Analyst Predicts PlayStation 3 Will Win This Console Generation [Analyst Predicts Sony's PS3 Will Surpass Wii In Total Sales, Xbox 360 Irrelevant]

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Strategy Analytics, a market analyst group, took a good long look at the current video game console race and came up with some interesting finds. They predict that in the lifetime of each console, the Sony PlayStation 3 will have sold more total units than the Nintendo Wii.

Strategy Analytics looked at not just this current generation of consoles to the next generation, but instead, they looked at the entire lifespan of each console, well into next (and possibly the one after that) console generation. Sony continued to sell the original PlayStation until 2006, the year of release for the PS3. The PlayStation 2 is still in production from Sony.

So, it appears that Strategy Analytics based Sony’s track record of support for older consoles as their reason that it’ll eventually win out this console generation. Talking numbers, they predict that the PlayStation 3 will sell 127 million units, while the Wii will only sell 103 million units. They didn’t release information for the Xbox 360, which five years since its release, has sold 32 million units.

It’s worth noting that they’re predicting that the PS3 will, in total, sell less than the PS2. As of 2010, Sony has sold 140 million PS2 consoles, with more in production. Rumors of a Wii 2 or Wii HD, a high-def capable Wii variant from the Nintendo could potentially harm sales of the original Wii console.

Although we won’t see another console generation for a while, a lot of pundits in the industry predict that the next consoles (call them the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720, whatever) will completely lack any sort of physical media and instead will rely entirely on downloadable games. While this possibility is both feasible and infeasible, it’s possible that those with poor internet connections could choose to stay with the current generation for its physical media.

Strategy Analytics says that for 2010, the Wii will sell 17.5 million units, the PS3 will sell 14 million units, the Xbox will sell 10.5 million and the PlayStation 2 will round out with 5.5 million units.