Sony Adjusts PlayStation 3 Fiscal Sales Goal

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Much has been made about Sony's prediction to sell 11 million PlayStation 3 consoles by the end of their fiscal year in March. Some analysts have said they'd never hit the mark, despite a strong close to 2007 and excellent holiday numbers in North America, Europe and Japan.

Well, it seems those analysts were right. According to Reuters UK, Sony has revealed they are cutting their PS3 fiscal year sales target from 11 million to 9.5 million, which is probably more realistic. Sony managed to sell 4.9 million PS3s worldwide during the holiday season, and while Nintendo set the pace again with about 7 million sold, the gap is much smaller than it once was. The Xbox 360 remains steady, but many are predicting a big year for the PS3, which should eat into the 360's lead. All of that is just "wait and see," though; for now, the PS3 sales goal has been changed.

Sony changed their fiscal sales prediction for the PSP as well, but in the other direction. Previously, they expected to hit 10 million handheld units sold, but they've raised that to 13 million. The hardware redesign certainly helped, and the price drop on the PS3 hardware also helped to spur sales. Not enough to hit the 11 million mark, but if Sony really does introduce a new PS3 model at February's GDC...well, maybe they'll easily top the new 9.5 million goal.

1/31/2008 Ben Dutka