at least it's only a europe release question this time^^

Yes, it probably would be, but in the end, they didn't.

yeah but in the end it's always "if something would have been different, what would have happened then " and the asnwer to all of this is that we don't know it.

i have no clue how advertisement was for the 360 christmas 2006 but maybe microsoft would have done much more with a ps3 release to counter it. if microsoft would have sold more then in the earlier years maybe it would be also bigger in europe now, who knows...

A lot of people were on the fence waiting for the PS3 because it was supposed to be another PS2. Had the PS3 released at the same time as the 360 and people realized that wasn't going to be the case it could have easily given the 360 a much bigger boost in its first 3 years. We could now be seeing a 360 over 3-4 million ahead and Sony having lost even more money.

*I actually read and understood the OP by the way.*

Considering the strides he PS3 has made in EU, I'm pretty sure it would've cut deeply into 360 sales if it was released in November of 2006. The PS3 would probably even be several million units ahead of the 360 at this point.

A PS3 coming off the success of the PS2 would have obliterated the XBox 360 no matter how much advertising Microsoft did. Microsoft wouldn't have sold more since not only did they have supply issues but the PS3 would have been the HD leader. What makes you think 360 would have been bigger in Europe? 

I worked for GAME back at the Wii launch. A PS3 on the shelves for that Xmas would definitely have taken some of Microsoft's sales. But Cudda wudda shudda. They really lost out missing that Xmas in 2006 in the European market. It's also the time when MS most established their dominance in the UK out of the HD systems with some pretty high profile exclusive releases.

one reason obviously advertisement, otherwise i wouldn't mention it for the 360. people always complain about the weak sony advertisement but at least in germany they are way better as microsoft for their consoles. much more ads (microsoft most of the time only for christmas, sony the whole year) and much better ads in my opinion. and with their aggressive advertisement in football (champions league main sponsor, plenty of ads in every "bundesliga" game) they are the leader for one of the most favourite games and the leader for the game many people buy a console for here in my country.

i'm not saying microsoft would sell more or as much as sony but they could compete better with more advertisement in germany and probably rest of europe. and nobody has to tell me adverstiement doesn't change anything, if that would be the case companies wouldn't pay billions for it.

do you know which ads i saw this christmas for ps3 and 360?

ps3: psabr, wonderbook, need for speed, asscreed, fifa and some more....

xbox: halo (and a stupid ad without gameplay or anything) (edit: i also saw resident evil ads for only one console, i am not sure but it could have been the 360)

that wasn't just this year, it is like this since the consoles are out, in my opinion microsoft fails hard with xbox advertisement in germany.

and not sure which supply issues you are talkng about but one year after the release of the 360 i didn't see much supply issues in german retail, maybe uk. but if you want to talk about supply issues, if sony would have released the console the same time worldwide including europe they would have had less consoles for other markets and with that a weaker first holiday outside of europe. so with that logic they would be maybe stronger in europe nowadays but weaker in usa as they already are. earlier release in europe = less produced consoles for america.

If you can remember the PS3 launch they couldnt manufacture enough blue lazer diodes to power the blu-ray player. So launching earlier wouldnt mean they would sell more cause they physically couldnt make them.

First of all, where are the majority of former Sony faithful coming from when taking into account the worldwide sales? PS3 still dominates  in Europe and has surpassed along with Japan where 360 is almost non-existent in the market. If PS4 and 720 was to be released at the same time, there's a high probability that 720 will be beaten to market, as oppossed to the google trends proposed and speculation by pundits. This could be owing to the PS brand's worldwide strength for MS's competition which couldn't be disregarded for.

It should be considered as a huge success for any console to having come close to it's competitor with 2mn gap(where MS previous console miserably failed), by giving away a year's head start and it certainly looks like PS3 would just surpass 360 before the successors are out.