PS4 and ONE. The wisdom of 33 countries versus 13.

[DonFerrari]

Zanten said:
Interesting thread. Disagree with the OP, however, as I think that the reward is worth, really, a small cost in terms of units shipped. Last generation the Xbox 360 launched in Europe in December 2005, and Sony wasn't able to bring the PS3 to those markets until March 2007; although the Playstation platform still won mainland Europe, that gap might be narrower than it otherwise would have been due to the 360's sizable head start. This generation, they had an opportunity to strike while the iron was hot, and the PS3 was still considered the preferred platform, by getting themselves out into the public eye with an earlier 'official launch.'

As has been pointed out, these markets are on the small side; but that also means the initial cost of breaking into them, the units needed, are relatively low. Throwing everything into the U.S. might have barely moved a decimal point on the marketshare graph for the holiday launch; but it did give them a chance to lock up all the markets the Xbox One wasn't going to be officially launched in, for quite some time. Even though the units are available in many of the non-launched countries, a lack of advertising and dedication by Microsoft isn't likely to help them attract users who aren't a strong Xbox fan already.

Being able to lock up a strong lead in most, if not all, of these smaller markets will add up to a fair sized chunk of change in the long run, if it keeps the Xbox One from attaining even the market relevancy that the Xbox 360 did. Winning these markets helped the PS3 catch up to the Xbox 360 despite the latter's dominance in some of the biggest single markets. This generation, (especially if Microsoft never manages to get the Xbox One to that sort of stronghold dominance again,) those markets will help the PS4 pull even further ahead.

The current number of countries the PS4 is reported to officially be available in is, what, 100 now?

For Sony it was wise to spread (even more knowing now that they didn't lost much sales by being sold out and X1 available), but for MS being already defeated severely in those countries even being available 18months earlier on 7th gen they preffered to toss the towel before starting.