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While I was writing the editorial about Europe in 2008 I began to think about what this generation will end like in Europe / Others.
I made a small list with predictions and I’d like to hear your opinion about Europe lifetime sales of all 7th gen consoles, including handhelds if you want.
I´m sure this was discussed somewhere before but I couldn´t find a thread about it and this is 2008 so I think this could be interesting to hear now as the holidays are over.
Here are my lifetime predictions for Europe. Please note: every number has to be taken with a grain of salt: +/- 2.5 million units should be enough room if small changes occur. Here we go:
Playstation 3:
17.5 million units lifetime sales
As stated in the article, the Playstation brand is pretty big in Europe. In 2008 and beyond I expect the Playstation to sell less than the Wii but more than the Xbox 360. My guess is 17.5 million units at this generations end – I expect Nintendo to come out on top in the UK, France and Germany and Sony to take the smaller markets.
Xbox 360:
10 million units lifetime sales
I am really unsure if the Xbox 360 will sell in excess of 10 million units in Europe if Microsoft doesn’t get rid of the red ring of death and get more games on the system that do not play like PC games (the Xbox 360 is somehow too PC-ish for some people here) but I think 10 million units (7.5 million low-end and 12.5 million high-end) is possible to achieve for them.
Wii:
40 million units lifetime sales
This was a hard one. Nintendo is huge again in the bigger European markets but still somewhat behind Sony in the smaller ones. I expect the European market to grow further, though and the Wii to sell about 40 million units during its lifetime. Of course everything could change if Wii Fit will cause a Wii – boom like Wii Sports in the US but for now I will be realistic and say 40 million (37.5 million low-end and 42.5 million high-end) – that’s less than the Playstation 2 did. Why? Because Nintendo still seems to lack the marketing power to catch all of the smaller markets. I’m really curious to see how this turns out but I expect them to be more successful in the US than in Europe.
Nintendo DS
50 million units lifetime sales
The DS is very popular in Europe and the Brain Training games are hugely popular over here. Furthermore Nintendo didn’t even drop the price of the lite-model once. Taking those things into account I really expect the DS to break those 50 million units over here which would mean Europe could end up being the biggest market for Nintendo’s popular device.
Playstation Portable
20 million units lifetime sales
The PSP sells well over here and while it isn´t as popular as the DS it should end up selling around 20 million units. On the other hand I´m still disappointed about its software sales – the system is great it just seems to lack the software power to sell more.
Okay, so what about you? I would really love to hear some predictions from you – but please keep it reasonable and fair and back your numbers up with some words. Any predictions?
Edit: I changed my PS3 predictions to 17.5 million after realising the PS3 was released in march over here... *getting old*
