Xbox 360 sales to top 2.5 million

MARKET ANALYSIS firm Wedbush Morgan Securities has published a survey predicting sales of 1.5 million 360s in the US and 1 million machines in Europe by 2006.

The authors based the report on the assumption that manufacturing of the new consoles began in August. The report also assumes that 100,000 consoles were originally being produced per week and that this figure will rise to 150,000 or more by the year's end.

Wedbush Morgan also predicts that each 360 owner will buy two games with the console and a further three games during the next two months, a ratio to be applied to each of the upcoming consoles. This report forecasts Xbox software sales to hit $380 million in 2005.

The survey also deals with current generation hardware, predicting a 25% price drop in Sony's PS2 in the US in or around the launch of the Xbox 360. So far there isn't a mention of Microsoft dropping the price of the current Xbox as analysts say their manufacturing costs are too high to allow a further cut.

Finally the prediction is for a rise to 40 million hardware sales in 2005, following 2004's 35 million. You can read more details on the report here. µ