March NPD: Sony sticks to software in figures response

Sony didn't mention hardware sales at all in its response to last night's NPD figures, instead talking up Killzone's 1 million worldwide sales and the success of platform exclusives such as MLB 09 The Show.

And inFamous, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MAG, Heavy Rain, God of War III, and Rachet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time are all on the way, the company said.

Sony promised solid PS2 sales for April on the back of its price cut earlier this month, but made no mention of PS3's fortunes in March.

Full thing after the break.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) continues to deliver premium entertainment content and experiences, kicking off 2009 with the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) blockbuster exclusive Killzone® 2 on February 27. With more than 1 million copies sold worldwide and a truly "only on PlayStation" experience, the hit game has garnered the biggest initial success at retail of any first-party PS3 title to date, and will continue to drive incentive for hardware sales throughout the year. MLB® 09 THE Show™ is also garnering tremendous reception by gaming media and sports fans alike, with a recent New York Times review stating, "at its heart [MLB® 09 THE Show] is the most organic, rhythmically accurate and natural simulation of any team sport." Approximately 1 in every 3 PS3 titles achieve Metacritic scores of 80 or higher, which affirms PlayStation's proven track record in delivering rich and relevant entertainment content. SCEA is staged for yet another breakout fiscal year with a broad range of highly anticipated PS3 exclusives, including inFamous, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves™, MAG™, Heavy Rain, God of War® III, and Rachet & Clank® Future: A Crack in Time.

SCEA is also seeing positive internal sales momentum for PlayStation®2 (PS2) hardware sales for April and as the most played game console last year, the PS2 system continues to serve as a great choice for family entertainment, with its new $99.99 price point and ability to play back DVDs and CDs. Offering an unmatched library of nearly 1,900 games in North America, PS2 owners will see new additions such as MLB® 09 THE Show™ and MotorStorm®: Arctic Edge as well as major franchise titles from SCEA's publishing partners, including Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Guitar Hero Metallica come to the platform this fiscal year.

Portable entertainment continues to gain tremendous momentum across the industry and the PSP® system is poised for its most exciting and diverse line up yet. SCEA has planned an unprecedented line up of games and content from publishing partners including Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and popular first party franchises to hit the PSP platform, such as LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm. Also, to commemorate the debut of the Rock Band franchise on the PSP platform later this year, SCEA will be releasing a limited edition Rock Band branded entertainment pack at the launch of Rock Band™ Unplugged. In addition to a stellar line up this fiscal year, PSP users will have new freedom in how they access their on-the-go content, with the test case digital-only distribution of Patapon 2 release on May 5.

PlayStation Network continues to expand its service to over 55 countries around the globe connecting more than 20 million registered users to each other and to a variety of digital entertainment options, including the revolutionary PlayStation Home service which accounts for more than 5 million users worldwide. PlayStation Network's game library includes more than 180 downloadable games with extensive range of games from Ragdoll Kung Fu and Flower to growing selections from publishing partners, such as Wheel of Fortune and Noby Noby Boy. With the addition of NBC Universal content to PlayStation Network's video delivery service, consumers today have access to more than 1,700 movies and 5,700 television episodes from every major motion picture studio, including new movie releases such as Wanted and Role Models. The top ranked downloaded game in March was Flower and the top downloaded movie was Twilight.

PlayStation is synonymous with superior entertainment and SCEA is on pace to deliver on that promise once again.