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SCEE chief: PS3 to overtake Xbox in Europe by summer
Despite the PS3's late start in Europe, SCEE chief David Reeves has confidently predicted to MCV that the system is poised to overtake the Xbox 360 in cumulative European sales by late summer. "In terms of installed base in some of our major markets, such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy ... our current cumulative installed base is now higher than Xbox 360," Reeves said, adding that the PS3 outsold the 360 in all PAL territories 3-to-1 last week.Is such a turnaround possible in the time frame Reeves suggests? A quick look at VGChartz (graph shown above) does show Microsoft's European sales lead on the PS3 recently getting cut in half, from roughly 1.8 million units in July '07 to only 0.9 million units in January '08. The narrowing came almost entirely during the highly competitive holiday season, though -- since then, PS3 and 360 sales have run roughly parallel.Of course, the whole Sony/Microsoft battle might be meaningless, considering the Wii utterly dominated European sales through the 2007 holiday season. Then again, we suppose there's some pride in battling for the silver. Just ask Mitt Romney after the Iowa caucuses.
Foxconn production: Not enough for Wii, plenty for PS3?
Taiwan's DigiTimes is reporting today that Foxconn Precision Components is set to "begin volume production of PS3 in the second half of 2007 in order to meet strong demand in the upcoming peak season." Foxconn, Foxconn ... why does that name sound so familiar? Oh yeah, they're the company that sources said had production facilities that were "insufficient to meet persistent strong sales of the [Wii]" a few weeks ago, leading Nintendo to search for additional production partners.So, if we're reading this right, Foxconn has enough additional capacity to meet the "strong demand" expected for the PS3, but not enough additional capacity to keep up with the "consistent strong sales" of the Wii going forward. It's a bit circumstantial, but it's enough to make us wonder just how many systems each company is planning on producing for the coming fiscal year.Read - Foxconn ready for volume production of PS3 gaming consolesRead - Shakeups expected in Wii and Xbox 360 supply chains
