Sony gives response to NPD Group’s January numbers

After Microsoft had response to the numbers released by NPD Group for January, it’s now Sony‘s turn to provide its comments. This was done by SCEA CEO Jack Tretton in a press release issued to us.

See what Tetton had to say by clicking the “read more” link below.

As you are all aware by now, global retail information provider NPD Group has already released its data concerning the video game industry. One of the highlights of its tally is Sony PlayStation 3 finally taking over the competition last month.

Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton responded to the numbers and seemed happy and satisfied with the results. His statements echo NPD’s numbers and directly compared it with Nintendo’s and Microsoft‘s showing last month:

• The PlayStation brand was #1 in both hardware and software in January.
• The PlayStation brand sold more hardware units than Nintendo and Microsoft combined (764K versus 530K and 230K, respectively).
• PlayStation total hardware revenue was $196 million in January; surpassing the total hardware revenue of Microsoft and Nintendo combined.
• PlayStation total software revenue in January was $224 million, 38% higher than Microsoft.

Tretton also believes that this year is going to be big for the PlayStation brand with the PlayStation 3 and its Blu-ray capability leading the pack. Finally, he provided the specific numbers for both the PlayStation Portable, PS3, and PlayStation Network:

• PlayStation Network total downloads exceeded 7.9 million in January 2008, well above the 6.6 million in December 2007. Currently in North America there are more than 2.9 million registered PlayStation Network accounts and more than 52 M total downloads life-to-date from PlayStation Store.
• The best is yet to come: The influx of exceptional exclusive and third-party games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Grand Theft Auto IV, not to mention later releases such as LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, SingStar, to name a few, combined with current momentum for Blu-ray, are expected to further enthusiasm for PS3.
• PSP (PlayStation Portable) continued its sales ascent in January 2008 with 230K PSP hardware units sold in January; representing an increase of 9% over January 2007. Also, with its new partnership with Skype and great upcoming new games, such as God of War: Chains of Olympus, Patapon, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, further sales growth is expected in 2008.