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EA Predicts PS3 Shipments To Fall Short

According to GI.biz , mega-publisher EA isn't quite so convinced that Sony will hit their target of shipping 2 million PS3s to North America and Japan by the end of the year.

The North American shipment is set to be around 1 million to 1.2 million units, but the debate continues to rage about whether or not Sony's announced 2 million target will be reached. A recent official quote from Sony's Jack Tretton reads-

"Sony Playstation 3 is in full production and our target quantities for North America remain unchanged … We plan to have more than one million systems in North America by December 31, 2006."

EA believes otherwise, apparently. They estimate that North America will see 500,000 to 800,000 units by the end of 2006, which is a significant 25% to 50% less than Sony's goal. EA's CFO Warren Jenson says this is "approximately what Microsoft sold last year on the Xbox 360." Whether or not EA has information the rest of the public does not remains to be seen, but they are a major publisher and they probably need realistic production numbers so as to avoid over-production of games. Still, it certainly contradicts previous reports, so it's still very much a "wait and see" situation.