Playstation 3 hits the 5m mark in the UK, Vita passes 1m in Japan

MCV reports that Sony’s Playstation 3  hit the 5 million sales mark in the UK at the end of September.

The impressive figure has been partially spurred on by the launch of the new model Playstation 3 (pictured above), which saw sales rising by 138%on the week of the launch.

“It is fantastic that we passed the 5m mark,” Fergal Gara, UK MD of Sony, told MCV. “But most importantly to me is not the milestone itself, but the fact that there is momentum behind it. And with the new chassis, and the way the market is panning out this year, PlayStation definitely has the momentum.”

This good news is slightly marred by the mixed blessings from the other piece of sales news from Sony, that the PS Vita has only just reached 1 million sales in Japan after 42 weeks, more than double the time it took the PSP and other handhelds to reach the 1m mark.  The lack of enough AAA titles to attract the Japanese market is thought to be a contributing factor to the slow uptake.  Sony can, at least, take some satisfaction from the fact that the first million has now been reached.