While often criticized, Electronic Arts remains at the top of the food chain among game publishers and developers for PC and console games. For this reason it is interesting to note what the company forecasts sales will be like in 2008 for the different game consoles. While the dominance of the Nintendo Wii among newer generation consoles has rarely been disputed, Microsoft has generally played the number two contender position lagging considerably behind Nintendo, leaving the PS3 following closely but usually in third position nevertheless.
Now, if EA figures for this year are to be believed, Nintendo will remain unchallenged with Wii sales in the range of 12-14 million worldwide. Then the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will be close tie in North America, however in Europe, Sony's console is expected to get a considerable edge that will put them in the range of 9.5-11.5 million console sales worldwide versus only 6-8 million expected for the Xbox 360. Also interesting to watch are the PS2 declining sales that are still expected to be in the range of 4-5 million consoles, pretty impressive.
While these are only estimates, EA does play an important role in the gaming market. It remains to be seen how close these figures are to reality by the end of the year, and also how much of a factor the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war plays in the mind of new buyers.