US PlayStation 3 sales climb 300 per cent

Following the introduction of 40GB and 80GB SKUs

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that sales of PlayStation 3 hardware have leapt by 298 per cent since November 2.

The climb is attributed to the availability of both 40GB and 80GB units at US retail.

Figures for the Thanksgiving period – dubbed Black Friday – were up 245 per cent when compared to the previous year.

According to SCEA figures, for the week ended November 24, sales of the PSP handheld in the region jumped 136 per cent compared to the previous week, and PS2 sales were also up 287 per cent.

Ahead of the busy Christmas season, Sony is also enjoying positive sales in other key regions.

Last week, the PlayStation 3 outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan, and yesterday it was announced that the recently released PSP Slim & Lite has sold over one million units in the region.

EA regrets Need for Speed porn promotion

Images "slipped through proper approval process"

Electronic Arts has said that it regrets a promotion for its latest Need for Speed game which used Page 3 porn models for a topless photo shoot.

The images appeared on Page 3.com, the official softcore porn site of UK tabloid The Sun, and featured topless models posing with a Ferrari. The Need for Speed branding and EA logo featured prominently.

"We regret that these images slipped through the proper EA approval process," said a spokesperson for the publisher, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz.

"They were not appropriate for our brand. The original site has been taken down this morning."

While the images have been deleted, an accompanying video of the photo shoot still remains online, although any association with the game has been removed.

Need for Speed: Pro Street was released last Friday in Europe and today entered the all formats charts at number two.

New ad agency for $150 million PlayStation account

Original agency dropped after 13 years

Sony has hired Deutsch as the new agency in charge of its USD 150 million PlayStation ad account.

Although no official announcement has yet been made, Agency Spy is reporting that Deutsch, based in Los Angeles, has won the coveted account.

Deutsch was one of five finalists vying for the account, including Publicis, Venebles, RPA, and TBWA.

TBWA, formerly known as Chiat/Day, had handled Sony's advertising since 1994 with the launch of the original PlayStation. It also helped Sony launch the PS2, PSP, and PS3, but was recently involved in controversy over some of its advertisements.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, Sony spent USD 94 million on measured media in 2006 and USD 2.9 million for the first eight months of 2007.

DS sales rocket in Japan following software frenzy

Dragon Quest IV prompts a hardware spike; all platforms show increased sales

Sales of the Nintendo DS handheld in Japan rose over 50 per cent in the week ending November 25, with all other platforms also experiencing increases.

The DS shifted over 116,000 units, most likely off the back of the release of Dragon Quest IV, and has now soared past 6 million sold in Japan this year and 20 million sold in Japan to date, according to Media Create.

With the software top ten titles selling nearly 1.5 million units in the same week, a hardware surge was to be expected, although the other platforms didn't benefit quite so much as the DS.

The PlayStation Portable was up from 65,000 to 75,000, the Wii up from 36,000 to 54,000 while the PlayStation 3 jumped from 39,000 to 50,000.

The full sales numbers for hardware are as follows:

1. Nintendo DS: 116,694
2. PlayStation Portable: 75,027
3. Nintendo Wii: 54,362
4. PlayStation 3: 50,564
5. PlayStation 2: 14,875
6. Xbox 360: 7117

GameSpot editor leaves amid review rumours

Jeff Gerstmann departs after Kane & Lynch review is apparently edited

GamesIndustry.biz has learned that GameSpot's US reviews editor has left CNET Networks following an incident involving the site's recent Kane & Lynch review.

A source close to the editorial team has revealed that the row focused on the tone of the content of the original review, which was apparently subsequently altered.

The game scored 6 out of 10, and although it's unclear how the text of the review may have changed from its original format, it's not thought that the score was altered.

GameSpot reviews are regularly submitted to the wider editorial team for quality and accuracy reasons, and small changes can be made at this point before the article is published.

Rumours elsewhere cited possible reasons for the editorial changes as being the result of pressure from the Kane & Lynch publisher Eidos, which had marketed the game on the site.

The source revealed that members of the editorial team were extremely disappointed by the incident.

Gerstmann had been with GameSpot for 11 years, and was part of the team - which included Greg Kasavin, now at EA - who drove the site's core values of editorial excellence and independence over that time.

As well as heading up the reviews team, he also hosted weekly video show On The Spot, and wrote the music to several of the site's audio or video publications, including the GameSpot UK podcast.

CNET representatives have so far declined to comment on Gerstmann's departure, and the precise circumstances - whether or not he left of his own accord - have not been disclosed.

Tim Tracy, former head of video at the company, has also departed, although it's not clear at this time whether or not the two are linked.

Microsoft sells 310,000 XBoxs in Thanksgiving week

360 software on track to outsell PS3, Wii titles combined

During the week after the Thanksgiving holiday, Microsoft sold 310,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the US.

That's nearly the same number of units it sold during the entire month of October, when 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles were purchased.

According to a CNBC article, Microsoft's system outsold the PlayStation 3 during the week after "Black Friday" by a margin of 2 to 1.

Nintendo still came out on top, however, with 350,000 Wii consoles sold.

Even so, Microsoft reports that its software is on track to outsell the PS3 and Wii software combined. According to NPD data, Xbox 360 software represented 54 per cent of total software sales for October, with 30 per cent for the Wii and 16 per cent for the PS3.

UPDATE: An SCEA spokesperson disputed Microsoft's assertion that the Xbox 360 had outsold the PS3 2 to 1, but stated that it was company policy not to disclose specific sales until NPD data is officially released.