Reeves: PS3 will overtake 360 by summer

PlayStation 3 is set to overtake Xbox 360 in Europe by the summer of this year, despite launching well over a year after its rival.

That was the bullish claim of SCEE president and CEO David Reeves this week, who revealed that PS3 has already outsold 360 in certain territories such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

In an exclusive interview, Reeves told MCV that in December PS3, PSP and PS2 all sold over a million units each in the PAL region.

And although Sony Corporation is yet to announce full global sales figures, Reeves provided a snapshot of PS3’s PAL performance so far, whilst predicting the leap ahead of Xbox 360 within the next few months.

In December we sold just over a million PlayStation 3s during the month,” he told MCV. That’s across all PAL territories and that’s a sell-through figure. About 20-22 per cent of that figure was sold in the UK alone. We’re very happy with the performance of PS3 in the UK.

We don’t often mention the competition, but I will give you some interesting data: In terms of installed base in some of our major markets, such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy – plus some distributor territories in smaller markets like Switzerland – our current cumulative installed base is now higher than Xbox 360.

It has not yet reached that in the UK. But the team here expect to overtake the installed base of Xbox 360 across all PAL territories in late summer. It’s also worth mentioning that last week we outsold Xbox 360 in PAL territories by a ratio of three to one.”

To read the interview in full, head over to the Interviews & Features section.