Sony announces record UK PS3 sales

Sony has announced that it sold a record number of PlayStation 3 consoles in Europe and the UK during the five weeks up to the end of 2007.

The Japanese electronics giant sold 1.2 million consoles, which is in line with its US sales, according to Sony games president Kaz Hirai.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Hirai said the firm now plans to increase support for its flagship console: "We want to promote games only available for PlayStation 3 - the introduction of the 40 gigabyte model is in line with that strategy.''

Sony previously announced that it expects to have shipped 11 million PlayStation 3 consoles by the end of March, but analysts believe this figure is more likely to be eight million.

This compares with Nintendo, which expects to sell 19 million Wii consoles by the end of March, and Microsoft, which claims it will have sold 9.1 million Xbox 360 consoles in the same period.