlayStation Move motion tracking device, which apparently increased its sales numbers by 15 percent over September.
The new peripheral faces competition from the Kinect from Microsoft, with the sales rivalry first set to appear in the NPD Group figures for the month of November.