• Posted November 24th, 2010 at 20:34 EDT by Mike Harradence
• 7 Comments

Former Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison has said that although he’s hopeful the PlayStation 3 will match its predecessor in terms of global sales, the platform likely faces a “difficult challenge” in reaching the mammoth milestone.

Harrison’s gloomy outlook boils down to changing market conditions, arguing that Sony doesn’t have the luxury of securing exclusive triple-A third-party support as it did back in the days of the PlayStation 2.

"I hope PS3 can match PS2, but I think the market dynamics are slightly different," Harrison told Eurogamer. "It's much more competitive."

"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 added that the days of nabbing major third-party exclusives – such as Grand Theft Auto – have gone the way of the dodo: "I think PS2 was probably the last era in which you will see that happen in a meaningful way,” he offered. 

By contrast, Sony Europe founding president Chris Deering's outlook was far more optimistic, believing Sony’s flagship console not only has the potential to match PS2’s mammoth installed base, but even surpass it.

"I think it can sell as many as PS2, maybe more," he said. "In the case of both PS1 and PS2, we sold more Slim units than original models. 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."

PS2 has sold a whopping 146 million units worldwide since its launch a decade ago, while PS3 – which launched back in November 2006 – has so far shifted just north of 46 million units globally.