This time next week we might be painting a different picture. Right now, though, the Xbox 360 has just enjoyed an upward surge in sales while the fortunes of the PlayStation 3 have dipped in the opposite direction.

Chart-Track has the data, noting a 43% improvement in weekly sales for the Xbox 360. It’s all thanks to the newly-cheap Xbox 360 ‘Elite’, of course. Put another way, it’s rather less likely that eager punters will have been quite so quick to fork out for the bog-standard Xbox 360 ‘Arcade’, which actually went up in price from £129.99 to £159.99. If the upswing seems a little smaller than expected we’re reminded that things tend not to go really nuts until Xmas is in sight – generally from October onwards.

So what about the good old PlayStation 3? Well, somewhat inevitably, sales have shrunk by 20% ahead of the launch of the PS3 Slim. However, Sony seems to have made more of a concerted effort to market their new model. So let’s see how things have improved seven days from now. Or not, as the case may be...