After releasing a year after its competition, launching at $599 for the ideal SKU, and starting off with delays and shortages, there were points where analysts and gamers alike were questioning any success of the PlayStation 3 at all. Looking back and coming back to present day, it is difficult to comprehend where the PS3 has came just three years after the risky release. Now, looking towards the future, evidence from this past year show signs of Sony’s flagship home entertainment console coming out on top of the immediate competition.
Glancing at the sales numbers of the past 12 months of the PS3, it is clear the the tides have turned in Sony’s favor. Despite price drops, new SKU’s, and announcements from Microsoft, statistical analysis shows that the PS3 sold 14.3 million units in the past year compared to the 360’s 10.3 million, about a 28% higher sales. Adding in these numbers to the lifetime sales of both platforms, the PS3 now lags 3.6 million units behind the 360.

Also interesting to note is that the year before this past year, the PlayStation 3 had been outsold by 1.5  million units. As illustrated by the numbers, the year-to-year sales gaps are now closing and if the trend continues, the PS3 could very well overtake Xbox 360 sales in 2011. Will this happen? With the PlayStation Move and Gran Turismo 5 looking to be the biggest system-sellers of the year, it is indeed a possibility. Tell us your take in the comments below.

Seems like folks are always having problems after they upgrade their PS3 firmware, but we can’t say we’ve experienced any problems. Firmware 3.41 seemed like a minor update that added a new “You May Like” section to the PlayStation Store, but some people are saying that it’s been causing problems for anyone trying to upgrade the hard drive in their console.

There’s a 30-page plus thread on the official PlayStation forums where folks are venting about issues upgrading their hard drive. They’ve been getting a “no applicable data” error after trying to install the update, which has left them with a non-working PS3 and, in some cases, a corrupted original drive.

Apparently the issue may have something to do with a newly discovered feature of the 3.41 update that allows for more incremental patches. That might explain why the problem only seems to be affecting PS3s where the firmware is stored on the hard drive instead of the system’s memory. Sony hasn’t chimed in yet, but hopefully they offer a fix soon.

Sony has said today that their PSP, PS3 Minis have reached one million downloads.

The Minis are low-priced games available via the PlayStation Network on either the home console or the handheld.

It is unclear whether the number includes free demos, but if it does, the number is even more insignificant than it already is.

Only 1.7 percent of all PSP owners have downloaded a Minis game, compared to 51 percent of iPhone owners and 54 percent of BlackBerry owners.

Minis were released 9 months ago, and there are over 60 million PSP owners, in all variations.

Of the 86 games available, PocketGamer says the following 10 are the best-selling:

Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
Monopoly (EA)
Fieldrunners(Subatomic)
Zombie Tycoon (Frima)
Bloons(Hands-on)
Spot The Differences! (Sanuk)
Pinball Fantasies(Cowboy Rodeo )
Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2 (G5)
Yetisports Pengu Throw (Xendex)
Breakquest (Beatshapers)

Capcom has announced today that, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, will be arriving to the North American Wii and Playstation 3 gaming consoles, on October 12, 2010. Action fans that were pleased to know that Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Producer of Devil May Cry 4 will be on board.

Check out these cool screenshots:

If you’re interested in reaping the goods and rewards from the new PlayStation Plus service, today is your day.  PS3 firmware 3.40 not only introduces the new service, the Photo Gallery feature has been updated and a new Video Editor and Uploader does what it says on the tin.

The revamped Photo Gallery now has network features to upload images to Facebook, Picasa, and other PlayStation Network users on your friends list; there’s also a new Facebook PSN app that lets you post your PSN profile, view your friends’ online status, and more.  As for the Video Editor and Uploader, it offers some basic video editing and allows uploading to Facebook and YouTube straight from your PS3.  Here’s what a Japanese PSN user managed to put out with the editor, including text, slow or speed up video clips, cut out clips, and add a soundtrack:

Some minor additions are also present in 3.40: users can now rate their PSN purchases with a 5-star rating scale and power settings for PS3 consoles will now default to shut down after being idle for two hours.  PSP owners are also encouraged to update to firmware 6.40 to make use of PlayStation Plus features.  Also, if you’re worried about the sort of things Plus will add or change, Sony’s got a FAQ going to answer your questions.