Nearly 800k PS3 units sold in Europe, says Stringer

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has declared the European launch of PlayStation 3 a success, with almost 800,000 units already sold in the region.

Speaking to the Financial Times Stringer said, "I think [in] the first two days in the UK, GBP 100m (USD 199m) revenue changed hands and that's probably the largest consumer electronics sale in history."

According to Stringer, Europe has not experienced "the perception wars" which occurred in Japan. He observed that the console launched here with more games for consumers to choose from, adding, "Perhaps we lived up to the expectations in Europe in a way that perhaps we didn't in Japan".

As reported earlier this week, Sony's finances are set to improve following higher sales of LCD TVs and an upturn in the performance of the games division. The company has raised its forecast for full-year operating income from YEN 10 billion to YEN 60 billion (GBP 250 million).

But Stringer said the battle is not yet over: "The silo walls are down - we're staring across the walls at each other but we haven't quite shaken hands all the way around."