Playstation hits 100 million mark

Sony has cut Playstation prices to fend off competition

Japanese electronics giant Sony has shipped its 100 millionth Playstation, the company has announced.

According to Sony, the figure makes the Playstation - launched in 1994 - the biggest selling games console ever.

The numbers do not include sales of the newer Playstation 2, which appeared in 2000 and had shifted 70 million units by March of this year.

But the milestone follows a fall in sales, which contributed to a 23% slide in Sony's profits for 2003.

Sony is now developing PSP, a portable version of Playstation, which it hopes will reinvigorate its gaming hardware sales.

The PSP will compete with a new device from arch-rival Nintendo, thus far dubbed "DS" for its dual screens.

PLAYSTATION SALES WORLDWIDE Japan: 20.72 million North America: 39.67 million Europe: 39.61 million As of 18 May 2004. Source: Sony

Playstation has dominated the console business for some years, facing down competing machines from Nintendo and Sega - the latter now having given up on the hardware business.

More recently, Microsoft has mounted a stiff fight with its Xbox console, using sharp price cuts to eat into Sony's market position.

An Xbox now costs $149 (£83) in the US, a late March move which - according to analysts NPD Group - helped its sales grow by 135% in April while Playstation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube sales both fell.

At the same time, NPD said, sales of software for the three consoles rose.

But sliding demand for games designed for older machines - including both the Playstation and the smaller, lighter PSOne, an equivalent machine Sony introduced in 2000 - meant overall sales fell 3% in financial terms.