PS3 may have cemented its place in history as the most successful home console launch ever in the UK, but Sony World Wide Studios boss Phil Harrison says that there has never been a product launch like it in any sector.

Speaking on the Game Theory Podcast, Harrison claimed: “In the UK 165,000 units were sold through to consumers in the first 48 hours, and that is over £100 million worth of business going through UK retail tills in PS3 hardware, software and peripherals. This not only makes it the most successful games hardware launch, we think it is the most successful consumer launch of a product in the UK.

“We have been in the office scratching our heads trying to think of a consumer product that has achieved that level of consumer sales in such a short period of time. If anyone can think of a UK product launch that has raised this amount of business in such a short period of time I’d love to know because we can’t think of one.”

Harrison also added that he expects strong sales to continue this week as many UK residents will be receiving their pay-packets.

“We are already seeing across Europe out of stock situations where retailers re re-ordering,” he added. “It was always our strategy to have a good supply. There’s never been a launch of a console in Europe that’s had a million pieces of hardware sold in or available. We’ve kept some back in order to continue to supply the market. It’s been a tremendous success and something that we are very pleased about.”

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