Wii predicted to win 2008 sales race

Gaming megapublisher Electronic Arts officially predicts that Nintendo's Wii will be the highest selling gaming console in North America and Europe.

According to EA’s estimates, a combined total of between 12-14m Wiis will be sold in the two regions during 2008. This gives the console’s sales figures a significant lead over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which EA believes will sell between 9.5–11.5m and 6-8m respectively.

However, Europe is where Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales will really be tested. EA expects just 1.5-2.5m gamers to fork out their cash for an Xbox 360, whereas the publisher believes around 5-6m people will splash some cash on a PS3. The old-school PS2 is the real loser worldwide though, because EA has predicted that Sony will only shift a measly 3.9-4.9m units during 2008.

Recent sales figures have already shown that Nintendo shipped 13.2m Wiis worldwide by the end of September 2007, just slightly less than the 13.4m Xbox 360s sold by the same date.

Nintendo also looks set to take first place in the race to sell the most units of portable consoles worldwide. EA believes the company’s DS will sell around 14-16m units, whilst Sony’s rival PlayStation Portable (PSP) will only sell between 6-8m. However, sales of the slim’n’light PSP could be boosted by Sony’s addition of Skype, through a recent firmware update.