It's time again for the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and Sony held their press conference Sunday afternoon, in which they boasted some solid numbers regarding their recently released PlayStation 3. Of course, it was only one aspect of the briefing, as Sony talked about new stuff in the way of TVs, PCs, Blu-Ray players, camcorders, etc.
But we're only interested in the game stuff, right? Sony is well-known for their somewhat over-the-top speeches (perhaps you may remember 2006's speech delivered by CEO Howard Stringer and the appearance of Tom Hanks), but apparently, they toned it down a lot this year. It was labeled as an "intimate" press gathering, but even so, over 300 journalists managed to make their way to the event, and the conference lasted about 50 minutes.
As for their games division, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille announced the company had shipped one million PS3s in North America in December. This means Sony hit their goal set back in September of shipping 1 – 1.2 million units by the end of 2006. We reported on this earlier, but Dille went one step further.
Sony has a new goal, although it's one they hinted at around Christmas time- Dille says Sony plans to deliver 6 million PS3s worldwide by the end of March. March also sees the official launch of the PS3 in other regions, including Europe, Australia/Asia, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East. This should quell the rumors that Sony would be delaying the PS3 once again for Europe – the rumors started to fly back in November – so gamers in those regions need not worry. The mere announcement of the 6 million goal should indicate that Sony isn't anticipating any further delays.
As CES continues, we'll keep you updated.