Sony shifts 3.9 million PS3 consoles over Christmas, 15 million annual sales target within sight

Sony has announced that 3.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles were sold worldwide over the Christmas sales season, with the company well on track to reaching its 15 million unit annual sales target in the fiscal year ending this March.

Overall, Sony managed to sell 6.5 million PlayStation units, with the PS Vita and PlayStation 2 each selling 500,000 units, and the PSP a further 1.6 million units.

PS Vita is the successor to the PSP and went on sale in Japan and Asia on the third and fourth weeks of December 2011 respectively. While sales of the PS Vita could be considered disappointing, it’s worth noting that the number of titles available for the portable gaming device is limited – although Sony report that over 70 new titles are now in development for the Japaneses market.

It’s surprising to still see the PlayStation 2 still performing so well, but this can largely be attributed to demand in developing countries and a selection of games that guarantees any newcomer to gaming consoles will be spoiled for choice.

Like the PS2, PS Move, Sony’s motion controller, exceeded many expectations, selling some 1.7 million units during the Christmas sales season – although, I suspect the majority of these were bundled with PS3 consoles as part of attractive sales packages.

Meanwhile in Microsoft land, CEO Steve Ballmer announced at CES last night that the company has sold 66 million Xbox 360 consoles since first launching in November 2005, with Kinect, Microsoft’s brilliant motion controller, selling 18 million units in the past year.