Sony has released figures for the PlayStation 3's performance in Europe over the Christmas period. News outlet Bloomberg states that the company "...sold a record number of PlayStation 3 machines in Europe during the holiday shopping season".

We assume this means a record over a five-week period, rather than a record for the 'The Holidays' - because the PS3 only launched in Europe in March 2007.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Sony Computer Entertainment's president, Kaz Hirai, revealed that around 1.2 million PS3s were shipped in Europe during the five-week period leading up to December 31st 2007. If you've got a head for numbers, you might remember that the figure matches that for America in the same period.

So, a record breaking five weeks... It was, of course, bound to be. As we've already noted, this was the first Christmas for the PS3 in Europe. Without something going dramatically and horribly wrong there was little doubt that the weeks leading up to Xmas would yield the best ever sales for the console over here.

Despite the strong performance of PS3, analysts remain sceptical about Sony's ability to meet its target of selling 11 million PS3s in the fiscal year ending March 31st. “It's an industry consensus that PS3 sales will fall short of the target'', said Mitsuhiro Osawa, a Tokyo-based analyst for Mizuho Investors Securities Co. “Sony must think it's okay as long as the game business doesn't drag much on its overall earnings.”

The Daiwa Institute of Research predicted in a report on Friday that Sony will sell 8 million PS3s by the end of March, falling short of its target by 27%. The company also predicts that Nintendo will sell 19 million Wiis while Microsoft is expected to sell 9.1 million Xbox 360s.

Hirai, meanwhile, remains vague on the subject, saying of the target, "We haven't made any conclusion whether we have to give it up". In fact, he passed the buck to retailers, saying, "It depends on how aggressively dealers buy our PS3 inventory". This, of course, is not rocket science. The more PS3s retailers buy, the more they can (potentially) sell.

You can see a full rundown of the games industry's performance in America last year right here.

^{Source: Bloomberg}