here have been a lot of questions that have popped up since the PlayStation 3 was launched in November. What’s up with the PlayStation Network? Has Sony forgotten about their PSP? Or even the obligatory “How’s business.” After his presentation during CES 2007, we caught up with SCEA’s Senior VP of Marketing, Peter Dille, and picked his brain for some answers.

Game Informer: So, how do you feel coming out of the holidays?

Peter Dille: Well, obviously great. Our big announcement today was getting to a million units sold. It’s a great accomplishment, and it’s something that we are very proud of. As I pointed out, we got there faster on PS3 than we did with PlayStation 2 or PS1. We really feel like we got some great momentum.

GI: Now you said its 2 million worldwide sold in?

Dille: It’s 1 million in North America. What we’re not talking about today is the Japanese numbers, but we will be announcing those soon in the Sony announcement that will come out of Japan.

GI: “Sold in” means the retailers have the units, correct?

Dille: Correct. What the sell-in number refers to is that we’ve shipped it, we’ve sold it to retail, and the fact that we got to a million was possible because we were air shipping these products in. If we had gone with a boat, there was no way we would have gone to a million. So we’re not playing games with the numbers. These were sold into retail, and you can image the retailer’s incentive: If they’re shipped on a plane, they can go up onto the shelves as quickly as possible. And really, as soon as they’re getting there, they’re evaporating. There’s a tremendous demand.

GI: Are you surprised that Microsoft has met their sales numbers of 10 million? What do you think of the early acceptance of Wii and their sales?

Dille: I’m not sure if they had gone to 10 million or if they had announced that they had. I know a lot of people were wondering if they would ever get there. I think initially, they're bravado speech was: “We’re going to get to 10 million before they ship.” And then it was: “We’re going to get to 10 million by the time the year is over.” I haven’t seen a new announcement from them, but what we do pay attention to is that month in, month out, the PlayStation 2 continues to outsell Xbox 360. I think you see the consumers voting with their wallets on the PlayStation brand. But also, if people want to go out and buy a 360, their stacked pretty high at retail and yet, six-year-old technology is outselling it. I also think there’s another trend going on. Every Sunday in the paper, there’s a new deal with a free controller or a free game or $100 off all discounting the 360. I don’t think you take those measures if you’re selling as expected.

GI: What’s your road map for addressing some of the PlayStation Network issues that people are experiencing, like download speed, having background downloads or patching?

Dille: It’s all very important to us. What we have said is that the experience on the PlayStation Network on day one is very different than it is on day two and very different on day 102. These are all things we’re working on. I think that our competitor launched with a service that’s quite different today than what it was before. They addressed some of these problems as well. We haven’t talked about timing, but they’re all things we’re working on as well.

GI: There are talks that before the European launch that there’s going to big updates. Would these things happen before then?

Dille: You know I put that into the rumor and speculation category. As you know, we don’t usually comment on that stuff.

GI: Something a lot of people are experiencing as well is the Bluetooth drops with the wireless controllers. Is there any way that can be resolved through software patching?

Dille: That’s a technical question and probably a little out of my purview. We’ve actually heard it a lot from the gaming press. I think part of that is based on the proliferation of devices you have on your desktops. It hasn’t become a huge consumer issue.

GI: Last fall in San Francisco, Phil Harrison said that you had a huge back log of PlayStation titles that are going to be available for download. When do you thing we’re going to start seeing more of these. When will these be playable on PlayStation 3 and not just the PSP?

Dille: To answer your first question, we’re hard at work on a number of titles, and again, we want to come out with a catalogue of quality titles that will be meaningful. I think that initial batch of titles like Crash, Tekken, Hot Shots, these are all brands that PlayStation consumers know and love. So it’s a great start. Then what we want to do is have a steady diet of games week-in and week-out so there’s new stuff showing up on the PlayStation Network giving people a reason to say, “Wow, I didn’t know that was up yet!” We’re hard at work on that. We’re also working with the third-party community to make sure they understand that this is an opportunity for them.

With the firmware upgrade, these titles will also be playable on the PlayStation 3.