A comparison of Sony's corporate unit sales data and comments made by an investor relations spokesperson for Microsoft suggest that PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360 worldwide for the three months ending 30th September.

The PS3 shifted 2.43 million consoles throughout the period, according to freshly-published Q2 FY 2008 figures - nearly double that for the same stretch last year.

This puts Sony ahead of Microsoft, which recently told AFP the 360 shifted 2.2 million units for the same period.

We're not entirely sure where all the PS3 sales have come from. The Xbox 360, after all, experienced a price cut in early September, prompting all sorts of sales-boasts from the platform holder, particularly in the US, and it's well known that the Microsoft console has been doing well in Japan and in the UK for a while.

Whatever the reason, this promising pre-Christmas surge puts the PS3 at a worldwide total of 16.84 million units. The Xbox 360, if you remember, stands at around 24 million, although Microsoft hasn't posted exact figures. Nintendo has sold 5 billion squillion Wiis.

Sony's games division also cut losses from JPY 96.7 billion (GBP 624 million) to JPY 39.5 billion (GBP 255 million) for the three-month period. Perhaps it found some more blind Venetian monks to carve blue diodes out of the irises of virgin panthers.

PSP sales rose slightly to 3.18 million units to help achieve this, while the PS2 dipped to 2.5 million units - further pushing PS3 finally to the forefront of the Sony operation.