that was a mistake on MS's part. They shouldn't of underestimated europes loyalty for Sony and should of lowered the console cost.

I think the main reason why MS is loosing ground in Europe is due to MGS4. I know it sounds far fetched but even sales numbers speak for themselves.

The latest installments in the MGS series has sold more in Europe than the US. I could imagine people really looking forward to the MGS4 and buying consoles just because of that simple reason.

It really does surprise me that within a year, sony has narrowed the gap down to 1.78 unites sold, between them and Microsoft. MS has a head for 2 fucking years! They should be on top now like they are in the states.

Whatever SCEE is doing in the marketing region, they got to be doing a pretty damn good job.

Besides, it aint the brand itself that sells right now as some claim. I would've agreed to that in the beginning of the year when the PS3 was really stripped of possibilities, it had nothing worth buying it for at that time.

It seems to me like europeans waited till a price drop came around before buying the PS3. Sony should be fucking thanking those consumers on their bleeding knees for that decision. If people had not waited they've would've been truely disappointed by the PS3's functionality.

Right now the PS3 is at the stage of being decent - not entirely over average, but ok - there are games that are worth buying and people who buy the PS3 now probably won't feel a reason to regret their buy any time soon.

Looks to me like MS has put all its force to clean the states of the PS brand in every way they could, though not fully succeeding.

I reckon that when MGS4 will come around to Europe the battle will get really intense. Sony should be kissing Kojima Productions's toes for the exclusivity agreement on the PS3.

MGS4 will play a major part in Sony's european strategy. At least to the hardcore console gaming community.

yes....

I'm not totally sure but I think in UK it's something like 360 Elite £299, PS340GB £299, 360 premium £250 

I think a real problem for Microsoft in Europe is that the console is just too damn expensive for what you get. If you add the wireless card and live account that the xbox really NEEDS to come with it's more expensive than a PS3. Plus us europeans love our blu-rays and the PS3 has one of those as well. The xbox is terrible value for money compared to a PS3. Perhaps in the UK since we are used to getting the shaft we don't mind paying extra for the 360, but the rest of europe... maybe not...

I think that proves more than anything that it is indeed the brand name that is helping PS3 in Europe.  People were not waiting for great games to get a PS3 they were waiting for it to be in their price range.  ie there are tons of Sony/Playstation loyalist in Europe that will always buy the next Playstation but when it came out at such a high price they just couldn't do so irrespective of how loyal they were to the brand.  As the price has dropped it has fallen within the price range of more and more of those loyalist, hence the boost in sales. 

 If PS3 had come out at £200 with only Motostorm and Resistance its sales would have been through the roof in Europe.  Not because of a diverse game library but simply cause of the strength of the Playstation brand in Europe.  Ofcourse Sony overestimated the strength of the brand foolishly assuming that loyalists will go bankrupt just to buy the new Playstation which is why they forced Blu-Ray on people and released at such a high price and which is why they now find themselves in the position they are in now.

MS in Europe can still battle for the 2nd position with Sony...just curious to see which pattern the sales will follow after this holiday season and BTW MS colud use the weapon of a price reduction in the 1st part of the year while Sony just can't.

A price drop at the beginning of the year ?
if they do it too early BEFORE GTA4 it would be stupid

When u make a price drop u need to wait big step :

1 system seller release or Xmas period

For the Xbox360, there is only 1 system seller title left : GTA4

People are seriously underestimating the 360 for next year. More solid (stable) revisions, cheaper prices, even more games, gamer choice games like Bioshock/Halo3/CoD, movies on demand, etc.

The new announcement/deal with Viacom is HUGE - it gives MS a huge supply of media/content.

I think 360 sales next year will be about 50% higher than this year - its primarily Sony fans who want the competition to vanish ASAP that don't agree (with no good reasoning).

In many ways, 2008 will be the year of the 360 - and 2009 will be the year of the PS3 (taking the Wii out of the equation anyway - pointless to compare to it for now).

I'm just wondering what big games the 360 has to offer next year. I mean GTAIV will most likely sell more units on the 360, but what other games will sell that much? Ninja Gaiden 2? Halo Wars? Fable 2? Alan Wake?

I think if they gave us that other $50 price drop, then I'd have more reason to believe that the 360 will do better in '08.