Microsoft's Xbox 360 will sell 11 million units by 2007 and will close the gap on market leader Sony - but will still lag a long way behind the PS3 in the next-gen sales wars, according to analysts.
It's the second time in as many days that dizzying 360 sales figures have been thrown around. Yesterday Xbox's corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing, Peter Moore, spoke of how he aimed to shift 10 million of the consoles in its first "12 to 16 months".
The Xbox 360 is expected to launch around the world in November this year.
But, according to the report compiled by US analysts at Kagan Research, these sales figures will not help the Xbox 360 beat Sony's PS3 into second place in the console wars.
"We believe Sony PS3 will be the strongest seller of next-generation videogame consoles," said Irina Mulvey, an analyst at Kagan.
But the gap between the two consoles will be narrowed significantly and Nintendo will be left in a distant third place: "However, Microsoft's Xbox 360 will narrow the gap with Sony to come within 28% of the PS3 installed base - selling almost twice as many next-gen consoles as Nintendo Revolution by 2010."
Sony's PS2 is the undisputed leader of the current gen console pack, having sold over 90 million units worldwide since it launched in 2000. As of December 2004 the Xbox had moved 20 million units, and the GameCube had shifted 18 million.
The report also predicts that the videogame market in the US will have increased 30% by 2008, and that by 2010 54 million US households will own a games console (that's around one in every four homes). The ownership of handheld consoles will also apparently increase on a one-to-one basis with home consoles.
You can even order the Kagan report for yourself - delivered direct to your door for the princely sum of $1,345. More future-gazing analysts' predictions soon.
I Guess this guy is eating his words now.. how wrong can an analyst be
As Far as I understand it , Nintendo WII is the numbers winner (not for its graphical ability but for its great controllers) ..
The Xbox 360 is number 2 (quite a long way off the WII tho) and the PS3 is lacking enough games to make people see that "technically its the best console" but without decent games or any special innovations to sell it, it's losing out to the WII and the XBOX360.
Having a WII and an XBOX360 , i can say that the WII is great for the kids (under 10's) and the 360 is great for older kids, and us Adults who like to do a bit of online barbarism , COD4 & FORZA 2 for the adults , (I was one of the few who dont rate PGR4 or Halo 3 , but each to their own).
The WII's best game is still the bundled WII Sports , and is good for adults and kids alike. although the graphics wont excite you.
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