PS3 will outsell Wii by 2013

Sony's PlayStation 3 will become the world's most popular gaming platform - but it'll take three more years to get there.

So says Strategy Analytics analyst David Mercer, who recently blogged that, by 2013, consumers will by buying more PS3s than Xbox 360s and Wiis.

By the end of 2010, Mercer forecasts, Nintendo will have shipped around 76m Wiis, but this year will see a big decline in Wii sales. New, exciting software releases aren't appearing as rapidly as they are on other platforms, and the novelty of the Nintendo has begun to wear off.

SA reckons console sales will be down nine per cent on last year's total of 52.2m, itself down six per cent on the 2008. Some 47.5m consoles will be sold this year, it reckons. PS3 and Xbox sales will increase, so that's a big drop in demand for the Wii on the cards.

Nintendo, Mercer reckons, will sell maybe 27m more Wiis, taking the console's cumulative lifetime sales to 103m units. The PS3 will reach 127m, putting it on a par with the PS2.

But that's a tentative figure, Mercer admitted. Sales could be higher if Sony's plan to tempt buyers with the PS3's upcoming 3D support proves successful. Its Motion Controller peripheral may win over Wii buyers too, though Microsoft's Project Natal will be trying to do the same for the Xbox. ®