EA predicts Sony will miss PS3 year-end shipment numbers

If you haven’t managed to procure a good, solid pre-order yet from a credible retailer, you just might want to take a good hard look at those unboxing pics we shared last night, ’cause it could very well be as close as you’re getting to a PlayStation 3 in 2006. See, despite Sony’s repeated reductions to the launch quantity predictions, EA thinks they’re still “exaggerating” a bit, and we might actually end up with around 500,000 to 800,000 units by year’s end in North America — as opposed to the 1-1.2 million currently being predicted by Sony. Sure, we would figure Sony would know its own numbers better than anyone else, but it also has the greatest motive to “exaggerate,” and we’re sure EA has plenty of insider info of its own. For our part, we’re relatively certain Sony will have 14-17 of these things ready by November 17th. Maybe.