6.5 million PS3s sold worldwide in Christmas quarter, PSP and PS2 both down

Sony's sold over 6.5 million PS3 in the period between October and December 2009, the company said this morning, a rise of almost 45 percent compared to last year.

The figure is up 2 million units from 4.5 million in Q3 FY08.

The rise comes after the company introduced a slimmer SKU to the market, as well as cutting the price of the original PS3 down to £249/$299/€299.

Both PSP and PS2 hardware sales suffered in the quarter however, with PSP down from 5.1 million in 2008 to 4.2 million in Sony's third quarter last year.

PS2 fell from 2.5 million to 2.1 million quarter-over-quarter.