Phil Harrison Believes Sony Faces An Enormous Challenge If The PlayStation 3 Is To Beat Its Predecessor's Sales Records.

Speaking with Eurogamer, the Sony legend revealed that the "dynamics" are "slightly different" as the business is now a more competitive market.

“I hope PS3 can match PS2, but I think the market dynamics are slightly different,” he said. “For a large chunk of its life-cycle, the PS2 didn’t really have any competition anywhere in the world, so Sony was able to sell a huge number of units. If PS3 does reach the same level it will take longer and it will be a more difficult challenge.”

Harrison also said that Sony's ability to score third-party exclusives was more feasible at the height of its popularity, and it was "the last era" in which the industry will see console exclusives “happen in a meaningful way”.

SCE founder Chris Deering has faith in the PlayStation 3 though, and believes it can achieve the astronomical numbers of its predecessor.

“In the case of both PS1 and PS2, we sold more Slim units than original models,” he said. “The PS3 Slim has only been out a couple of years. If you could get a PS3 for a hundred pounds… Can you imagine? It could go much higher and last longer.”

It's true that the PlayStation 3 is still nowhere near a mass-market price and yet has already sold 43 million units. The PlayStation 3 probably can get close to the PlayStation 2, but this generation is also likely to be much longer than previous ones. Whether it will outstrip the PS2 is unlikely, but we can still picture sales of over 100 million for the PlayStation 3's entire life-span, which is nothing to be sniffed at. The system's been built to last, it'll be interesting to see it develop over the next five or so years.

[source vg247.com]