PS3 Sales Shoot Up As Price Drops

November 15, 2007 8:35 a.m. EST

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - The PlayStation 3 console sales have almost doubled during the weeks following Sony's $100 price cut and unveiled a lower end model.

Sony reported selling more than 100,000 units of all types of the console in the week of November 11 - a huge difference compared to between 30,000 and 40,000 weekly sales prior to the price decrease, and the introduction of the cheaper 40GB model.

"It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," said Sony CEO and chairman Howard Stringer, who revealed that the company's collective breath was held throughout the entire thing.

An article in Games Industry.biz revealed that according to Stringer, the decrease in the price of the console, and the introduction of the lower-end model puts the PS3 in a more competitive place against other gaming consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360. This is to be a notable movement, considering the upcoming holiday season.

Stringer also mentioned that they are planning to find a means of benefiting from the reported problem of Nintendo regarding the too-fast sellout of their consoles, making production unable to keep up.

Andrew House, the company's chief marketing officer, added that the sales increase will provide a "boost" for the console's Blu-ray high definition DVD format.

"It puts us vastly ahead of where the other format is going to be in terms of an installed base in people's homes by the end of this holiday season," he said, as quoted by the Associated Press.

The Sony PlayStation 3's 80GB model's price was cut from $599 to $499 last October 18. The company followed it up with the November 2 release of the 40 GB model, priced at $399.

"Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the past year on PS3," commented Stringer. "Finally, the turning point has been passed."