The release of the latest installment of the Final Fantasy Series by Square Enix last 17th December 2009 has brought good tidings to Sony as well.

Sony made up for lost ground in a three-way console war with Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s XBox 360 by selling 250,000 units in a four-day period following FFXIII’s debut.

This figure easily eclipses two earlier sales spikes in the PS3’s history: the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 (70,000 units) and the introduction of the PS3 Slim (150,000 units).

Final Fantasy XIII has also started to set records, with Square Enix shipping out approximately 1.8 million copies of the game during its initial Japanese offering.

Analysts are forecasting that the game could sell up to 5.6 million copies when the American and European releases are out.

However, they are also expecting the title to face stiff competition from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and as well as this year’s overwhelming pick for best game of 2009, Dragon Age: Origins.