But yes, if intended purchase patterns for Assassin’s Creed 2 are any evidence. Analyst firm OTX claims that 15% of gamers who are planning to purchase Ubisoft’s forthcoming blockbuster on PS3 actually own the original version on the Xbox 360. Meanwhile only 7% of those preparing to buy the Xbox 360 iteration owned the first game on PlayStation 3.

But that’s not all. The trend for Modern Warfare 2 is apparently shaping up along similar lines and, as OTX analyst Nick Williams reports: "The PS3 seems poised to shift the ratio of Xbox 360 to PS3 sales for most major multi-platform releases in its favor among dual owners."

Time will tell whether any of this comes true, and we should probably highlight that the OTX report is based on the purchasing intentions of US gamers (hence the horrible misspelling of ‘favour’). This is very interesting, all the same – particularly for Microsoft!