I would add, though, that given the current price structure, I wouldn't be surprised if Sony does struggle in Europe for the time being.

Nintendo still plays its old game. Japan first. US second. Europe maybe.

 Europe gets online before US

Not entirely true ...

Europe has been getting more and more games at the same time (or earlier) than North America. Wii Play is probably the most recent example but I remember that Doshin the Giant was released in Japan and Europe only and those of us in North America never recieved it.

Heatseeker I think is the most recent example, it's out in Europe already and we have to wait until May in the US.  Not the biggest 3rd party game out there but it's the kind of above average game any successful system needs.

By xmas.... or after, possible it will sale.

slaughter begins when Lair hits.

 a price cut would be nice before xmas, just $50 is enouth.

Did the Xbox 360 sales for Germany in the european yearly chart got adjusted today? I looked at it earlier today and the charts for 2005 + 2006 stated a total of 310k, now it's only at 200k. I'm just curious because the front page numbers don't seem like they have changed (or did I confuse some numbers?).

Anyway. In the interview with dpa (heise.de) Bassendowski additionally stated that Sony successfully shipped 6 million PS3s at the end of the fiscal year. I guess that explains why shelves around the world are full of them. But can we expect ridiculously high warehouse piles like they happened with the PSP through the year? Millions of unsold consoles on the shelf?

I mean, some retailers (like the small game shop at the end of my street) where threatened by their wholesale traders (not directly by Sony) to order additional PSPs else they would't get any PS3s at launch. Are wholesale traders going to force those retailers to order the PS3s Sony ships, even if they aren't asking for them?

That's right for some games but we still have to wait for Trauma Center: Second Opinion until july and finally Eledees (Elebits) will be released this month. Sega also more or the less confirmed that Europe won't see NiGHTS in 2007 unlike Japan and most likely the US. Even if Nintendo gets most of their games to Europe faster nowadays it's still business as usual among japanese 3rd party publishers.

While things may not be as bad as they used to be, Europe still gets 20% less games for Nintendo consoles than the US. Regardless, the point still stands. Despite the exploding userbase in Europe, Nintendo has not only not capitalized on it, but their position has continued to shrink.

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft made a similar claim.  Sony has thus far failed to deliver on pretty much every boast to date regarding the PS3 (8 core 3.5GHz CPU, 550/700 MHz GPU, 1 million units at NA/JP launch, 6 million shipped in FY06, etc.).  They can claim what they want as they fight over second place with MS, sales figures speak louder than baseless assertions.

The interesting thing is that most of the claims people mention are the lowered projections Sony made after E3; their E3 claims and (in particular) the claims they made to movie distributors to gain support for Blu-Ray were far higher. This could be wrong but I was told by a friend who is in a position where he might know that through the second half of 2005 Sony was stating that10 Million PS3 systems would be sold in 2006 to gain support from movie studios for Blu-Ray.

I dont understand, if this is true how can 360 have 3.4 million in "others" according to vgcharts?

I know 360 has, maybe a million sold in UK. If germ is 253k, lets be kind and give 250k for each of the other bigs, spain, france, and italy. Then lets allow, 300k for the rest of Europe..even all these estimates seem kind of high, I would assume Germany is pretty much the 2nd biggest market in Europe.

That puts 360 at 2.3 million in EU. Not as bad as I thought, but a lot lower than Vgcharts. ioi?

I guess "others" might include, hong kong, korea, etc. But Really I wouldn't expect all those together are more than a few tens of thousand.

Oh, I guess Australia is probably good for a couple hundred k. That still leaves 360 "others" at 2.5, though.