EA predicts PS3 will outsell Xbox 360 in 2008

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Feb 4th 2008 9:52AM

Following the release of its latest financial results, EA has shared its estimates for predicted console hardware sales in North America and Europe in 2008. Though the Wii's continued domination seems obvious in even the murkiest of crystal balls, the publisher sides with Sir Howard Stringer's recent observation that the PlayStation 3 has departed the woods and sets

EA sees the PlayStation 3 selling between 9.5 million and 11.5 million units, compared to the Xbox 360's 6 to 8 million units. Sony's system would take the lead in Europe (a view shared by SCEE chief David Reeves), where it's expected to sell between 5 million and 6 million, well over the Xbox 360's 1.5 million to 2.5 million. Towering above both would be Nintendo's Wii, with estimates placing its sales between 12 million and 14 million units.

Only time will tell how accurate EA's predictions are and whether the PS3 will start contributing more heavily to the publisher's bottom line.

Source

Tags: 2008-Sales, David-Reeves, EA, Electronic-Arts, Estimates, Howard-Stringer, PS3, SCEA, SCEE, Sony-Computer-Entertainment-America, Sony-Computer-Entertainment-Europe, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (132)

So true, and well said my brotha. Preach on!! +1

God, I know I'm prying open the Pandora's Box of idiocy but I have to do this...

"I just hate sony period."

WHY?!?

For the same reason alot of people hated the Patriots this year, the teams arrogance, and even moreso the obnoxious fans.

And spying...

I don't know, I kinda wanted Kushiell to answer this one. Especially considering he's the guy who claims he never bought a CD because he hates Sony so much...

actually, I hate the Patriots because their qb is going out wiht giselle bundchen...>_>

now if Sony was to be going out with Ambrosio.....

I can get that Sony is unlikeable... but to like MICROSOFT over Sony? Dirty tricks, FUD, lying-through-their teeth Microsoft? How can anyone think that the game market would be better if Microsoft were the dominant power?

None of the 3 companies have a great track record when it comes to a de facto monopoly, though it's been a long while since Nintendo had theirs, maybe they've changed.

The Japanese territory has not been as important as the US & European territories since the PS One generation.

Microsoft knows that penetrating the Japanese territory is a LONG TERM battle...which is why they take the loss there. They are patient to bide their time as needed....

As for this prediction...it'll be interesting to see.....it all depends on the AAA Games actually being released on time for the PS3....I don't expect FFXIII to make it to US/Europe for 2008. MGS4....will be delayed till Xmas I'm betting....

Blu-Ray is not a mega factor IMO....as the majority of the populace doesn't even care about Blu-Ray and still like DVDs only.

The question is the moves MS will take to counter....

It's true that Japan is not the factor it used to be in CONSOLE sales. Remotely. Stats = back this up.

I don't think BR is going to push Sony over the top, because HD disc is something the average consumer does not care about. Maybe 20-35 year-old-males who own unnecessarily huge TVs that make DVDs look poor do, but that's a small piece of the entertainment pie.

360 will reign in the U.S., Sony will overtake in Europe.

It's still a big country, with a pretty significant percentage of gamers. It's hardly as insignificant as people make it out to be. And neither is Europe: even if we just consider the 'wealthy' countries we have a population that is larger than the US'.

The problem is the Japs hate anything not Japanese and the Europeans hate Americans so the have a bias toward Microsoft. If Xbox were a Canadian brand the Europeans would be more favorable to it, but the Japs would still favor brands from their home land. I blame the yankie image on really stupid imperialistic foreign policy dating back a few decades.

THAT must be why iPod is soooo popular. Dumbass.

Please, can we squish this concept that 360 is failing in Japan because it's American? The reason it's bombing is because Microsoft is going with their old tactic of "Well, these games are popular in the US... why can't Japanese gamers tow the line?" In case you missed it, PS3 sales spikes in Japan often come with the release of games catered to that market.

Imagine that, treat a region like it's own region and things start to fall in place. Relying solely on a chode who drives his motorcycle through Akihabara district on his game release dates doesn't. But it's all because American items don't do well in Japan....

You haven't seen the Japanese play baseball, have you?

I've been to the stores in Akihabara. The 360's games with big muscular men and even bigger guns on the covers seem out of place in the sea of anime-inspired RPGs. The only 360 games that seemed "normal" were Blue-Dragon and Idol Master. Yes, in Japan, Idol Master is more "normal" than Gears of War.

However, Blue Dragon and Idol Master bombed in Japan because there are already similar games for other consoles, and who is going to buy a 360 with only a couple of games when there is more variety of similar games on other consoles? The 360 has carved out a niche in Japan among fans of American violence and air-rifles and whatnot, so the only Japanese people who buy the 360 are the niche who are looking for American-style violence-simulators.

EA is asking for trouble, stupid predictions like this without proof gets 83 comments back bashing PS3, how inconsiderate EA ¬_¬

Gears of War 2 and a significant price drop guarantees a reevaluation of EA's projections. It will happen sooner than later. $299 Premium pricing will be here very, very, very soon.

Wouldn't that be funny if Gears was announced to go multiplat, for owners of both consoles this would prove a great opportunity, and yet, it could stir up some beef amongst gamers, lol.

Microsoft PWNS the rights to Gears, like Teh Haloz games. n00b

Are you /\/\/\ an idiot? M$ owns the rights to Gears so it wont end up on anything other then vista and 360, 360 first of course.

question, does Microsoft own the rights to the Gears of Wars franchise or just to the first title?

I know they PUBLISHED the first game, but Im not sure about the rights of the subsequent titles

Meh, either way it would be humorous, speaking of which, whatever happened to that exclusive IP for PS3 they were working on, like other games -_- heard no news on it.

Seriously I got nothing for this thread I don't know the future all I can do is sit down and enjoy the games and that is what I intend on doing.

Well, I'll tell you this: The way it looks right now the PS3 will have no problem outselling the Xbox360, because THERE ARE NO 360'S IN STORES TO SELL!

I can see this as a possibility, but some things need to happen first.

1. Blu-Ray needs to become the defacto HD format before Christmas of 2008.

2. Sony needs one more price cut that will finally put the 40GB PS3 into the sub-$300 range.

However, while this would be a victory for Sony, even if they outsold the XBOX 360 by a margin of 2:1 in 2008 Microsoft would STILL have a larger marketshare. So who is the winner in the end? I'm starting to think the final picture is going to be something like a 40/30/30 split between Nintendo, MS and Sony.

When all is said and done though, 360's software sales will be through the roof. I've never seen a system with such a high attach rate in my life.

What about the Ngage?!?!?!?!?!?!

lol

If half of the PS2 owners out there have a smidgen of brand loyalty, Sony will be fine.

If half the SNES owners had a smidgen of brand loyalty, the N64 would have been fine.

actually Evan, many Nintendo fans waited for the N64, but the extra cost per game compared to the one of the other consoles was what killed the console...

Hah Hah. LOL This is actually funny. A prediction coming from the same company that tried to use their "franchise football game" to predict the Superbowl winner. Yeah they picked the losing team for that too.

The only reason EA is saying this is because they want both Sony and MS to drop the price of their consoles to 199.99 so EA can sell a lot more software.

Clearly, Sony will NOT beat MS in 2008.

If Gears 2 comes out before the end of 2008 along with a price drop on the 360, there's no way, and honestly, I do see both those things happening even though I'm sick of my 360 getting sent in. But if Sony actually gets out some of their big titles by the end of the year as promised and drops down at least $50 to $100 on their 40G model, I think it could happen by early 2009.

If the PS3 outsells the XBox 360 in 2008 its because all the people that already own 360's and Wii's are FINALLY getting around to buying a PS3.

What I've learned from this is mass stupidity drives profits.

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EA predicts PS3 will outsell Xbox 360 in 2008

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