Sony sees PS3 interest from Xbox 360 owners

Sony expects to sell a lot of its redesigned PlayStation 3 systems this holiday season, and its target customer base includes Xbox 360 owners. In an interview with GameSpot, Sony's vice president of hardware marketing John Koller said the $270 Uncharted 3 bundle in particular is expected to draw a lot of converts from Microsoft's ranks.

"We have seen a very high interest rate from Xbox 360 consumers wanting to purchase a second console," Koller said. "We've held up Uncharted 3 as our flagship product over the last year and it's a good opportunity for those types of consumers to come over and own a second console in their household. We saw the same kind of thing happen in reverse during the PS2 years when a lot of PS2 consumers said they wanted to get an Xbox because of Halo and some other games. So we think the strategy works and it's a good one."

However, that late-in-the-lifespan trend doesn't mean Sony's looking to drop the PS3 anytime soon.

"We're going to continue supporting the PS3 for the next few years," Koller said. "Absolutely. And we're going to continue supporting it not only that long, but as long as there is a development spigot that's running hot. And I can tell you right now, the development spigot for PS3 is very hot. A lot of great games coming. Same thing with PS2…it's kind of stuck around as that old warrior, many years after its launch. But there's still games launching for it."

Sony has yet to announce the successor to the PS3, which originally launched in November of 2006.