Price cuts and other factors will determine the popularity of the three consoles

Dec 28, 2013 13:06 GMT  ·  By

Games industry analyst Michael Pachter has just revealed a brand new prediction about the sales of the PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U, speculating that Sony's new console will soon dominate the other two devices from Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively.

As of last week, each of the three main console manufacturers has new devices on the market, with Nintendo launching the Wii U last year, while Microsoft and Sony released the Xbox One and PS4, respectively, in November.

Sales results have already been posted by the three companies, but it's still too early to tell which one is winning the new console war.

According to Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter, the PS4 will dominate the competition by 2016, as he has just revealed his own prediction for the new war.

"We expect Sony's and Microsoft's new consoles to thrive over the next three years, with cumulative worldwide sales of 37.7 million PS4 and 29 million Xbox One consoles by year-end 2016. We do not expect Nintendo's Wii U to fare as well, with cumulative sales of under 20 million by 2016," his company told investors, via Kotaku.

This prediction is based on several factors, however, including potential price cuts for both the PS4 and the Xbox One so, if these change, the actual results might also be skewed.

"Our overall forecast is based upon several assumptions: first, we expect console prices to decline only modestly over the next three years, with PS4 pricing in the U.S. dropping from $399.99 at launch to $299.99 by 2016 and with Xbox One pricing in the U.S. dropping from $499.99 at launch to $349.99 by 2016;

"Second, we expect new release software pricing to remain at $59.99 in the U.S. for the next three years; finally, we expect Nintendo to continue producing the Wii U. Should any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, hardware and software sales will be affected, and it is highly likely that the ultimate results will differ significantly from our forecast."

As of yet, however, the PS4 does have a slight edge over the Xbox One.