Microsoft and Sony Consoles Do Battle in Europe
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Microsoft, Xbox, Sony, PlayStation, Europe | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Another war is brewing in Europe...Microsoft is reporting record sales in Europe. However, Sony is balking at the Xbox sales numbers across the pond, saying it outsold Microsoft by 300,000 units.
In the video game world, the three most important regions (in no particular order), are Japan, Europe, and the United States. While a balanced attack from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony is usually expected, every once in a while one of the big three hardware manufacturers will start bragging about sales in one particular region.
Recently, Microsoft has been touting its sales numbers in Europe, claiming that its Xbox 360 saw a 124 percent jump in sales during the first three weeks of November. According to the same GfK Chart-Track, Wii sales were up 43 percent and PlayStation 3 sales were up a meager 3 percent. The largest areas of gain for the 360 were in Spain, Italy and France.
"November was a very significant milestone for Xbox – we sold the most consoles ever in our history in Europe, and are outselling PlayStation 3 week-on-week across Europe," said Chris Lewis, regional VP of Xbox in Europe. "Since the reduction in the Xbox 360 ERP in September, bringing the entry-level price point for Xbox 360 down to GBP 129.99, consumers have responded enthusiastically to the Xbox 360 offering. Our strong partnerships with retail and with publishers have played a big role in this success – we are working closely with retail to ensure a steady supply of consoles throughout the Christmas season, and third-party games have been selling well on the Xbox 360 platform and providing great choice for consumers," he added.
The 129.99 GBP (British Pound) price, which is slightly lower than the $199.99 starting price of the 360 in the U.S., represents the lowest price for a new current generation console, with the Nintendo Wii still at USD $249, and the 80GB PlayStation 3 at USD $399.
While Microsoft is tooting its own horn on European sales, Sony is balking at the numbers. According to its own internal sales figures, Sony claims that it has outsold the Xbox 360 in PAL territories (meaning Europe), by 300,000 units. SCEE President David Reeves also told mcvuk.com that Sony would not be lowering the price on its PS3 anytime in the near future, despite the strategy working for Microsoft.
"No we are not going to go down in price; neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary,” said Reeves. "Our strategy is very much value added.” Reeves also emphasized that the current business strategy for Sony’s Computer Entertainment division does not call for price drops every time manufacturing costs go down. Having been in the red for the last two years, Sony wants to see its PlayStation division get back to profitability, and in their minds, the best way to do that would be to keep the price the same while having manufacturing costs fall.
However, when it comes down to many consumers buy a video game console for their children, many may shy away from the $400-$500 PS3 and embrace a $200-$250 360 or Wii. "While [consumers] may cut back on large purchases like automobiles or appliances, they’re still looking for entertainment," said Shane Kim, Microsoft’s vice president of strategy and business development for the videogame business. If you ever wander into a Home Depot, you’ll see that many appliances run in the $500 price range, meaning the PlayStation 3 may find itself in the dust unless a price drop comes sometime soon. And if Mr. Reeves is to be believed, then we shouldn’t expect one until at least the summer of 2009.
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Sony really needs to cut their console price by $100, they cannot market to the idiots that only see a price tag, and they are most of the people out there. Who cares if you're buying a crippled console, that you'd need to spend more money on just to make it full functional, as long as it's cheap?
I'd finally buy into the next gen consoles if Sony would be more lenient with prices. Till then my PS2 hasn't broken down yet.
Cutting off PS2 compatibility to save a buck on production (actually I think it was less than that) still seems counterproductive. The PS2 userbase is still there, and they can't really expect them to "upgrade" when it's really a move to a new platform under these conditions.
They could just as easily start over with Wii or XBox titles as they can PS3 titles.
Sony really needs to cut their console price by $100, they cannot market to the idiots that only see a price tag, and they are most of the people out there. Who cares if you're buying a crippled console, that you'd need to spend more money on just to make it full functional, as long as it's cheap?
While I like both my 360 and PS3 a lot, I feel the same way. The 360 is great and all, but the PS3 is merely a higher quality product that offers a lot of features the 360 doesn't offer such as integrated Wifi, Blu-ray, free online gaming, a web browser, PSP integration, rechargeable controllers standard, and more. That said, Xbox Live is great if you're willing to pay the price associated with it, but it'd be even better if they decided to drop the membership fee altogether.
360 wins period. In the graphics department there pretty much even. 360 has a much better controller then PS3 hands down. Xbox live is unbeatable, the experience is the best ever and sony will never come close to it. Title wise on exclusiveness, they both have a good all around titles, but hands down Halo 3 on 360(coming from someone who played the first one on PC, never owned the 2nd one maybe some day on the PC and finally owning Halo 3 for 360). Sony needs to drop there price around the 300 or lower range if they want my to buy there console, even then though i think i will just be disappointed with it and probably stick with my 360, unless i really want to suffer and just play an exclusive title that only the PS3 has.
While I like both my 360 and PS3 a lot, I feel the same way. The 360 is great and all, but the PS3 is merely a higher quality product that offers a lot of features the 360 doesn't offer such as integrated Wifi, Blu-ray, free online gaming, a web browser, PSP integration, rechargeable controllers standard, and more. That said, Xbox Live is great if you're willing to pay the price associated with it, but it'd be even better if they decided to drop the membership fee altogether.
+1 not to mention the 30% death rate for the 360. Also the thing that's going for the 360 is XBOX Live.
You realise that your saying your opinion is why it's better, right?
I prefer the 360. Its cheaper. All of the "value-added" features in the PS3 aren't really worth it IMO. Xbox live is cheap enough to hardly even be noticed. In general, I find Xbox exclusives to be better and the controller to be far above and beyond the PS3.
Of course all of that being said, there is always the RROD (which I've experienced). If I could go back, I wouldn't have bought either my PS3 or Xbox 360. I'd just save the money and upgrade my PC. Computer games are way better than console games. This generation was my first foray into the console world and I embraced it wholeheartedly, buying both consoles and a bunch of games. After a year+ I'm disappointed for the most part and have pretty much mnoved back completely to computer games. The only reason to own a console is to play games with friends / family.
I've got both... my PS3 sees more use than the 360.
The 360 is clearly the way to go if you're into Console FPS gaming. Personally I'm not - the controller is a nightmare compared to KB/Mouse and console exclusive FPS titles are weak compared to PC based shooters.
In other genre's they're both fairly close in game libraries, though for my family the PS3 has had the more compelling exclusives (MGS5, GT5P, R&C-TOD). In non-exclusive games they perform pretty closely so it doesn't really matter which console we buy the games for.
As a media appliance the PS3 obviously has a big advantage with blu-ray, but now with Netflix support I'm using the 360 a lot more for watching instant flicks (A Clockwork Orange last night - great flick).
I don't game online much anymore so I don't care about Live vs. whatever the PS3 online service is called.
Both my consoles have had to be sent back for repair... Microsoft fixed my 360 for free, the PS3 cost over a hundred bucks to fix.
The 360 controller is laid out better than the PS3 controller and sized better for adult hands, but the PS3 controller is better technically... no clunky batteries, Bluetooth, proportional buttons.
The 360 GUI is still total crap (even after the big update), though it's better than it used to be. The PS3 GUI is clean and functional... a LOT more elegant solution to the gui problem compared to the cluttered and disfunctional 360 layout. I wish Microsoft would go back to following their own design standards when it comes to their product design... both the 360 and new Microsoft Office GUI's are garbage.
Overall, they both have their place imo and bring different capabilities to the table, I'm glad I've got them both.
Whoa whoa, your PS3 cost money to repair?
Mine didn't...