Released in 1994, the original PlayStation has sold 102m units, while the PlayStation 2, now in its ninth year on the market, has sold in excess of 140m units.
"It's not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I've seen that movie already," Hirai said.
"I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?"
At the end of its fiscal year in March sales of Sony’s PS3 totaled 12.85m units. The company said last week that it is “well on its way” to hitting its ten million sales target for the current financial year.