Virgin Megastores forecasts a bumper Christmas for Gizmondo

Virgin Megastores has predicted that handhelds will outsell current generation consoles this Christmas - and that includes Tiger Telematics' beleagured Gizmondo.

The retailer says that the Xbox 360 is likely to be the best-selling console this festive season, followed by the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and Game Boy Micro - with the Gizmondo in fifth place.

Neither the current generation Xbox or PlayStation 2 were mentioned in Virgin's forecast, however. Which may seem odd, since Sony recently announced that it has now shipped 100 million PS2s worldwide, shifting nearly 50,000 units just last week.

The Gizmondo, on the other hand, has not fared so well - only 5000 units were sold in the three months following launch.

But perhaps sales have picked up since. A Virgin spokesperson told our sister site, Eurogamer, that the predictions were made "based on sales at the time" - which would suggest Gizmondo has been outselling Xbox and PS2 in Virgin Megastores branches recently.