What does the PS3 have that's so appealing to Europeans, no fanboyness involved here just a simple question...

I hear they like racing and sports titles, and to be honest it seems like any viable game in those genres on PS3 is also available on 360...

One feature the PS3 has is it works like a Tivo in Europe. Lucky Europeans!

@Lemming To The Sea:

Europe likes the Playstation brand. At least that's what I've heard people say on this blog.

Hahah the discrepancy between Wii units for EA and Nintendo's numbers is funny. 1.2 Million Dollar difference? Does Nintendo count how many they shipped to Europe as how much they've sold? Because it would probably be a little in between the two if so.

@Lemming To The Sea: Grand Turismo 5. Well you know if thats your thing and um yeah i guess thats it from me.

@NeoAkira:

1.2 Million unit difference, not dollar

@Lemming To The Sea: Singstar

Wait...how is that possible? How is the PS3 outselling the 360??

@Lemming To The Sea:
My understanding is that PC gaming is bigger in Europe than it is here, so many of the 360's "exclusives" are things they could play anyway.

@notalkjustrock: Wait, what?! they have some sort of digital TV recorder on European PS3s?! someone hook me up :[ i'd gladly be a PSWii user if i could store Mythbusters and Deal or No Deal on my PS3.

*that is to say, my theoretical PS3 if they offered a Tivo/DVR service on American PS3s

@Lemming To The Sea: Singstar is huge, the metal gear series is huge not to mention there are lots of niche SCEE titles that Microsoft Game Studios doesn't have the talent or size to produce. Sony is a household brand in the uk, very similar to the way Microsoft is in the U.S. That is actually why the 360 is doing so well in the states. National Brand recognition actually goes a long way.

Anyone else find it odd that EA guessed the PS3 would outsell the 360 by nearly 3.5 million considering their track record of lazy developing and some of the unfair assessments they've been giving lately?

I refer you to this: [kotaku.com]

I wonder how this will factor into game development given the current state of the dollar and the US economy in general. It could be that the NES/SNES era was driven by Japan, the PS2 era was driven by the US and the Wii/PS3/360 era might be driven by Europe.

@MechanisMs:
Here is the Kotaku blog entry on "Play TV". Effectively TiVo for PS3. [kotaku.com]

@Aethyr: Ha Ha. Classic American way of thinking. Well guess what: not everybody likes to have shit die on them all the time. Xbox is very likely to only succeed (that much) in America, and Microsoft is doing everything for it to stay that way. Besides not having that patriotic allegiance to the 360, Microsoft don't market it as much everywhere else, they don't market the games, etc etc. Even Halo3 was not hyped as much there as it is here. As stupid as the This is Living thing was, it seems to be working.

@Aethyr: The 360 is only popular in the United States, and is gaining momentum in Korea. Everywhere else its pretty meh.

@fallingdove:

That momentum might hit a brick wall come Starcraft 2.

@Aethyr: Because apparently you don't know that the only place that the 360 is doing better is in America.

@smitty1123: I think the different languages make the European market less appealing to game developers. Sure, you get the UK with the same swipe as North America, but after that you're looking at a more difficult localization process.

@Sparx88: This isn't about how much trouble EA has developing for the PS3, this is about what customers are buying. The two have very little relation to each other...

The main reason is that the Playstation brand has been going strong in Europe for over 10 years, the original Xbox didn't do well at all, and the 360 has an overwhelming amount of games that don't appeal to European gamers but appeal more to American gamers.

On top of that you have the continuing association of Playstation with everything football in Europe and thats always been a big pusher for the PS consoles in the past (even though the 360 has the same football games people still tend to prefer buying a PS2 or PS3 to play it on, form of habit i suppose).

The 2007 results don't surprise me but their projections do. If PS2 was king in Europe and the PS3 lacks BC, I'm not sure the adoption rate will be THAT high but I have a day job... these people make forecasts for a living (and also end up adjusting them down the line as well ;D ).

The Playstation brand always support their products, that in the rest of the world matters, i think that's the thing... after Xbox and the problems with 360 i think is logical not to buy MS products... i don't understand why in america it sells so much

@symphony_of_the_night: Wow that wasn't a fanboyish statement at all.

Sorry, some people enjoy consoles with large amounts of good games on them...

the ps3 is popular in spain because "it's the ps3"
simple as that

@suya123: However, America is still by far the largest market for video games. Which is why Europeans and especially Australians get screwed over so often by game publishers, because they are smaller markets.

@Skunx: You see I have to admit this was always curious to me. I understand for every other type of game but for sports, mainly football, I think last gen's Xbox was the best choice. 4 controllers out of the box, online and (sometimes) better graphics. I don't really get how PS2 got to beat it so badly there. PS3/360 however is a whole other story.

@Chopsticks:

I know that and you're right, they don't have anything to do with it.

What I was getting at was that despite how "difficult" they seem to think programming is they've still projected it that high. I'm not saying its not difficult, but it just seems weird that EA is basically projecting these numbers based on the talent of other companies. It just gives me a creepy feeling is all :/

@Lemming To The Sea: I live in the UK and seriously I don't know a single person that has or wants a PS3, but I know plenty of people that have a 360.

I also find it hard to believe that the Wii only sold 4.8 million units.

I think a lot of people are still surprised by how much the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Europe. Everytime I bring it up people usually reply to me and deny it, but numbers keep coming out and they all can't be wrong. It's not even a year difference in release, it's 16 months, and they've already past them.

This won't stop people from saying the PS3 is failing. People downplay Europe a lot because the PS3 is still doing bad in the US, but Europe was Sony's biggest region for the PS2. I imagine people will continue to poke fun at the PS3 until it finally outsells the 360 on a worldwide level. I believe we'll see that happen by 2009.

The PS3 has so much momentum now compared to the 360, even in the US. Not just because of Blu-ray, but because of the year ahead and the amount of great titles coming out. I believe by the end of this year,sales in the US will be neck and neck between the 360 and PS3. Then Microsoft has a HUGE problem.

@Lemming To The Sea: How is that fanboyish? Because he said things you didn't want to hear? If it's the truth I'm sorry but it's not fanboyism. Senseless bashing is.

Step Two: World Domination.

@Cyborgmatt: I know EA is not everybody's favorite software producer and these are just estimates. But for some stupid reason I'll just trust them over your personal experience and I think a lot of other people will. No offense though ;)

@Lemming To The Sea:

"Sorry, some people enjoy consoles with large amounts of good games on them..."

if thats not a fanboyish comment then I don't know what is. Besides whats this large amount of games? If we came to blow by blow the PS3 has more quality exclusive games then the 360. For the earlier question not every single gamer appeal to FPS and 3PS games ahhh shocker!

@slomo788:
I dunno either, but the original Xbox never really took off that well in Europe... the 360 however is doing alot better considering, and live is definitely a more stable platform for online sports, but somehow i think the "Playstation" brand just gets marketed better in Europe. The 360 is there but not many people take notice of it like they do in the US. I know first hand that there are few households in Greece that do not have a PS2 and a copy of Pro Evolution Soccer, and i think thats where the edge of the PS brand lies in smaller counties like that.

If EA's prediction is anywhere close to true (and it might just be, PS3's been gaining quite fast on the 360) we should see the PS3 closing the gap significantly with the 360 by the end of the year.

Worldwide, the PS3 has been outselling the PS3 by 20-30k units a week. Over the course of a year that's about 1 million consoles, and that's if sales for PS3 don't pick-up with the launches of the plethora of exclusives coming out this year.

@ssjmichael: *sigh* I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from. There's still mor 360s in Europe than PS3 (not for log though) however the PS3's sales rate is significantly higher. The sales rate of the 360 in the states are a completely different story where the sales, attach, and online adoption rate is higher across the board as well as the sell through being higher.
...
Stories like this are informative but shouldn't really be an excuses to get all Fox News with your comments.

@Lemming To The Sea: Soccer games. You see all those PlayStation wall adds during UEFA games? It's subliminal, I tells ya.

@ssjmichael:

Its because America is teh only place that matters and does GOD bless more then the others

@SnakeCL: Also, how has the PS3 been able to outsell itself?

Also Luke, Nintendo might not be that off. These numbers only account for 2007, but Nintendo sold about 700K consoles in 2006. So that puts them around 5.5 million so far. Then account for errors, and rounding and you can see why Nintendo says 6 million.

@Waka in Japan:
No, PS3 does so well in Spain because it's Sony. Spanish people have such a hard on for Sony it's beyond belief.

@fallingdove:
In the UK 360 still beats PS3 as well.

@Skunx: Yeah I guess it all comes down to marketing. Microsoft has always (unfortunately) overlooked Europe. That (and the hardware problems) is very sad because I really want to play Mass Effect, and I want the 360 to keep Sony on their toes. If the 360 gets behind in like 2 or 3 years we won't see as much support for PS3 in terms of features, price drops etc. Last gen PS2 was winning and despite being inferior to the Xbox, Sony always kept it more expensive and never tried very hard for online and HDD integration. This time they are everywhere. If the Wii is in head though, it won't make that much of a difference. "It's a different market, kudos to Nintendo with their gimmicky console" they'll say.

@Frank:

With no edit button, its pretty easy not to correct a mistake. I'll let you figure out what I meant, its not that hard...

I wonder why they predict that the PS3 will outsell the PSP...Doesnt the PSP always sell more due to the fact that it's less expensive, it's portable, and has a larger audience by tapping some into the casual market?

@okenny :):

Oh my mistake. I should have said they've surpassed them in many countries. I suppose by this Summer or so they'll surpass them. Well according to Sony. I originally though that wouldn't happen till 2009. :)

@nya-chama: The UK loves everything the US loves, may it be videogames or war and they'll follow their "cousins" everywhere.

@Lemming To The Sea: Simple answer, branding (and stupid loyality).

@notalkjustrock: I'm not talking about localization, but more about instead of devs and publishers saying "we need to develop a game for what the Japanese want or what the Americans want", they might start saying "the Yen and Dollar are shit, the real value is in the Euro so we need to start developing for what European's want".

So, instead of some awesome game coming out in Japan or the US first, it might not be too far fetched to think that soon Europe will be getting the new games first.