Sony has show signs of steady and even increases in sales despite the prolonged PlayStation Network outage for the month of April. The Sony brand has taken a hit from the cyber attack from hackers that compromised over 100 million user account information but the effect on sales has been minimal.

Gamasutra, citing data from the NPD Group, said Sony has shown an increase in hardware sales in the United States by thirteen percent. The month of April 2011 showed a sale of 200,000 units, which was a 20,000 increase from April of last year (180,000). NPD reports the combination of consoles and portable game units have brought in $503.2 million for Sony, resulting in a twenty six percent increase from April 2010.

A GameSpot retail store manager, on conditions of anonymity, told IBTimes that the PlayStation Network outage has failed to make a huge dent on PlayStation console sales. It is true PS3 fans are annoyed but it hasn't affected console sales much, the store manager said.

Other US retailers responded that the effects has not been noticeably significant when asked about how sales or trade-ins of PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles during the network outage.

Sony currently plans to restore the network by May 31st. A letter was released by Sony to their Japanese clients stating that everything is being done to resume the services as soon as possible.

We are preparing to be able to resume service as soon as possible in Japan, and are now entering the verification stage for ensuring the safety and security of the network... For those of you committed to ensuring safety, and have waited patiently, we humbly thank you for your understanding, the company said in a statement.

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