Playstation 3 Hits Milestone With 70 Million Units Sold Worldwide, Playstation 4 to be Released in 2014?

Sony's Playstation 3 reached a milestone with 70 million units sold worldwide, according to the Examiner.

The Sony PS3 trails Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 in global sales. Sony released lifetime sales figures for its console on Friday showing they and Xbox are extremely close in terms of sales.

According to examiner.com, Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 had reached 70 million in the lifetime sales during a Q1 2013 sales report last month.

Japan and Europe have always been strong markets for Sony with the PS3 doing better in those regions than in America where the Xbox 360 is dominant.

Sony also announced they've sold over 15 million Playstation Move units. With the PS3 and PS Vita currently on the market, Sony is rumored to be in production of the Playstation 4, a console that's been given the codename "Orbis". Sony representatives admit they're facing issues in production.

"We do have a challenge to manage the next generation of consoles, particularly in terms of dev studio resources," Playstation UK's Fergal Gara. "The more platforms you have, and the amount of rich content you have to deliver on all the systems you are supporting clearly puts pressure on decisions made across the studio network, which is something we are battling with."

There is no release date set for the new Sony gaming console but recent rumours suggest 2014. Microsoft's next gen console is also rumored to be in the pipeline, while Nintendo's next gen console the Wii U is set for a North American release on Sunday.