Sony Would Like To Reassure You.

We're not going to deny that we've found more than a little of the press surrounding the PS3 in these past few months a bit unfair.

It's obvious Sony's system isn't selling anywhere near as well as many predicted but it's nowhere near dead in the water like some media outlets are trying to claim.

So it's refreshing to see some of Sony's biggest executives talk sales and numbers.

First up is Sony Corp.'s Nobuyuki Oneda who thinks the PS3 is "still on target":

"In terms of units, it is true that PS3, as compared to last year, is slightly worse, but on a full-year basis we believe we are on track to sell the 10 million units that I said at the beginning of the year.

That's a nice fuzzy feeling we can take with our tea and biscuits to bed tonight. But wait, there's more.

In an interview with Eurogamer SCEE boss David Reeves spoke of the XBOX 360's European "lead":

"I don't want to talk about the competition too much, but Xbox 360 is not ahead by a million units.

We sold through 500,000 PS3s in November. We sold through 1.1 million units in December. Our installed base now is very close to 8.5 million units in PAL territories. Our numbers show we are absolutely neck-and-neck."

He then went on to make a bizarre comparison between the PS3 and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

"What happened was, we overtook them, and they dropped the price. It's almost as if we've gone ten rounds as Mohammed Ali and we're still standing, because we didn't drop the price. We held firm."

Not quite the analogy we'd use David, but if it works.