Europe is seen like one market, sorry to say. When a game releases here it does so across several countries at the same time. It is very rare for a game to be released in only one country. Its the basis of mass production and cutting costs. As much as you want to call it dumb, its far from it. 

It would be comparable to releasing a game in the US in only one state.

But, by europe we do mean eastern europe, the core of the EU. Things west of germany are different.

I think you mixed up east and west here

You really want me to spell it out...

Japan used to have all console releases first and now they are beeing relegated to a later time, like europe used to be. Europe is now getting them sooner than japan instead and the japanese, in particular this producer are trying to lure microsoft in so they pressure sony to do the same, when its obvious to everyone it wont make a difference.

Europe is seen like one market, sorry to say. When a game releases here it does so across several countries at the same time. It is very rare for a game to be released in only one country. Its the basis of mass production and cutting costs. As much as you want to call it dumb, its far from it. 

It would be comparable to releasing a game in the US in only one state.

But, by europe we do mean western europe, the core of the EU. Things east of germany are different.

All of those countries are still Europe! You can't remove them and still consider those countries as Europe. To repeat myself, each country has gotten larger and their purchasing habits too different from each other to warrant be pushed together as one.  What you're saying isn't like releasing in just one state, but calling US + Canada + Mexico and the rest of Central America as one market. You could stretch it but it's largely misleading and a waste of time.

But it is. Its the initial members of the EU and the engine of europe. I dont know what to tell you. You dont live in europe do you?

We have the same coin and our boarders are open. We are like one big country in economic terms. Eastern europe is more complicated cause they arent as developed and are geographically and in terms of acessability farther away. The distribution channels in western europe are very much comparable to the ones in the US and Japan.

To return to the initial point. Its mostly a population thing. US, europe and Japan are comparable in terms of population and they function like units. Its the european union for a reason you know. ;)

But Germany isn't much smaller than Japan and combined the EU is over 500 million (which 5x the population of Japan).

oh, and no. I don't live in Europe. Just talking about how I think we should evaluate video game markets (this sounds so much lamer when you say it outloud).

In simpler terms, to compete with the US, Japan, China and emerging economies, Europe unsuccessfully unified themselves in economic terms to gain relevance. Thats why things were so well coordinated until now. Theres an european commission that is nominated by an european parliament elected by Germany and France that dictates the economic rules in europe.