PS3 sales rocket 1000% on Slim release

Sales of the PlayStation 3 have rocketed 999 per cent over the past week, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Sony introduced the new, slimmer SKU last Tuesday, and although Chart-Track does not reveal actual sales numbers, Dorian Bloch, director of the firm called the growth "a huge increase".

"The uplift on week 36 on week 35 is plus 999 per cent," revealed Bloch. "We don't give out the hardware numbers, but never-the-less it's a very large increase."

The boost in sales will be a pleasing early start to the Christmas season for Sony, which told GamesIndustry.biz last month that it expected the redesign to pull in new consumers.

"I think what I've heard anecdotally is that this is the point people were waiting for - a redesigned model and, in Euros, a significant price reduction," said Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. "That's people's cue to jump into the business."

The PlayStation 3 has been remodelled earlier in the its lifecycle than the PlayStation 2. The PS2 slim, released in the 24th week of 2004, helped sales jump 310 per cent.

The news follows a climb in Xbox 360 sales of 43 per cent last week, due to the price cut for the Elite model to GBP 199.

This week, sales for the Elite were still up in the region, said Chart-Track, an increase of 29 per cent over last week's growth.