PS3 Market Share Grows At Expense Of Xbox 360

Fanboys, start your engines! A new report from Strategy Analysts has revealed that Sony's PlayStation 3 is increasing its global market share at the expense of Microsoft's Xbox 360.

For the first quarter of 2010, the PS3's global share shot up to 31% - a combination of the 'Slim' console, price cut and AAA software such as Uncharted 2 and God of War III had been cited as catalysts for the increase. Strategy Analysts' report predicts that Sony's platform will reach 14 million global sales, compared to 17.5 million Wiis and 10.5 million Xbox 360s.

"Our analysis shows that while Wii sales fell relative to Q109, its share in fact remained constant relative to Q409. The main movement in Q1 2010 was the growing share for Sony’s PS3, at the expense of Microsoft’s Xbox 360," said David Mercer, Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

"The PS3 continues to benefit from the price cut last September. This should help the PS3 maintain growth momentum throughout 2010," Mercer added, while noting that "the introduction of the Natal technology should also help re-energize Microsoft’s Xbox 360 platform in the second half of the year."

Despite Sony's impressive clawback, total global games console sales is expected to fall by around 9% in a gloomy outlook for the industry in the year ahead. The report says that with the "extent and pace of the Wii's decline" and the impact of Natal and PlayStation Move are among the "major uncertainties" that face the global games market.