Sony said Monday that PlayStation 3 game machine sales totaled 1.2 million in North America during the key holiday season, boosting the strength of the company's Blu-ray video format because the console also works as a Blu-ray player.
Competition is intense among the latest video game machines, pitting Sony against Nintendo Co.'s popular Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s XBox 360.
But the rivalry between the two of the latest video formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, appears to be tipping toward the former after Warner Bros. Entertainment, formerly a supporter of the Toshiba-backed HD DVD format, defected to the Blu-ray side over the weekend.
Both formats deliver better image quality than conventional DVD players, but only one is expected to emerge as the winner, much like VHS trumped Sony's Betamax in the video format battle of the 1980s.
Attracting movie studios is critical for making the format widespread. Now, just two major U.S. studios support HD DVD - Viacom's Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, and Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric.
Sony Corp. can hope to gain more sales in its core electronics products, including Blu-ray recorders and high-definition flat-panel TVs, if consumers choose Blu-ray. That may also aid it in its struggle against the popularity of the Wii machine from Nintendo.
