Sony chief Kaz Hirai has stated to the Yomirui Shimbun newspaper that he is very confident that the PS3 will manage to sell 11 million units by the end of its fiscal year despite strong increasing competition from the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Worldwide sales of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 are expected to reach 11 million by the end of this fiscal year, a senior executive said in an interview published Saturday.

Sony Computer Entertainment's chief executive Kazuo Hirai told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper he was confident of fulfilling that goal despite stiff competition from Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's XBoX 360.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071215/bs_afp/japangamecompanysony_071215072316

p/s: I think this should put at VG Chartz News & Editorials

Compare the PS3 sales at the same period with Xbox 360, you will know the posibilities of 11 million. lolz.

Remember at that time, 360 didn't had any competitor and PS3 is not going to have any big titles until Sep-Oct 2008.

Sources from FishyJoe:

Therefor the total number of expected PS3 shipments as of March 31, 2008 is 14.57 million.

Let me repeat, 14.57m is the expected PS3 shipments as of March 31, 2008 and is clearly specified in Sony's OFFICIAL financial statements.

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/07q1_eleki.pdf

When does the fiscal year end?...March?

March 2008. And they mean ship 11 million PS3s in the fiscal year, which doesn't include teh other 3.27 million from the months before it. So they need to have more like 14 million shipped by the end of March 2008. To do that they'd need sales of at least 12 million unless they channel stuff.

"When does the fiscal year end?...March?"

Yup it could be hard to get 11mio when K2 and LBP are really delayed to late 2008.

 " And they mean ship 11 million PS3s in the fiscal year"

 Doesn't sound like that from the article perhaps they revised early predictions. 

11 million sold to retailers or customers?...the former,I presume.

Sounds possible. Devil may cry 4 & Haze may push something, same if UT3 arrives in Europe. I would say 10 million is more likely.

 Well unless in the future they are putting a PR spin on it, from their financial report this is how it was stated. Just how Nintneod wnats to sell, or ship to retailer, 17.5 million units this fiscal year, Sony wants to sell, or ship to retailer, 11 million PS3s.  Not finish at that.

But I could see them doing a PR spin on it with they wanted LTD of 11 million.  Who knows.  Sony is known for doing that.

I think this is a possibility anyway, but i'm sure that an article was posted on here recently stating that Sony now thought the 11 Million consoles sold/shipped figure by march was not going to be met?

Oh well, i hope that they make it anyway as it would be great to see the console do well :D

They are planning to sell 11M. I say 10M.

 Yea right now PS3 is looking at about 8.25 million units sold by the end of the year thereabouts.  That means shipments will be in the ranges of 10-10.5 million.  So in the next 3 months it'll need to ship 4 million units, in months that are really some of the slowest.  Not to mentionIt'll still have a good 2 million units still in stores. 

Basically for it to ship 14.5 million by the end of March 2008, it'd need Wii like sellouts, something I just don't see happening.  I think it's a better thought to think about 12 million by the end of March 2008 with about 10.5-11 million in sales thereabouts.