Sony reports stellar sales stats

In a statement released in Japan shortly after midnight Pacific Standard Time, the consumer electronics giant reported that it had reached the milestone of having shipped 70 million PS2 units into the retail channel worldwide. Shortly after this news crossed the wires, SCEA chimed in with its own set of sales figures, which specifically indicated that it had sold roughly 3 million PS2 units during the peak holiday sales season of November and December 2003 in North America.

Speaking with SCEA executive vice president Andrew House shortly before the North American figures were announced, he told GameSpot that about 31 percent of these North American sales were driven by the PlayStation 2 Combo Pack (the $199 bundle that includes the console, network adapter, and ATV Offroad Fury 2). House called this fact a “key data point” for SCEA. House said, “It underlies the whole idea that there was a lot of pressure on pricing.”

House added, “It certainly has bumped up our presence in terms of connected PlayStations and the online PS2 market very, very considerably.” House said there are now 2.4 million connected consoles in the marketplace. “I think we’ve gone from a slow starting point, vis-a-vis the competition, to pretty nearly overtaking them in an area that is supposedly one of their core strengths.”

House commented on the “strong tailwind toward the latter end of December,” saying that--as other specialty retailers had reported--a majority of the consoles were sold during December, with the latter weeks proving to be the most lucrative for the company. Sony estimates the sales split at 1 million units sold in November and more than 2 million units sold in December.

Strong sellers in the software camp included first-party titles SOCOM II, Jak II, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, and EyeToy. The statement went on to say that total first-party PS2 software sales in November and December were up 129 percent over the previous two months. Year-on-year software sales for the November/December sales period were up 4 percent.

EyeToy sales tallied more than 400,000 units, and sales of the original PlayStation were also brisk. SCEA reported that 600,000 units of the original PlayStation were sold to consumers during the last two months of 2003.

House said that the current installed base of PS2s in North America is now just north of 24.5 million and said that PS2 sales are tracking at what he calls, “an amazing 37 percent ahead of where we were at the same period with the original PlayStation.”

PlayStation 2 cumulative shipments by territory, as of January 13, 2004, are as follows: Japan at 16.18 million units, North America at 29.26 million units, and Europe/PAL territories at 24.56 million units.