PS3: 50 million served

Sony has announced that worldwide sales of the PS3 have just passed 50 million units.

The impressive milestone-worthy achievement was reached on March 29, the company said in a statement. It also pointed out sales of the console’s motion controller known as PlayStation Move have reached 8 million units.

The PS3 came out in November 2006 but was panned because of its astronomical price tag. It took a while but the system was finally legitimized and, once it reached a reasonable price, it began to gain traction in a big way.

Now the PS3 has the most momentum it’s ever had and is poised to make a splash for years to come, while the Xbox 360 and Wii, which came out within the same 12-month span as the PS3, are starting to lose traction because neither is as technologically sophisticated.

Other numbers thrown out by Sony include the total number of PlayStation Network users, which is now 75 million.

The next big launch for Sony is in the handheld market, where it plans to launch the NGP (“Next Generation Portable”) later this year.