It is without a doubt that Sony’s PS2 console is the best selling console from Sony in its relatively short video game history, moving up to 150 million units worldwide. This fact is not lost on the folks at Sony as they will try their level best to make the current generation PS3 surpass that phenomenal figure. While I am all for such a positive outlook, it does remain to be seen whether the markets which it is in are big enough to achieve that sales number? Perhaps if the PS3 has a long life cycle of 10 years as intended, but assuming everyone else (that’s Microsoft and Nintendo) offers a much better console halfway through the PS3’s life, it will be an extremely tough feat to follow.

To date, the PS3 is the worst selling current generation video game console, but Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., hopes to turn that around. According to him, “It’s not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I’ve seen that movie already. I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?�

It must be noted that the 150 million figure achieved by the PS2 was due in part to the lack of competition from the rest of the consoles. The GameCube wasn’t exactly the easiest platform to code for despite offering superior graphical firepower, while the Xbox was just there to bleed money in Microsoft’s pockets as the Redmond, Washington company started getting their fingers wet in this industry. This time round, the variables are very different as Microsoft already has a much better idea to know what to do while Nintendo is clearly ahead of the competition with its inferior hardware but alternative gaming experience. Who do you think will come out on top?

Source: X-Bit Labs

You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Add to Del.icio.us