PS3 shipments hit 1 million in 2006

But just as the PlayStation division represents only one of many businesses the company runs, so too was the game segment of the presentation just one element in a sea of announcements for new TVs, camcorders, PCs, Blu-ray players, and all other manner of electronics for which the company is known.

And in comparison to last year's grandiose CES keynote address delivered by Sony CEO Howard Stringer--which included appearances by actor Tom Hanks and Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown--Sunday's event was a nearly intimate affair. The invite-only gathering was attended by approximately 300 journalists, analysts and assorted Sony executives and was held in the company's CES show floor booth. Stringer didn't speak but acknowledged the applause when introduced at the beginning of the 50-minute press conference.

In the portion of the event devoted to the company's game business, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille took to a side stage inside the booth to announce that the company had shipped 1 million PlayStation 3 units into the North American retail channel by the end of December.

In September, SCEA head of corporate communications Dave Karraker said the company's goal was to ship 1 million to 1.2 million PS3 systems to North America by the end of the year.

Dille also repeated Sony's goal of shipping 6 million PS3s worldwide by the end of March. The electronics giant will launch the PS3 in several new regions that month, including Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Australia and Asia region.

Brendan Sinclair and Curt Feldman reported for GameSpot.