October PlayStation Store sales break record

October saw the highest month of revenues on record for the PlayStation Store, with downloads up 60 per cent on the previous year, according to new information released on the official PlayStation Blog.

As part of celebrations of the PlayStation 3's third birthday in the US, SCEA revealed that to date more than 650 million pieces of content have been downloaded worldwide from the PlayStation Store, from more than 31 million registered PlayStation Network accounts.

Sony also trumpeted US hardware sales growth of almost 70 per cent over the last year, claiming the PS3 as the only console to experience "significant growth" year on year.

Sales of the PS3 have been boosted considerably since the launch of the cheaper PS3 slim and a new marketing campaign, although last month's NPD results for the US show that the Wii still outsold the PS3 by 506,900 units to 320,600.

Sony remains upbeat at the console's turnaround though, highlighting the fact that the company had a total of 17 nominations at the 2009 Spike Video Game Nominations - more than any other publisher.

"Many believe a console race is a 100-meter dash, but it’s really a marathon," said Jesse Divnich, director of analyst services at EEDAR.

"The PS3’s ten-year lifecycle is clear testament of Sony’s commitment to providing entertainment value to consumers, PS3’s growth in recent months is a perfect example of how a new low price along with upcoming innovative, exclusive titles such as MAG, Gran Turismo 5 and God of War III, will act as large catalysts for driving the PS3’s install base even higher," he added.