Sony ships 1 million new Move controllers, preps for demand

Over one million PlayStation Move motion controllers have been shipped to retailers during the first 30 days of availability in North and Latin America, according to Sony Computer Entertainment America.

While it's not clear how many of those controllers have been sold on to the public since the accessories' mid-September launch, it at least indicates Sony's desire to impress.

More detailed figures would be needed in order to properly assess the measure of Move's public impact. For example, it's not clear which countries are included in the term "Latin America," or which PlayStation Move accessories make up the count.

The essential pieces of equipment are the PlayStation Move controller and the PlayStation Eye camera. They can be bought separately or in a bundle together with the game Sports Champions. There is also an optional Navigation Controller that can be used in place of a standard control pad.

Some observers are suggesting that all four have been grouped together in order to produce the shipment figure.

The timing of the attention-grabbing annoucement is key, however, as rival Microsoft is in the process of unleashing a $550 million marketing campaign for the Xbox 360's competing hands-free Kinect Sensor, launching November 4 in North America.

Of course, both will have a task to topple 2006's Nintendo Wii, which has far outstripped total sales of both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in all regions thanks to its huge mainstream appeal.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is concerning itself with the early 2011 launch of the Nintendo 3DS, a 3D follow-up to the world's best-selling handheld console, the Nintendo DS.