EA Believe The PlayStation 3 Can Still Topple The XBOX 360's Sales On A Global Basis.

The publisher's European senior vice president Uwe Intat made his feelings clear to MCV, "We could certainly see Sony come back – in the UK it's still a head-to-head competition between PlayStation and Xbox, but on the continent Sony is traditionally stronger than Microsoft.

"But we're very happy to watch the competition, because as long as they're competing to get more consumers in, there are more people we can sell games to."

While initial sales for the PlayStation 3 were slow, the console has hit back in a big way over the past 18 months. A complete system re-branding and new attractive price point has put the system back on the radar. Sony's console, which hit retail a year later than the XBOX 360, has shifted 38 million consoles to date. The XBOX 360 is rumoured to be at the 41.7 million mark.

Unless the Kinect is a huge global success, we imagine Sony will pass Microsoft within the next couple of years. The PlayStation 3 is particularly strong in Japan right now, while Sony still have a huge price-cut card to play worldwide. We doubt the PlayStation will ever topple Microsoft in America - but the European and Japanese markets are looking big enough to push Sony past the post.