Retail movement of Sony's powerful home gaming system picked up during 2008, with growth more than doubling over the Christmas season according to reports.

The Playstation 3 saw sales increase by nearly 130 percent, according to a statement issued to news website, Cnet.

We've had a solid holiday season and have delivered consistent growth throughout this year, said sales vice president Ian Jackson, in the statement.

He described 2008 as a pivotal year for PlayStation with the best software line-up in the industry on offer.

Early internal data points to an increase of more than 130 per cent of PS3 hardware sales for the holiday season - since Black Friday - and we're also seeing a growth of nearly 40 per cent in total PS3 hardware sales for the calendar year, Jackson continued. We remain confident this momentum will continue into the new year.

The PS3, trailing Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 consoles, was closing in on the No. 2 Xbox 360, with new games and quarterly sales growth at twice the speed of last year.

Sales fell 19 percent last month however, curbing any gains made during the year. In spite of a general economic slowdown, the rival Xbox 360 saw gains of 8 percent, while the industry leader Wii watched its sales double.

In December Sony announced Tuesday that it would cut 8,000 jobs and shut down several of its manufacturing units which would help it reduce costs by over 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) per year.

Sony Christmas