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Sony announces 4 million PS3 sales milestone in the UK

Sony has announced that PS3 has moved 4 million units in the UK since its March 23, 2007 release.

In celebration, Sony is holding an invitation-only event tonight in London, which will include all sorts of festivities and a Hot Chip DJ session.

Keza MacDonald is attending the event this evening for VG247, and hopefully she has dressed well, as "smart attire is expected."

No dressing as Kratos for her, then.

Iterations over the years

The original, full-figured PS3 was first released in the UK on March 23, 2007, four months after the US got its hands on it.

A slimmer, more svelte model was released on September 1, 2009 and since then, around 47.9 million units have been shipped worldwide.

Approximately 424.8 million pieces of PlayStation 3 software have been sold in total.

Since its initial release, the machine has seen it's fair share of additions and upgrades, from subscription offerings like PlayStation Plus to NetFlix and Hulu, to the Move motion controller and a Firmware update enabling 3D.

Today, thanks to PSN, PS3 offers all sorts of services, making the console an entertainment device that does more far than just play games.

Not without controversies

Life hasn't been a bed of roses for the hardware, however.

Initially, the biggest controversy surrounding PS3 was its price. When shown off for the second time during E3 2006, two different hardware configurations were announced: a 20Gb model and a 60Gb model, priced at $499 and $599 respectively.

The console's next hiccup was the lovely leap-year bug in 2010, but Sony patched the "ApocalyPS3" in June with a Firmware update.

Watch on YouTube

Sony's Kevin Butler has become a PS3
marketing icon.

Next on the docket was the removal of OtherOS support, which was the start of a wave of controversy and subsequent hacks on the system.

Originally, Sony removed OtherOS support due to the fact it could cause system vulnerability. It was then that hacker George Hotz created a hack on the non-slim PS3 model that used a combination of modding and OtherOS features to gain control of the system.

The removal of OtherOS also caused several class action lawsuits to be filed against the company for the return of enabling other operation functions.

There was also JailBreak, the removal of JailBreak, and then January news that fail0verflow has bypassed PS3 security measures, allowing unsigned code to run.

GeoHot published PS3's root key early this year, in addition.

Sony has since filed suit again both parties for the violation, and has succeeded in gaining the pertinent hardware used in the cracking, via a court order.

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