PS2 NEARS 1 MILLION
March 6, 2000

Sony said on Monday that it sold 980,000 Playstation2's in the first 2 days of the system's availability.

The company noted that 380,000 of those systems were sold via its online store. Of these, less than 1/3 have been delivered, which puts total system ownership after the first weekend at 720,000. While this is not quite at the 1 million sold mark, it is a very large indicator of where the market is headed and gives PS2 a huge boost over the heretofore quiet Nintendo.

If Nintendo wants to compete with these numbers upon the launch of its Project Dolphin, the company is clearly going to need to offer internet users the ability to purchase systems online, as a 40% increase in sales is going to be very appealing to any video game console manufacturer.

Sony hopes to have undelivered systems shipped to customers within 2 weeks and mentioned that memory cards (?) were the primary reason for shortages (highly unlikely, though the company should've been able to meet the demand anyway with projections for 1 million sold), indicating that every system owner will need a memory card.

Despite successful launch sales, Sony has downgraded its earlier shipment estimates by 9% to 1.4 million by the end of this month. This indicates a) problems in production leading to shortages, and/or b) a dying down of the frenzy to more expected levels when the launch hype cools off somewhat.

Sony's fired its first shots and done so very convincingly. It's now up to Nintendo if they want to volley back or simply continue to remain silent.