Analysts on Euro launch: All shipped PS3s will sell

Before and after the original launch of Sony‘s PlayStation 3 (PS3), the company has already been plagued by criticisms coming from every source imaginable – from main competitors Nintendo and Microsoft, retailers, analysts, and even from fans themselves. It seems now that the company is getting its groove back, and analysts can’t help but agree.

According to Screen Digest analyst Nick Parker, “What Sony has shipped will sell. We estimate that Sony will sell around 4 million units in Europe this year, with 1 to 1.5 million in the UK.” The company promised that a total number of 220,000 PS3 units will be made available for the U.K. launch alone.

Just so you guys have an idea if this number is enough or not, it would be good to remember that Microsoft was only able to supply 70,000 Xbox 360 systems during its launch in U.K. last 2005. Nintendo, likewise, provided just 105,000 Wii units for the market last autumn. Both companies, as you all know, have been met by supply shortage issues as well.

“This is the first console launch for years where we anticipate that we will be able to have consoles available at the day of launch in every single Woolworth’s store,” helpfully added a representative from the UK-based high street shop Woolworth’s. Aside from these, analysts believe that Sony will implement a price cut before fall of 2007 hits.

According to them, this is due to the strengthening value of the Japanese Yen. Screen Digest admitted that such price cut is more probable in U.K. and the rest of Europe than in North America because “the per-machine losses in Europe are more or less negated by currency exchange rates.”

Before and after the original launch of Sony‘s PlayStation 3 (PS3), the company has already been plagued by criticisms coming from every source imaginable – from main competitors Nintendo and Microsoft, retailers, analysts, and even from fans themselves. It seems now that the company is getting its groove back, and analysts can’t help but agree.

According to Screen Digest analyst Nick Parker, “What Sony has shipped will sell. We estimate that Sony will sell around 4 million units in Europe this year, with 1 to 1.5 million in the UK.” The company promised that a total number of 220,000 PS3 units will be made available for the U.K. launch alone.

Just so you guys have an idea if this number is enough or not, it would be good to remember that Microsoft was only able to supply 70,000 Xbox 360 systems during its launch in U.K. last 2005. Nintendo, likewise, provided just 105,000 Wii units for the market last autumn. Both companies, as you all know, have been met by supply shortage issues as well.

“This is the first console launch for years where we anticipate that we will be able to have consoles available at the day of launch in every single Woolworth’s store,” helpfully added a representative from the UK-based high street shop Woolworth’s. Aside from these, analysts believe that Sony will implement a price cut before fall of 2007 hits.

According to them, this is due to the strengthening value of the Japanese Yen. Screen Digest admitted that such price cut is more probable in U.K. and the rest of Europe than in North America because “the per-machine losses in Europe are more or less negated by currency exchange rates.”