It looks like Sony's limited holiday offer of a free 40GB PlayStation 3 with every purchase of a new Bravia LCD television in Australia worked wonders for both the TV and gaming sides of the Japanese giant. Sony Computer Entertainment Australia head Michael Ephraim said more than 28,000 PS3s were given away as part of the promotion, which ran from December 21, 2007, to January 28, 2008.

　　"On the Bravia PS3 offer, we're now up to 28,000-plus--these are audited numbers from Sony. They have taken about a 30 percent market in flat screens for the month of January off the back of that promotion," Ephraim said.

　　Sony recently released figures showing 155,000 PS3s were sold in Australia last year, but Ephraim says the 28,000 given away as part of the Bravia deal were not included as part of this figure because industry data tracker GfK Australia "doesn't report on a console if it's given away free". This would make the PS3's Australian base more than 180,000 units. By comparison, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has a reported Aussie install base of 306,000 units, while the Nintendo Wii has 300,000 units.