Sony sells a million PS 3 Slim consoles in three weeks

ps-3-slim-2Sony’s PlayStation 3 console is finally picking up steam. In the past three weeks, the new smaller and lighter PS 3 Slim has sold a million units worldwide.

Those are the best numbers the third-place console has had in a long time. The PS 3 has been in third place since its launch in 2006 because of its higher price. Sony has tried to argue that the Blu-ray movie player included in the console makes it a better deal.

But things are looking better now that Sony cut the price of its 120-gigabyte hard drive model of the PS 3 Slim to $299, which is $100 cheaper than the previous price. Microsoft followed suit with a $100 price cut on the Xbox 360. But Microsoft hasn’t yet crowed about a big increase in sales. Reports on online commerce sites suggests there is more demand for the PS 3 Slim now than the Xbox 360. But we’ll see how that holds up over time, particularly since Nintendo has just announced a $50 price cut for the Wii console, which is now $199.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.