Tretton: '09 a "great success" for PlayStation

SCEA boss Jack Tretton has put live the company's NPD response for January on the US PS Blog, saying 2009 was a "great success" for PlayStation.

This month's NPD seen PlayStation 3 lose out to Xbox 360 in the HD hardware front, with PS3 selling 276k compared to 360's 332k, and only one game in the software charts for the console: Modern Warfare 2.

But Tretton was keen to focus on the positives, like a 33 percent Year-on-Year hardware increase for PlayStation 3, as well as announcing almost 3 million units of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves have been sold worldwide.

"According to NPD’s recent Top Global Markets report, PlayStation was the only company to see consumers in three territories (UK, US and Japan) spending 15% more on PS3 software in 2009 than they did in 2008 – this is while the category as a whole experienced a 9% decline in software sales," said Tretton.

"The PS3 was also the only console in the U.S. to see double-digit growth in sales this past quarter. December also marked the best sales month in the platform’s history, breaking one million hardware units and 7.3 million software units.

"We’re nowhere near slowing down in the new year as today’s NPD numbers show a 36% sales increase on PS3 hardware when compared to last January. This is truly remarkable given the tight inventory we’ve been experiencing as a result of high consumer demand since last Fall.

"Games like UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves are surpassing our lofty expectations as it outsold the franchise’s first PS3 game and is now closing in on three million copies sold worldwide. Over half a million of you have already chosen your allegiance in MAG, and have played over 270,000 games in the Shadow War."

Full response is through the first link.