Despite its astronomical retail price of £425, the Sony PlayStation 3 has, according to Chart Track , become the UKs second fastest selling games console of all time. Apparently, 165,000 PS3s were snapped up by anxious British gamers during the first two days of it being on sale.
That means it's sold more than both the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 did on both of their first two days.
Of course, the comparison is distorted somewhat by the fact the Nintendo and the Microsoft consoles both sold out on the first day of their releases as there were far fewer of them available. We'll never know how many of them would have sold had they been as readily available as the PS3 has been.
The Xbox 360 sold 70,000 units on its first day, with Nintendo shifting a then-record 105,000 Wiis.
Sony's impressive sales coup means it has shifted 75 per cent of the stock it shipped into the UK for launch. And while Sony will be keen to point out that its sold more than the other two in the first two days, Nintendo and Microsoft will doubtless choose to focus on the fact it didn't sell out like the other two did.
Sony shipped one million PlayStation 3 consoles to Europe for the launch last Friday. 220,000 of them made their way to the UK, of which there were evidently 55,000 or so still available over the weekend.
Interestingly, despite the £70m or so raked in from sales of the UK PS3 consoles so far, the loss the Sony makes on every unit sold means that the more it sells, the more money it loses.
The unexpected availability PS3 consoles has also meant problems for cheeky eBay sellers. Those who bought multiple consoles in the hope of making a profit are having to sell their stock for less than the RRP. Bless.
