Cumulative sales of the platform have hit 22.7 million units since its launch in 2006. The company also announced lifetime PlayStation Portable sales of 51.6 million units and a total PlayStation Network membership of 24 million accounts.
Sony’s game business saw a sales and operating revenue decline of 18 per cent year-on-year to 1,053.1 billion yen. While overall software sales for the PS3 improved, hardware sales dropped, potentially due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen against the euro and dollar.
The division posted an operating loss of 58.5 billion yen, an improvement of 66.1 billion yen, partly credited to a decline in PS3 manufacturing costs – which reports suggest that Sony’s CFO, Nobuyuki Oneda, has claimed to be near 70 per cent. As reported last week, the first quarter of 2009 saw PS3 sales of 1.1 million units, compared to 1.6 million units year-on-year, while PSP sales declined to 1.3 million units from 3.7 million. Total sales, including those of Sony’s VAIO business, fell 37.4% to 246.8 billion yen.
In comparison, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has tallied over 30 million sales worldwide so far since its launch, while Nintendo's Wii has sold upwards of 50 million.