Sony: We've sold 70 million PS3 consoles worldwide
Six years on, the PS3 chugs past another big round number, matching the tally logged by the rival Xbox not so very long ago.
The venerable PlayStation 3 has hit the milestone of 70 million consoles sold, not long after the rival Xbox reached that same tally.
The PS3 crossed the 70 million line on November 4, Sony Computer Entertainment announced this morning. Launched in 2006, the game console has gone through a number of revisions and appears to still be going strong. It has been streamlined, equipped with larger disk-drive capacities and given a number of software updates. The latest model is half the weight of the original PS3, and according to SCE, has been "well received" by customers.
The PlayStation Network, which debuted at the same time as the original PS3 console, now operates in 59 countries. Excusing the occasional security breach, it still proves a popular feature for consumers.
Software inventory for the console now stands at 3,590 titles, with over 595 million units sold worldwide.
The PS3 sales figure represents consoles that have been shipped across the world, rather than the full amount of PlayStation 3 units owned by consumers. However, it compares well with the rival Xbox console from Microsoft, which launched a year earlier and reached sales figures of 70 million globally as of September of this year.
In addition, SCE said that sales of the PlayStation Move motion controller, which adds movement and motion similar to Microsoft's Kinect technology to gaming, surpassed 15 million units worldwide, as of November 11.
There is currently no official word on a successor for the Playstation 3 -- or the rumored rival "Xbox 720" -- but reports suggest that these next-generation consoles may be released within the next few years.