Merrill Lynch: Xbox 360 To Win Next-Gen Battle Through 2011

A new report from Japanese market analysts at financial firm Merrill Lynch has predicted that Microsoft's Xbox 360 will gain the greatest worldwide market share of the next-gen consoles through 2011, with PS3 and Wii marginally trailing. According to an International Business Times report citing Yoshiyuki Kinoshita, research analyst for Merrill Lynch, the Tokyo-based division for the financial giant has predicted: "The winner in the next-generation console battle is likely to be the Xbox 360, which is the leader in North America, the world’s biggest market." In addition, Kinoshita's research note revealed: "We forecast respective market shares [in March 2011] of Xbox 360 [at] 39 percent, PS3 [at] 34 percent and Wii [at] 27 percent, thus overturning Sony’s domination of the market with its PS2-based share of 69 percent, and doubling Microsoft and Nintendo’s respective market shares." Kinoshita clearly believes that no one company will dominate all territories however, suggesting that Sony will still have 57% of the console market share in Japan by that date, with Nintendo's Wii at 39% and an unspecified small percentage for the Xbox 360. However, it is his prediction for the North America market that is most startling and perhaps debatable, with his suggestion Microsoft will have 50% market share by 2011, of while the PlayStation 3 has just 27% and the Nintendo Wii 23%.