Hear that? That's the sound of the U.S. economy getting flushed down the toilet. But Sony exec Jack Tretton is not worried and points out that PS3 sales are up 100 percent over last year. He does note that he sales could dip, but that the console is on target to his 10 million units by March 2009. About those upcoming depression woes, Tretton states:

I think people are going to question every dollar that they spend, but they are going to look for value in return. The entertainment value...with PLAYSTATION 3 compares very favourably to other entertainment choices.

Yeah, it just cost more.

Sony says PlayStation 3 sales better than expected [Reuters]

According to Sony's Jack Tretton, PS3 sales are 100% higher than they were this time last year. And 30% higher than Sony were expecting for this financial year, meaning that if "something" were to happen to PS3 sales - let's say, hypothetically, like a recession - the console should still hit its target of 10 million sold for the year. Tretton says PSP sales are also "20-30 percent ahead of plan", and goes on to warn that the PS3 may be in short supply this Christmas, with the company only "able to meet somewhere between 80-90 percent demand".

Sony says PlayStation 3 sales better than expected [Reuters]

Speaking with a group of game writers earlier this week SCEA head Jack Tretton talked briefly about how Sony Computer Entertainment has benefited under the shift from Ken Kutaragi to Kaz Hirai.

Specifically, he talked about the promise that Sony's regions would be a bit more antonymous under Hirai.

"There is no question that Kutaragi-san ruled with an iron fist, but it was his vision", Tretton said. "In terms of how we went to market in region, that was anonymous".

But Tretton said that Hirai has a better understanding of the company's day-to-day operations and the challenges they face both in Japan and abroad.

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Shrine auditorium security grabbed an overly eager blogger from his third-floor balcony perch during a recent Sony E3 press conference dress rehearsal, SCEA head Jack Tretton said.

Sony was working their way through a dry run of the upcoming Playstation press conference when someone noticed that what they were saying and doing was showing up on an unnamed site.

"Everything we were saying was getting posted within 15 minutes on the Internet", Tretton said.

So Sony called in security to do a search of the place.

"They found some guy on the third floor balcony laying down taking notes and calling it in to a service", he said.

Sony declined to name the person or the site they are affiliated with. We've contacted the ESA to see if anyone had their E3 press credentials revoked but had not heard back from the organisation as of press time.

Sony has thought about and continues to play around with the idea of building a Playstation Portable with a built in hard drive or internal memory, Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said this morning at a gather of game writers.

"I think we definitely thought about it", he said. "I think that's the trend moving forward".

With the recently announced ability to purchase movies on a Playstation 3 and move them over to a Playstation Portable, and as the cost of memory continues to drop, the chance that a new Playstation Portable would include some sort of internal storage option is becoming increasingly likely, Tretton said.

New of the push toward digitally distributed movies through the Playstation Store is also like to impact UMD's already flagging movie sales, he added.

"I think the UMD has struggled", he said. "And that's an understatement. That's been a very frustrating thing. I don't think (UMD movies) were handled very effectively".

He said it seemed that studios said "lets see if we can get people to pay $US 20 or $US 30 for crappy movies with less content".

Digital distributed movies, he said, is either going to supplement the UMD movie's struggle or be the "stake in the UMD's heart".

The PlayStation 3 may have finished (well) behind the Wii and (a smidge) lower than the Xbox 360 for the month of April, but that doesn't mean that we'll bat an eyelash when Sony sends us a statement that kicks off with "PS3 Continues Blockbuster Year." Fortunately for SCEA, it has triple the hardware representation, letting it flex carefully chosen figures like "total PlayStation hardware sales" topping 505,363 units sold in April.

Sony compared much of its performance to itself—well, its former self—as it touts 127% year-over-year sales growth on the PS3 hardware, with software up 410% over the previous April. That looks impressive! In other crazy percentages, Sony notes that 23.6% of PS3 owners bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV in April, a "29.0% higher attach rate for the title than Xbox 360." Stop! I'm getting dizzy!

"PS3 momentum is fuelled by enthusiasm for Blu-ray as the definitive high def standard and the growing number of consumers gearing up for some of the most anticipated titles of the year, exclusively for PS3, including the June release of Metal Gear Solid 4, and other great exclusives in the second half on the year, such as Resistance 2, SOCOM: Confrontation and LittleBigPlanet to name a few," said SCEA prez Jack Tretton. "With exciting PlayStation Network innovations and our strongest console-driving titles of the year still on the horizon, PS3 remains on pace for a breakthrough year." Enjoy the full statement after the jump.

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While consumer-level stakeholders on the Blu-Ray side of the great format wars of 06-08 (ie the pawns) are happy enough, imagine how the Sony top brass are feeling right now. They're so excited they just can't hide it. Take SCEA boss Jack Tretton, for example:

The emergence of Blu-ray as the de facto high definition standard is one more reason why PS3 is a great value to consumers...The combination of strong sales, Blu-ray dominance and widely-anticipated games all point to 2008 as a breakthrough year for PS3.

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Microsoft may have suffered heavily on the hardware side this January due to stock shortages, but Sony isn't going to put an asterisk by its win. It starts off its corporate statement on last month's U.S. sales by pointing out that the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 by 17%, boasting of "continued momentum" for the console. Increased PlayStation Network downloads and nearly 3 million PSN accounts, corporate says, illustrate that momentum.

The rest of the statement covers not just the PS3, but the PlayStation "brand" which, Sony says, was number one in both hardware and software in January. The company also chose to focus on its upcoming library, with SCEA CEO Jack Tretton commenting "We have an exceptionally diverse lineup of exclusive games, from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance 2 to more mainstream games such as LittleBigPlanet and SingStar." What? No Killzone 2, Jack?

For the full statement, packed with selective data, read on.

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"Best of" awards are fun, sure, but it's the screw ups that give us the most joy during the depressing holidays, not the accolades. Watching others fail so spectacularly makes our own lack of accomplishment that much less memorable. Fortunately, Next-Gen knows what we like and have rounded up the year's biggest blunders in its latest list, which not only includes the familiar Sony blackballing incident from March, but also touches on other fun and interesting topics like the dismissal of Jeff Gerstmann and the whirlwind of confusion surrounding this year's PlayStation 3 SKU confusion. Even better are trips down memory lane with execs Shane Kim and Jack Tretton.

I won't spoil number one, but it's certainly the most expensive of the lot. Let loose the finger pointing and HAHA-ing!

TOP 10 BLUNDERS OF 2007 [Next-Gen]

Chatting with IGN, SCEA boss Jack Tretton believes the days of developers dumping shitty ports of games designed for the 360 are over. Or, at least, nearly over:

Developers are telling us that they are starting to create their games on PS3 first and take advantage of the hardware capabilities and then port down to other platforms so we are seeing tremendous progress from the third party community in terms of what they are able to do with our development kits.