Motorstorm 2 may be a good game but I don't see it doing much sales-wise. From what I have noticed lately, arcadey racers haven't exactly been lighting up the charts the past few years. In fact, it seems as if all racers have kind of taken a back seat the past few years. GT will sell great, I'm sure, but it won't come close to its glory days IMO.

Anyway, I would have a hard time putting Motorstorm on any kind of pedestal higher than a game like Banjo (which could do well if Rare returns to form, hope-hope-crosses fingers) and definitely a peg below games like Fable and Halo Wars.

@Rock_on
never thought of it that way. I agree. Out of those PS3 games, resistance 2 looks best

Do you really think that platformers (Banjo3) are doing better than arcadey racers though. I think that Banjo may suffer from the same kind of issues with it's genre as you are mentioning for Motorstorm. Of course this is partly because I'm having a rough time thinking of any platformers that have come out recently other than SMG and Ratchet.

may be we will see Halo 4 in 2009

year for Halo .. year for Gears
year for Halo .. year for Gears

do not forget the yearly games like GH and CoD
this should help X360 line up to look better

GoW2 + Fable 2 + Halo War + Alan wake + BK3 + L4D
good ... Great!

No, which is why I compared MS2 to BK3. I think BK3 will be a good game and everyone should be hoping for it to be outstanding. Lord knows we need a few more good platformers on consoles.

My point is that neither one will light up the charts. Maybe if one of them is truly outstanding it could but I honestly don't see that happening for either game.

@ rocketpig, unless Eight Days or the Getaway make it (I think one could certainly make it) then there is not much for Europe, apart from Motorstorm 2, which will sell more than the original (which would have sold over 1m without bundling) and PES 2009 (though non-exclusive) will probably shift many console cause it will be a proper next gen pes, Japan has White Knight Chronicles

Anyway, I thought the original KZ was popular in Europe (though we have no data), so KZ 2 should do well there. I don't think that Gears 2 will shift that many consoles, cause I doubt that there are that many FPS fans that have managed to live without GeoW 1 and Halo 3. Fable and Banjo-Kajooie should help sales in Europe, though they will probably not have a huge effect in the US, however, I think that MS 2 will make up for them. R2 (I would say that will make 5m) and KZ2 will be excellent games, and I expect R2 to be more arcady than KZ2 and will sell more, though Sony will advertise them massively. SOCOM is not in the same league, Warhawk only sold 500k, so I don't expect SOCOM to sell much more than that (I won't get it) but it should do decently. However, that is an extremely strong holiday line-up and I don't doubt that Sony will add to it this year

The big question is LBP, the question is will that an the inevitable price cut be enough to get people onto the PS3. It will be very well reviewed (I can't see any other outcome) and they will do huge amounts of advertising explaining the concept, and I think it will be one of the best selling games on the PS3.

Looking into 2009, the PS3 will see Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3 (not that huge a title in my opinion), Uncharted 2 (will do very well), probably next Ratchet (not as good as Uncharted), and then you might expect HS 2 as well to further boost sales.

Overall, I do think that the PS3's holiday line up does trump the 360's, but unless M$ get Halo 4 made for 2009, that will be Sony's year

 wii as always

 Ahh....my apologies, I thought you were saying you think BK3 will undoubtedly do better.  You're right though, both of their genre's are having issues and probably neither will see the ginormous sales their prospective sides hope for.  But I still think they will both be good games worth playing, and sometimes that's enough....even for sales junkies like us.

 Killzone 2 will not be released this year. Sony can wait, polish it and release it next year for maximum impact. This year they have too many good games already (GTAIV, MGS4, LBP, SOCOM, R2, MotorStorm 2, etc)

Final Fantasy XIII coud come out in Japan this year, and MotorStorm isn't a shooter is it?  And it's sold extremely well, in OTHERS where it's not  bundled (1.5 mil according to VGC).

I think that the PS3 has a very nice holiday line-up aside from shooters.  You've also failed to mention a possible Uncharted 2, which has sold it's best in Europe also, and FFXIII which will sell awesome in Japan.

But the 360 does have a good holiday line-up this year.  I am totally excited about Fable, and Gears 2, but LBP could be very big.  I don't think it will bomb, but I think this could be huge, especially in Others.