Sony Computer Entertainment Australia today celebrated the second anniversary of the Playstation 3 and emphasised how the console has progressed over the years, giving consumers a console that goes beyond just gaming.

Sony hosted a media session this morning in Sydney, to demonstrate the progression the PS3 has made over its two years and Michael Ephraim, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand, discussed some interesting achievements for the brand.

“After two years on the market we have just under half a million consoles in Australian homes, this doubles the sales figure of the previous year,” he said.

Ephraim commented that the since its launch in March 2007 the console has experienced a solid uptake due to the fact that consumers are constantly discovering and appreciating the device’s functionality as a central entertainment hub in the home.

“PS3 has really come of age this past year, and we’re witnessing uptake of the console in the Australian market for reasons beyond its strong gaming offer.”

In addition to this it was also highlighted that over 50 per cent of PS3 owners are now signed up to the Playstation Network, Sony’s free online service.

Many have criticised Sony in the past for not selling as many consoles as its competitors, Nintendo and Microsoft, but one area in which the PS3 is excelling is in software sales, demonstrating a strong uptake in the ‘hardcore’ gaming community.

“The PS3 gaming community’s engagement with software continues to grow at an impressive rate. Life to date software attachment rate of software on PS3 is now almost 8 to 1, about double that of Playstation 2 at the second year mark. Since launch, PS3 has sold 3,234,095 units of software in Australia,” he said.

He also expressed that users engagement with titles is constantly increasing, especially due to the effect of online communities and user generated content.

“Games like Little Big Planet have been exceptionally popular in the gaming community, and its user generated content is the biggest reason for this,” he said.

“Currently over 725,000 levels have been created by gamers, that figure blows me away.”

Ephraim also mentioned that Sony is set to make several major gaming announcements at the upcoming E3 expo, especially in regards to the PSP.