Although still nowhere near the level of the Wii, sales of the PS3 shot up after last month’s heralded price drop.

Sony said it had been selling between 30,000 and 40,000 consoles per week before the October 18 price cut from $599 to $499 of the 80 GB model.

Sales rose to 75,000 in the week of October 29, reflecting both the lower price of the high-end model and the introduction of a 40-gigabyte model for $399 on November 2, the company said. And it was the following week that sales hit 100,000, according to Sony.

Lagging sales of the PlayStation 3, compared to sales of the Wii and XBox 360, prompted Sony to cut the price in the U.S. as it had in Japan and Europe.

“Obviously, we’ve taken so much heat over the year on PS3,” Stringer said from his office in Tokyo. “Finally, the turning point has been passed.”

I don’t know if a “turning point has been passed,” but it also helps that Sony finally has a couple good games out. They also point out sales may help the Blu-Ray DVD format, but I’m not so sure. I saw an astute observation that said Blu-Ray/HD-DVD was sort of the Laserdisc of our time — technologically forward, but not the real next step — and that everyone would be downloading HD quality movies soon, anyway, rendering both formats nil. I tend to think that person’s right, but we’ll see.

Also, even though the 360 is still selling more than the PS3 and deservedly received higher praise overall, I’d thought it’d sold more over the two years since its release. Is its success a bit exaggerated or overstated?

EDIT: After doing some half-ass internet research, I’m going to answer my own question there with a “no.” Although now the PS3 is more competitive with the 360 — but they still need more games. We’ll see what happens.

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