UK sales of PS3 and 360 neck-and-neck in 2007

295w ago - Hardware statistics from ChartTrack show PS3 and Xbox 360 are within a hair's breadth of one another in terms of total calender year sales to date.

Xbox 360 enjoyed a 12-week headstart on PS3 before it was launched on March 23rd, but both systems have near identical sales figures for the first 38 weeks of the year.

However, 55 per cent of all PS3 sales came in the first four weeks after the console's launch date.

Xbox 360 is still benefiting from its price drop and the introduction of the Elite model last month, when it enjoyed a 260 per cent jump in sales. Since then (week 34), it has consistently sold more units than PS3 week-on-week.

ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch believes that the price of Sony's machine and lack of killer app software will see Microsoft's format pull ahead in the closing months of 2007.

"Prior to week 34, it's fair to say that Xbox 360 sales were verging on the unimpressive," he told MCV. "But since Elite was released and the 360 price drop has kicked in, Xbox is outselling PS3 week-on-week."

The consoles are at different stages of their lifecycles, and long-term the sales balance could easily shift. But unless a PS3 price cut comes in - and after Tokyo Games show it looks unlikely - it's difficult to see the 360 not selling more by the end of the year.

"It had Halo 3 arriving this week, is cheaper and has a raft of software after being on the market for over two years. PS3 is still in its relative infacy."