Multiple sources, including The Wall Street Journal, were reporting today that Sony Move sales have reached over four million units. Sony itself released a statement announcing “that the sales of PlayStation Move motion controller for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system reached over 4.1 million units worldwide.” The announcement comes hot on the heels of Microsoft touting its 2.5 million Kinect sales (actual sales).
The press release went on to note that this major landmark was reached in only two months since its release. In reality, this represents the total amount of wands that have been shipped and sent to retailers, instead of hard sales numbers. Joystiq sought to clarify Sony’s statement, since it has been widely misreported, and Sony did indeed reveal those 4.1 million units were Moves that had been sent to stores. A Sony representative also told Joystiq that, “While we don’t disclose our exact sell-through number, the key is that our retailers continue to ask for more Move units and are taking every unit we can supply them with based on their sales.”
Companies making vague comments about their profits are less than shocking, but it’s somewhat misleading to leave out key information until directly asked about it. For the record, NPD reported that Microsoft sold 325,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold 250,000 Sony PS3s in October. And apparently Sony will not be releasing any updates about how many Move units are actually purchased by consumers – unless that number turns out to ably beat Kinect. In that case, expect to see a press release.
