EA on European Hardware Sales
EA have gone to the unusual effort of gathering up European Hardware Sales for the past two years, and takes a look ahead at 2008. It must be noted that the figures they have gathered for the European market can not be 100% verified. The European market tracking companies, ChartTrack and GfK keep their data closed and only reveal the information for a fee. This is unlike the US and Japanese markets which openly provide sales figures.
However, with the company basing their findings on the “limited information currently available” we can not be sure that the information has been gathered from ChartTrack or GfK sources. The information they have gathered is nevertheless interesting reading.
For 2007 the Nintendo DS and Wii led European Hardware sales with 8.7 and 4.8 million units sold respectively. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 brought up the end of the sales figures, though the 360 trailed PS3 sales by 0.9 million units. The PS2 sold a highly credible 3.8 million units and the PSP 3.1 million.
What does this show us? It shows that Nintendo products are amazingly popular in the European markets, and it must be considered, what would the Wii sales have been if supply was able to meet demand? The very poor performance of the 360 must be disheartening for Microsoft who has put so much effort recently into pushing the console. For Sony they should be pleased to see strong figures from the PS2 and PSP and eager to see the PS3 push on sale wise in 2008.
The estimates for 2008 see the Xbox 360 selling between 1.5 and 2.5 million units with the PS3 performing very well with between 5.0 and 6.0 million sales. The Wii is predicted to again lead the console chase with 6.5 to 7.5 million units, and the DS again scheduled to outperform the PSP. DS estimates are between 6.5 and 7.5 millions sales and the PSP only 2.5 to 3.5 million.
Again, these are only estimates from EA based on “limited information” and the 2007 figures are again based on “limited information.” None of these figures have been confirmed by the manufacturers, but when a giant like EA is involved it seems fair to say that these figures are going to be close to actual sales.
The EA report can be read here. [Gamasutra.]