Jack Tretton talks up Sony's pre-Christmas position

Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Jack Tretton has written an open letter to gamers in the US talking up the company's sales performance in September and highlighting some of the PlayStation platform's key plus points.

"Nearly half a million of you purchased a PS3 in September," he wrote. "Amazing. Welcome to the PlayStation Nation and to what will be one of our best holidays yet," he continued before going on to detail the SKUs for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable now available.

"We are in the midst of one of the most exciting times for PlayStation as we continue to redefine entertainment experiences for consumers, both at home and on the go.

"The PSPgo is driving additional momentum for the entire PSP platform. In its first three days on store shelves, top retail partners experienced a 300 percent lift in overall PSP hardware sales compared to the previous week. During this time, the PlayStation Network also experienced the largest number of downloads ever for a single week period."

He also highlighted the strong critical reception for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which as he pointed out claimed a Metacritic rating of 96 with 64 perfect scores, and looked ahead to more PlayStation-exclusive releases in the future.

"There simply has never been a better time to be part of the PlayStation family and we look forward to providing you with the best entertainment content and experience for many, many years to come."

The letter follows strong hardware sales for the PlayStation 3 Slim in the US in September, where it outsold both the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii for the first time - although its highest-ranking software placing was sixth, as Microsoft's Halo 3: ODST squashed the rest selling over 1.5 million units.