On the heels of the devastating news for HD DVD fans that Warner Brothers will go Blu-ray exclusively in next generation DVDs, Sony late Sunday is showing just how strong that momentum really is -- thanks in no small part to its Playstation 3.

Just as the huge Consumer Electronics Show opens in Las Vegas, Sony released game console sales figures for the holiday shopping season.  Sony reports total hardware retail sales reached more than 3.9 million units in North America during from Black Friday to December 31, 2007.

AP Sony Playstation 3

But before you go thinking that Playstation 3 is finally gaining a strong foothold in the marketplace, Sony says the figure includes the three systems currently in the market:  PS3, PS2 and PSP.

The company reports: 

PS3 retail sales reached 1.2 million hardware units during this holiday period, a fraction of the better than 4 million Xbox 360's Microsoft is estimated to have sold.  Nintendo has not yet released holiday shopping figures. 

Says Sony:  "On the heals of Warner Bros. news Friday that they would drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc, the strong PS3 sales further establish Blu-ray’s dominant position as the high-definition medium heading in 2008."

At the same time, Sony is also announcing that it would introduce internet phone-calling Skype, the eBay-owned service with 246 million members globally, in new versions of the Playstation Portable.

Skype is intriguing, but Sony seems to still be lagging the market in next generation console technology, something the company will need to reverse, and quickly, if expects to dent the momentum enjoyed by Microsoft and Nintendo.

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