We read of the Wii’s success in Japan compared with PS3 and Xbox 360 sales, and we’re also told that the PS2 is the games console that sold the most units this Christmas just passed. But there seems to be some doubt over how well the PS3 will do in Europe once it launches.

To this, I say, let’s face facts: the PS3 sold out in the US and Japan – Sony sold every unit they could ship. Prices for PS3s on eBay would naturally go up in the first week or two after units sold out, but as time went on with so many PS3’s for sale on eBay, Christmas getting closer and then passing, and new stock in Best Buy and other stores on shelves and already purchased earlier this week, it’s no surprise that any PS3 still on eBay wouldn’t now be selling at anywhere the doubling or tripling of prices in the day of launch and for a week or two thereafter.

While the Wii has undoubtedly caught the eye of many people, including a whole new market of previous non-gamers, Nintendo had around four times the stock available, and Microsoft, with their own stock problems eliminated, found themselves in the happy position of having sold the most next-generation consoles despite the sales of all those PS3s and Wiis.

Sure, some people might have purchased a Wii or PS3 instead of an Xbox 360 if one was available, but I’ll bet most of those Xbox 360 owners are very happy with their games consoles and the widest range of next-gen titles to choose from.

Of course, as we’ve already explored, it’s Sony with the PS2 that sold the most consoles and who enjoys the largest catalogue of games available for any games console platform.

It seems likely that Sony won’t have solved all of its production problems by March this year, and will start off with limited stocks in Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Let’s not forget that they still have to keep on supplying the US and Japan in the meantime.

With the PS3 an unquestionably amazing next-generation console in its own right, more than taking the fight to the Xbox 360 and the Wii, Sony will sell every PS3 they make this year without problems. The same can be said of the Wii.

However, given that almost 10 million Xbox 360s have already been sold, there’s actually no guarantee that Microsoft will sell every Xbox 360 that they make. Nevertheless, they’ll still sell millions of consoles this year and will be pulling out all the stops this year to maximize their return from their entire Xbox investment. Perhaps we’ll see the Xbox 360 update that has been rumoured, with a larger hard drive of 100Gb and a built-in HD DVD drive along with other updates. The PS2 had a similar kind of update in Japan when it was transformed into the hard drive equipped PSX, so there’s a clear precedent for this to happen with an Xbox 360 update, while retaining complete compatibility with the existing Xbox 360 platform.

Please read on to page 2 for the conclusion...