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Athaba on 09 June 2014
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Shadow1980 said:
DeadBigfoot21 said:

Will sell amazing in NA just like the 360. It will sell good in EU just like 360 but japan is not that good. It might outsell the 360 but its tough.


A bit of a history lesson here. The 360 was doing dreadful in Europe at the start. It pulled all of 4.3 million units in its first 25 months on the market (440k in Dec. '05, 1.84M in '06, and 2.03M in '07). By comparison, despite the considerably higher price the PS3 sold 3.4M in its first 9 months. In launch-aligned terms, the 360 was being absolutely thrashed by the PS3. It took MS reducing the price to a mere £169/€239, only 60% of the PS3's then-current price, for it to be even remotely competitive, and even then the 360 could never catch up. The only place the 360 led the PS3 was the UK. In mainland Europe it was a much different story. To quote myself from another thread: "The PS3 outsold the 360 1.43:1 in Germany and 1.47:1 in France, and that's with the 360 having a 15-month head start. In 2011, the peak year for both systems in Europe, the PS3 outsold the 360 1.57:1 in Germany and 1.72:1 in France. Overall, in Europe sans the UK, the PS3 has outsold the 360 about 1.65:1 to date and just shy of 2:1 in 2011."

So sure, the 360 did a lot better than the original Xbox and the PS3 underperformed considerably compared to the PS2, but Europe still demonstrated that it has a clear preference for PlayStation. The Wii was the only non-Sony system to ever be the sales leader in any year from 1995 to present. The PS1 outsold every console that came before it in Europe, and both it and the PS2 had an overwhelming supermajority. The PS3 soundly outclassed the 360 in Europe as a whole and especially on the continent, and has already surpassed the Wii on the continent as well. Now we're seeing Sony dominate yet again. It's not even close. It's a slaughter outside of the UK. Even when the XBO is available in all the "Tier 2" countries, we shouldn't expect sales on the continent to be reflective of what we've seen in France and Germany, in other words sales that aren't drastically above Wii U levels (outside of the Titanfall boost, the XBO has been hovering at close to Wii U levels in France & Germany for much of the year). So far this year the PS4 has outsold the XBO 3.64:1 in Germany and 3.23:1 in France, well beyond the PS3/360 gap, and that's with supply constraints earlier in the year for the PS4 and with the Titanfall bundle boosting XBO sales for several weeks. In the week ending May 24, the ratio was just over 5:1 in Germany and about 4.25:1 in France (the gap was even bigger for the week ending May 31, but that's because the PS4 got a bigger boost from Watch Dogs). If the two biggest markets on the continent are having sales like this, then it does not bode well for the other countries. With the XBO lacking any of the advantages its predecessor had, there's no way in hell it'll ever be remotely close between it and the PS4 in continental Europe, especially not at mere price parity. It'll be lucky to sell half of what the 360 did at this rate.


That's a good analysis of the current state. Personally, I see 3 reasons why the Xbox has a hard time on the mainland.

1. The price: X1 was 100€ over Ps4, whats 25%. Additionally, there is a psychological effect: The 360 was cheaper than the Ps3, which had a BR-Player and was recognized as the console with the higher value. Now, without much differences to the last generation, the Playstation is cheaper, but the image of the console is still "more value".

2. Kinect and NSA: At least here in Germany, the NSA-scandal is still a very huge topic and nearly everyday at the news. With Kinect and the always-online-debatte MS hat a very bad timing and a lot of consumers are very sceptical about the console. With the DRM and always-online strategie even 360 owners are turning sides.

3. Tradition: As Shadow 1980 said, Playstation played a bigger role in Europe since the Ps1. The brand is etablished and a lot of players want to continue the IPs they follow since years.