But the people in the US get everything very cheap, this gives them much more money to spend on games and whatever else they want. The Uk gets screwed the most, since they pay about the same money as the US for stuff but their $ is twice what the USD is.

As many said OP' conclusions aren't valid.

For example UK console market is up 34% and Germany is up 29% in 2007.

That and I don't think any console has hit mass market price yet. We won't really know until a few more consoles hit software spam rates. :P

 I am not completely familiar with all of the nations wealth  but people have said(and yes I could be wrong) that places in Europe are much more sensistive to price drops due to disposable income. I was thinking eastern europe and many of the territories that are new to and responsible for the growth in the European Games Market.

I agree with most people people who see problems with OP's hypothesis. I'd also like to point out that console gaming in Europe was very small before Sony found a way to attract the casuals, and is still not as hardcore as in the US IMO.

The hordes of people who bought a PS1 and PS2 for a few easily accessible games are now seeing the DS as the logical next machine to get as developer support for the PS2 declines. Not including it in OP's comparison is a big mistake, since it's actually the only console ever (AFAIK) to sell more in Europe than the US.

Americans are most willing to pay big bucks for enetertainment. Europeans will buy a lot more consoles once the prices come down to mainstream territory. Same as last generation. Looking at hardcore sales doesn't present the whole market.

DS in Europe,
Actually the DS as exploded in Europe first, not in the US. For a long time, US customers preferred the GBA to the DS, while Europe and Japan wholeheartedly embraced the new handheld.

 You mean the fact that the Dollar vs the Europe is 1:1.45... But lets have a closer look! Then you see that there ain't much difference in the amount of cash we (Europeans) and you (Americans) can spend:

My country's income per inhabitant in 2007 was around

28.000 Euro's.

America's was like

32.000 Dollar.

So, when you take the value-difference in account you get:

32.000$ for Americans

And:

40.600$ for Europeans.

Given that the price in Europe in Euro's is the same as the price in the US in dollars means that we pay more for our stuff... But we have more to spend! So actually, we're kinda equal.

Only difference is that when i were to go to the US, and purchase alot of stuff, i'd be able to make so much profit, compared to what it would cost in Euro's in Europe, that i could finance my ticket back and fourth for only 2000$ spent in, for example, New York.

The other side is that American's have a hard time spending alot of cash in Europe which bad for export but that is a totally different story and isn't on-topic! 

Flawed analysis I'm afraid. You can't compare final numbers (do they even exist with PS2 still selling) from previous generation with an in-progress position.

The relative market %'s flex - how do you know you're comparing the right moments in the lifecycle, etc.

Also, as others have pointed out Europe is behind in switch from PC to console gaming - so if you include PC sales the entire mix changes (and BTW if you want to judge the markets in the way you are trying you need to include PC).

Still, some interesting numbers to mull.

Ok, I see that I did a couple of mistakes. I have a few questions to what some of you say though.

Kamil said:

As many said OP' conclusions aren't valid.

For example UK console market is up 34% and Germany is up 29% in 2007


The whole market is growing, US had 35,6M hardware sold in 07, compared to 25,9 in 06. That is 27,2 % growth, which then is higher than the average of Europe.




Stranne said:

Isn't PS2 still selling decent numbers? (And messing up the analysis)

Not really, because the numbers it is selling are relatively small, and still partly split across the world.

Parokki said:

I agree with most people people who see problems with OP's hypothesis. I'd also like to point out that console gaming in Europe was very small before Sony found a way to attract the casuals, and is still not as hardcore as in the US IMO.

The hordes of people who bought a PS1 and PS2 for a few easily accessible games are now seeing the DS as the logical next machine to get as developer support for the PS2 declines. Not including it in OP's comparison is a big mistake, since it's actually the only console ever (AFAIK) to sell more in Europe than the US.

I don't see how I could have included that. The console market in Europe IS getting smaller, if less people buy the games. I have nothing about handhelds in yet. I was solely talking about CONSOLE market, not console and handhelds.


Louie said:

This should change in favor of Europe / Others, though.

Remember:

- The Wii was supply constrained for the whole year and Europe got smaller shipments

Valid point. Not counting Wii makes Europe equal to last gen.

- The Playstation 3 is currently seing increased numbers in Europe but not in the US and it is selling far better in Europe than in Japan

There will always be this problem in some way when doing the math while the gen is still going. I didn't have numbers in EU to do it yearly.

- The Playstation 3 launched in Europe in march, therefore Japan and the US had 3 months of sales Europe didn´t have

Good point.

- The DS is currently exploding in Europe, while this explosion is "over" in the US and Japan where numbers cooled down to a more normal level

The DS does not have a lot to do with this, I was talking solely console market.



Okay, I see I might have had a bit misleading title. The point was that people are saying that Europe is becomming a bigger market than NA, and this doesn't show that, but the opposite. Of course, it is not a big difference.

Oyvoyvoyv