The breakdown of shipments by region is:

Worldwide PlayStation 2 Shipments by Region, as of September 17, 2002

Europe/PAL (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited) 12.06 million units

North America (Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.) 17.01 million units

Japan (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan) 10.97 million units

Since its European launch in November 2000, demand for PlayStation 2 across the SCEE territories has been phenomenal. Such is the global success of the PlayStation 2 that it has taken just four and a half months for lifetime shipments to increase from the 30 million units announced in May 2002, to the 40 million units announced today.

"The PlayStation 2 user base across Europe, Africa, Middle East Australia and New Zealand continues to accelerate and to grow the market for computer entertainment on TV based consoles," said Chris Deering, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. "The recent and forthcoming line-up of new software titles on PlayStation 2 is the strongest in our history. Reviews have been outstanding, and the range of choice between now and Christmas is just awesome."

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is one of the leading publishers of games software for PlayStation, with a wide range of top quality, exclusive titles for every games genre. Delivering on its promise to publish top quality, blockbuster games throughout the year, SCEE's line-up of games between now and Christmas include such 'must have' titles as: The Getaway, WRC II Extreme, This is Football 2003, Formula One 2002, Tekken 4, Ratchet and Clank and Kingdom Hearts. Full details of all forthcoming releases for PlayStation are available at www.playstation.com..