Sony spin up Australian PS3 sales figures

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 05 February 2009 11:27

Your IT - Entertainment

According to Sony Computer Entertainment Australia 2008 was a magnificent retail result for the PlayStation brand.  The PS3 maintained consistent sales and everybody loves a sing song.

Whether 2009 makes or breaks the PlayStation 3 is a discussion for another time as Sony Computer Entertainment Australia blows the froth of some 2008 sales figures.

SCE Aust have gathered together statistics from independent information gathering service GfK and  announced:  [The] 2008 calendar year retail data, a 42% unit share of all Australian software sales for the year by platform was achieved across the three PlayStation formats – selling over 7.45 million units. Hardware sales were also strong, with GfK reporting PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) sales of almost 213,000 units for the 2008 calendar year.

Available in the market for less than two years, the PS3 now celebrates a solid install base of 460,0001 consoles in Australian homes. In addition to the device’s impressive range of high definition entertainment features, including a Blu-ray player and the ability to showcase music, movies and pictures, plus connect to others through the PlayStation®Network, all on the living room TV, it’s the suite of games that are really attracting consumers to the console.

As a result, the PS3 is experiencing a high software attachment rate, representing over seven games sold for every unit purchased to date.

Michael Ephraim, Managing Director SCE Australia & New Zealand, commented on the figures, “In 2008, PlayStation experienced the growth in sales that the whole Interactive Entertainment industry did, with these great results demonstrating the broad appeal of our content across all three of our platforms, truly offering something for everyone, not just gamers.”

“What is also significant is that, of the 460,000 PS3 owners out there, almost 50% of them have already discovered the benefits of the subscription free PlayStation Network, enjoying extensive content and access to the PlayStation online community.”

So everybody is hooking up their PS3’s to the net, but then they are using that connection for a big joint sing along.  GfK data highlighting the family based games have increased (across all platforms, not just PlayStation) by 137 percent in 2008.

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