Former SCEE president predicts Sony and Nintendo hardware sales will tie by 2011
This generation's console war could end in a draw
Chris Deering, the former president of SCEE, has said he believes Nintendo and Sony will tie in this generation's hardware race.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, the now EIF chairman presented figures he'd arrived at by triangulating Screen Digest and IDG data. He also took into account factors such as the 'grey gamer' market and growth of hi-def to arrive at the prediction the active installed base for games consoles is set to rise from 316 million to 500 million over the next three years.
Breaking down these figures, Deering reckons sales of the DS (and any future versions of it) will reach 150 million by 2011, while Wii will hit 80 million. Over at Sony meanwhile, he predicted PS3's installed base by 2011 will be 70 million, PS2 - 90 million and PSP will be at 70 million. That means Sony and Nintendo will both have sold 230 million consoles apiece.
As well as this, Deering estimates the number of potential gamers will rise to 2.5 billion worldwide when talking into account the installed bases for mobile phones and computers.
So the handheld war is quite obviously going to be won overall by Nintendo's DS over the PSP, but the greater picture is far healthier for Sony. These figures are surely going to stump the forum fanboys out there - a tie between Sony and Nintendo? What a disappointment.
