Asustek Sales Soar on Sony PlayStation 3 Sales

The Taiwanese contract manufacturer producing PlayStation 3 game consoles saw its sales rocket to a record high in November due to the hit product.

Asustek Computer’s consolidated sales in November soared 81 percent month on month to New Taiwanese $83.52 billion (US$2.59 billion), from NT$46.17 billion in October. The figure was also 114 percent higher than November of last year, it reported Friday.

Sony PlayStation 3

The company would not comment officially on why its revenue in November rose, but one executive confirmed that it is manufacturing the PS3 on behalf of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI).

Stock market analysts, who have been pumping Asustek stock in Taiwan, had expected its revenue to rise around 40 percent to 50 percent month on month in November due to the start of PS3 sales globally, but their estimate was far short of the actual increase.

Sales of the popular game machine, which went on sale in Japan on Nov. 11 and in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 17, have been hampered by component shortages. SCEI had originally planned to have 2 million units available for its global launch, but problems procuring blue-laser diodes for the Blu-ray Disc drive inside the console forced it to pare its launch plan to just 500,000 units.

The company has said it is continually shipping new consoles to retailers as they become available.