Sony and MS are both right, says analyst

Leading industry analyst Michael Pachter has stepped in to play Jeremy Kyle in the dispute between Sony and Microsoft.

Kaz Hirai was first to take the stage, declaring that Sony is the "official" industry leader.

But there are two sides to every story. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg responded by calling Sony "out of touch" and "complacent", and pointing out that anyone can be a father but it takes a real man to be a Dad.

Now Pachter has settled the argument with the results of that all-important lie detector test. "Aaron Greenberg is right that Sony likely won't catch Microsoft in the US until at least 2014," he told GameDaily. "Kaz is right that Sony will likely catch Microsoft globally."

Pachter went on to say that Sony is "likely" to be ahead of Microsoft by 4 million units in Japan, and behind by 2 million and 7 million in Europe and the US respectively. However, he reckons Sony can shift 2 million more consoles per year for the next few years in Japan, and can catch up in Europe during that time too.

"So by the end of 2011, Sony should be even in Europe, ahead by 10 million units in Japan, and behind by a greater margin than 7 million in North America," predicted Pachter. Still with us? "If the Xbox 360 outsells the PS3 by 1 million units per year for 2009, 2010 and 2011, the two consoles will be in a dead heat by the end of 2011."

He went on to suggest that if the price of PS3 falls to USD 299 this year, "It's likely that the two consoles will sell around the same number of units, with a slight edge to Sony because of Blu-ray."

"Funny that nobody is talking about catching the Wii..." Pachter added.

Hirai and Greenberg are said to be sitting down with Graham after the show for the sake of the children stuck in the middle.