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Sony celebrates New Year with record EU PS3 sales

The PlayStation brand finished 2007 in style, celebrating record PS3 sales in Europe during the holiday season.

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Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) sold a record 1.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles in Europe in the five weeks leading up to January 1, reports Bloomberg.

That figure is also close to the number it shipped to the US during the same time, said PlayStation chief Kazuo Hirai in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

Sony announced in early October that it was introducing a new 40GB model to Europe and then--days later--revealed it was dropping the 60GB model. The decision was seen to reduce production costs and introduce a cheaper price point that could compete with the lower-priced Xbox 360 and Wii consoles.

In a move designed to please developers, the console maker also halved the cost of PS3 development kits in November to 950,000 yen, $10,250, and 7,500 euros for Japanese, North American, and European developers, respectively.

Sony sold 48,000 PS3s during the fourth quarter in Australia, according to data trackers GfK Australia.

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