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Electronic Arts expects PS3 to sell better than Xbox 360

Massive games publisher Electronic Arts released estimates placing PlayStation 3 ahead of Xbox 360 in sales throughout 2008, reported GamesIndustry.

According to the publisher, Sony’s console will make major gains in Europe, where it expects between 5 and 6 million PlayStation 3s sold in the year. In contrast, EA thinks the Xbox 360 will sell just 1.5 to 2.5 million units.

EA believes that PlayStation 3 will be able to tie the Xbox 360 in North America, both selling 4.5 to 5.5 consoles each in 2008. With Europe and North American numbers combined, however, the PlayStation 3 is expected to take a 3.5 million sales lead for the year.

While EA is betting on the PlayStation 3, the games company has had its share of challenges developing games for the system. Several of its sports titles, such as Madden NFL and NHL, run at smoother framerates.

At a recent investor conference call, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that developers were “still experiencing some delay on the PS3,” but added that multiplatform games made first on Sony’s system, such as Burnout Paradise, posed fewer problems. “There still remains some catching up to do on the engineering side for the PS3,” said Riccitiello.

Not surprisingly, the Wii is predicted by EA to be the top seller again for the second year in a row, with 12 to 13 million in 2008. The portable systems are also expected to continue high sales, with the DS hitting 14 to 16 million and the PSP to sell 6 to 8 million. The PlayStation 2 will carry out its long tail with 3.9 to 4.9 million.

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Bluray Player/Living Room Appliances
By rupaniii on 2/4/2008 9:32:54 PM , Rating: 1
These are the only Bluray players 2.0 profile guaranteed or compatible.
Now, also, there is the fact that sony can short their BDP-S bluray players and get more sales that way on Bluray.
If they begin shipping it with the home theater remote it would help tremendously.

As games want/use more texture, the PS3 has a huge advantage.
We shall see if it is ever needed.




RE: Bluray Player/Living Room Appliances
By dubldwn on 2/5/2008 1:07:13 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
As games want/use more texture, the PS3 has a huge advantage.

No, we already figured that out. It won’t be. Crysis fits on one DVD, and it’s too uber for the consoles. Crytek says so. Do you know what would happen if Crysis was “optimized” for your PS3 and set to run at 1280x720? Your PS3 would step down from your shelf, walk to the middle of your carpet, squat down, and take a huge, huge dump. I’m afraid the GPU’s in today’s consoles are simply not ready for those kinds of textures. Maybe the next generation, with GPU’s that can push frames with said textures at 1920x1080, will benefit from Blu-ray. This, of course, is after Sony has done all the heavy lifting, taken all the shots while they were down, and Blu-ray drives are 20 bucks.

Oh, and if you want more maps, get a hard drive.


RE: Bluray Player/Living Room Appliances
By DingieM on 2/5/2008 5:13:02 AM , Rating: 4
Actually, truth is very much different.

Crysis is not very optimized even on a PC. That may well have to do because crysis had to run on many different systems, which makes game programming for the PC quite hard.
Opitmized and correctly programmed, Crysis will run just fine with great visual quality on the more expensive consoles.
And if crytek says so, it may very well have to do that they don't have a clue (yet) how to program efficiently for the consoles.
Crytek is by no means holy! If they can't manage it does not mean nobody can!
Granted the PC has the massive advantage of having lots of internal memory, but that is the major drawback: Games on PC's are inherently inefficient, also because of the humongous bloatware called Windows Vistaaaaaa and also XP.
I am willing to bet Gears Of War 2 will stand up against Crysis visually and may even surpass it...
Same counts for Killzone 2.

Point of playing games on a console is that you can play on the couch with a superior audio setup, relatively to what is available for PC, and on a large LCD TV.
With 720p on a LCD TV you can create gorgeous visuals, with high speed gameplay.
Games developers just have to know how to unlock the power on the consoles. And believe me, both PS3 and Xbox360 have lots of high bandwidth power to play with.
Don't tell me that 6 hardware threads on 3.2 GHz with a bandwith of ~25 Gb/s from CPU to GPU (with 192 unified shader engines on 500MHz) and bandwidth of 256Gb/s from GPU to GPU subsystem is too slow to achieve Crysis class graphics?
Don't tell me that 6 Cell PPE's on 3.2 GHz and a GPU (G70 class) on 500MHz is too slow to achieve Crysis class graphics?
Both can utilitze the hard drive, only MS and Sony have to give the green light for that.

A visually great game is not only achieved by textures anymore, it is about a bunch of textures, procedural geometry (consoles are designed for that), procedurally generated textures (consoles are designed for that), many types of lighting.
Things change...

quote:
As games want/use more texture, the PS3 has a huge advantage

Totally untrue: textural performance is determined by amounts of internal memory and how fast it can be streamed and processed from external storage to internal storage.
With this in mind, texture streaming is fastest from hard drive.
PS3 has advantage in procedurally generated textures above everything else.


RE: Bluray Player/Living Room Appliances
By Proteusza on 2/5/2008 6:01:49 AM , Rating: 2
The 360's GPU has 48 unified shaders and 192 pixel processors, not quite the same thing.

I dont doubt that, given more time to optimize for just 2 platforms, the boys at CryTek could do well. Nevertheless, remember that there is only so much extra speed you can get out of older hardware. CryTek may not have spent much time optimizing for older GPUs, but I will bet they spent lots of time optimizing for newer GPUs. What I mean to say is that performance on G80 class GPUs is about as good as its going to get.

That being said, 720p would be a low resolution were it on a PC, so perhaps that will allow Crytek to save enough bandwidth to allow Crysis to run okay.

About procedurally generated textures - I reckon in a few years time we wont even be using static textures anymore. Just shaders.


By powerincarnate on 2/5/2008 8:05:42 AM , Rating: 2
Crysis is an incredibly under optimized game for the PC. Like one person said, PC games tend to be under optimized. When you compare what consoles can do, and what PCs can do, Consoles often time achieve much more with much less hardware than the PC.

Don't bring up 1080P with crysis or 1920 x 1200. Don't even bring up 1680 x 1050. Most people run Crysis at 1280 x 720 or 768. this is with G80s, for example. I have a Geforce 8800 GTS 320, 6 GBs of Ram, E6600 intel core 2 duo CPU, despite all that, my system Chugs with high settings and 720P level resolution. Even at medium settings, things slow down often during firefights and alot of people on screen.

Remember Oblivion, if you were to compare equal PC and PS3 hardware, Obliviou would chug on the PC hardware, but runs mostly smooth and graphically beautiful on the PS3's hardware. How about Gears of Wars, on the 360 it's silky smooth, on equal PC hardware, it's extremely unoptimized and not as smooth. We could continue this for days. Despite all that, I don't believe the consoles would be able to get 1080P high setting visuals of crysis, but then again, NO GPU alive, no SLi or Crossfire GPU alive today, can do that. We'll have to wait for the 9 series nvidia cards, and if the projected 30% increase is true, even the next gen cards, won't be able to do it and the 10th series cards seem like when it's will be reality.


By jrb531 on 2/5/2008 4:09:04 PM , Rating: 2
The 360 has basically an ATI x1950XT inside it.

They are darn near identical. If a game can run on an x1950 with DX9 then it can run on a 360.

-JB


By DrKlahn on 2/5/2008 10:46:00 AM , Rating: 3
No the truth is that an underclocked 7800GTX with half the memory bandwidth of it's PC counterpart would have serious trouble with Crysis. And with a max texture size of 4096 (4MB) and 256MB of GPU memory, the only advantage the extra storage will give us is more FMV/cutscenes. The Cell, as good as it is, will have problems keeping all those SPE's busy. We are seeing the top programmers in the industry just now taking advantage of 2 cores effectively. Certainly the heavy optimization that consoles see will benefit the PS3, but hardware juggernaut it is not.


Makes sense
By ajfink on 2/4/2008 9:14:23 PM , Rating: 2
The 360 has already saturated a significant amount of its intended market, a market that is often more than willing to own more than one console. It's not surprising, terrifying, shocking, or bad. It's just common sense.

I own an Xbox 360 - love it and play it almost every day - and I might buy a PS3 for the Blu-Ray player and for use as a F@H monster. Four hundred dollars to play movies and fold, yup, and a hope that Killzone 2 is better than the original. Most PS3 exclusives are totally uninteresting in regard to my typically American gaming mentality, but to each there own - obviously.

I'm sure there will be other PS3 games that appeal to me at some point, so maybe the much-talked-about Tax Rebate will be funding a new electronics purchase.

We borrowed the money from China, and it may find its way back, via Japan.




RE: Makes sense
By ajfink on 2/4/2008 9:22:14 PM , Rating: 2
To reply to myself, it seems that the 360 will keep up its pace mostly because it will probably cut its price a bit, edging itself into lower price points and becoming a new way for the less console-enthusiastic people to get a bite.


RE: Makes sense
By Aloonatic on 2/5/2008 6:56:43 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not a big fan of following sales/shipped numbers but the following seems fairly obvious.

If you want an xBox360 you've probably already got one (especially in the US)

If you want a PS3 you may have one but you may also be waiting for price drops, which cheaper blue laser and general manufacturing cost reductions may well provide sometimes this year but there's no guarantee.

Also, there are (finally) a few half decent games coming out for the PS3 this year, so the no games argument can't be levelled at the PS3 for the first time.

There's simply more "room" for PS3 sales (especially in the US) and people are buying it as BD player too. Not sure how much use a PS3 bought as a BD player is to EA though?

For the record, I live in the UK, have a PS3 and finally bought a game (CoD4) the other day after having my console for nearly a year??? Console came with ridge racer (I hate that game) and Resistance when I got it.

Also, China owns us all and I hate their food, dam it!


Another prediction?
By BioRebel on 2/4/2008 8:54:19 PM , Rating: 3
Didnt they also predict the Pats winning the superbowl?




RE: Another prediction?
By onwisconsin on 2/4/2008 9:04:04 PM , Rating: 2
Yes they did, 38-30. First time IIRC it's been wrong


Fine I'll do the research
By Haltech on 2/4/2008 11:41:10 PM , Rating: 1
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte...

If you check the bottom picture, even though the 360 sold alot more becasue of the early launch it is still beating both the Wii and the PS3. With Wii with the only one having a chance to beat the 360 and the PS3 having no chance.
And some how I dont agree with EA




RE: Fine I'll do the research
By Shlong on 2/5/2008 3:16:38 PM , Rating: 2
I think the PS3 can beat 360 this year domestically in the US (mainly because of Metal Gear Solid). Worldwide I think the PS3 will outsell the 360. With the Wii outselling both domestically & worldwide.


RE: Fine I'll do the research
By ViperROhb34 on 2/5/2008 5:07:09 PM , Rating: 2
My cousin and I predicted the PS3 woud probably outsell the 360 ( in worldwide sales ) by a 'bit' ..

A bit ? Well if EA even close and PS3 does outsell 360 by 360,000 units ( Say 7,000,000 360's AGAINST 7,360,000 PS3's FOR THE YEAR ) .. That being said.. 360 is ahead of PS3 by around 7 million units so far .. it would still be years before PS3's INSTALL BASE is EQUAL or GREATER then 360's ..

At a rate of 300K units this year, 500K the next , etc.. It would take many years for the PS3 to catch the 360.

I think within 3yrs though the next MS console will be out, which Sony would have to look outdated to. When PS2 was out they really didnt have much competition.


By TerranMagistrate on 2/4/2008 8:55:05 PM , Rating: 4
The PS3's greatest issue in the past was the cost of the unit for consumers, second being a generally lacking available lineup for the majority of 2007. Now both of those low points are going to be gone here in 2008.

In any case, the PS brand always seems to do exceedingly well regardless of the region it is sold in. The PS3 is looking to continue that trend.




I don't get why this matters.
By Domicinator on 2/6/2008 12:21:10 AM , Rating: 2
For several reasons:

1) Xbox 360 already has a great install base. Do you guys think it's going to get the Dreamcast treatment or something? There is no need to feel threatened by this statement from EA. The 360 will live out its intended lifespan and there will continue to be games for it. Xbox Live is immensely popular, and so is the 360 despite its early problems. That's a good sign.

2) PS3 HAS to make a comeback at some point. And it will. Things will come into equilibrium. Sony has made just as many blunders as Microsoft as far as hardware, in fact I'd say they're pretty much on an even playing field right now. There are good reasons to hate both companies at this point, but if you're a console gamer, you'll have to choose one or buy both.

3) Wii is a completely different animal than the PS3 or the 360. The elderly like to play it. Your parents like to play it. The games are completely different, and more geared toward that crowd. Of COURSE it's going to sell more. But true mainstream hardcore gamers don't want to play the Wii unless they have a PS3 or 360 as well to fall back on for the more intense gaming. Wii's sales numbers are NOT going to kill PS3 or 360, because it's not the same kind of machine and doesn't appeal to the same crowd. End of story. Yes, there will be some overlap, but that shouldn't really effect any of the platforms too much, in fact it will help them.

4) Why does it matter who "wins" unless you're an executive at MS or Sony? Both machines are great. I think Xbox 360 has a more robust library and online system, but that's just me. I love my 360 and all of my friends have them too, so it works out great.

So I guess I don't get why this is such a big issue with some of you. Me personally? I'm worried about PC gaming. If anything is in danger of extinction, it's the PC as a game platform. Since I'm primarily a PC gamer, that makes me very sad. But the writing is on the wall now more than it has ever been in the past 20 years. ALL of the console systems are doing their part in killing the PC.




By Snuffalufagus on 2/6/2008 5:36:51 AM , Rating: 2
For fuks sake I think you made a great post.
I tend to avoid these discussions because everyone who posts seems to (in my opinion) imply by their general fanatisism that the current next gen system that sells the most by year 'X' will be the only platform to come up with a future product. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and more than likely some other new contender (I'm thinking some of the brain power that helped launch the CMD64, Atari, etc...) will all have a subsequent hardware offering, and all of them will be better than what the same company offered this time around. Oddly enough this wil happen because progression in technologies not purely console related will make it possible, for a past example, without PC gaming the current consoles would not have half the graphics horsepower they have today.


Get act together EA ...
By Malhavoc on 2/4/2008 8:42:46 PM , Rating: 2
I wonder if this means that EA will stop putting out garbage ports for the PS3 anytime soon. After purchasing Fight Night: Round 3 and Skate, I decided to boycott any of their releases until some drastic changes. While the actual gameplay may be fun on these two games, I feel like I am playing on a Commodore 64 with the load times between session changes.

I'd purchased FN3 when I bought the machine and would have been very disappointed in the system if I had not also purchased Resistance FOM, to see that it wasn't the machine's fault.




Time will tell.
By Bigjee on 2/4/2008 10:05:24 PM , Rating: 2
Browsing the net i read a few days ago that there will be a 100gb version coming out that will cost $399 and the 40gb will cost $299. If this is true then I can very well say that EA is telling the truth. But I guess time will tell.




Isn't this good for Microsoft?
By doodler85 on 2/4/2008 10:10:32 PM , Rating: 2
With every console comes a cost to the manufacturer... if they sell less consoles but have a much larger and more active base, that's game profit.