Several months ago we had a thread that basically criticezed Sony for deciding to release PS4 in a lot of territories and that would make them spread to thin and open space for MS in all the Major Markets since they would have more focus and better stocks on them. Time have passed and even when PS4 have been out of stock for several weeks in some countries it still outsold X1 in all of them.

Microsoft now is using the excuse to being in fewer countries to explain why they are being outsold (but forget that both are equally available in US and it sold almost half of PS4 in April according to NPD).

And Even before MS started using this excuse a lot of the members here that said Sony were making a mistake by releasing in too many markets now use the "greater availability" of the PS4 to cover for X1 bad selling, also ignoring that in all markets X1 have been doing bad... besides NPD, on mainland europe last week VGC (that could very well be overtracking X1, undertracking PS4 or the opposite by great margins we know) have PS4 8.8:1 against X1 and people are using the But X1 is only available in 5 mainland countries while PS4 is in a lot  more (I'm not sure of the number, maybe 12-20 total?).

So who was the stupid one? Sony for releasing in too many countries or MS to release in too few? None, because we know that the 13 that X1 released are not only the most relevant markets in gaming (besides Japan, that is losing power) but it is also the stronger markets for MS. In the Gen 7th when X360 were stronger than PS3 in some markets (and a lot stronger than X1 is showing right now) those 13 counted as like 80% of their sales... Now that PS4 is being a lot stronger even in the markets X360 were doing great, what expectative do people have in the countries were X360 done poorly??? (Estimative is that the 5 mainland countries had in comparison PS3 2.1:1 X360 LTD so 8.8:1 just show the bloodbath that other markets would be).

Now that we cut the "crying" point of selling less because of less availability lets see the "why it only release in 13"

Enough of the 13 vs 72. Ms didn't release before because they knew it wouldn't help much.

What excuse on localization can you use for releasing in México and Spain but not in the rest of latin america? If you answer accent or regional differences I hope you believe ms made package to recognize all the states in USA different accents (because you know there are differences), or all the differences in Brazil (we have more than 20 REALLY different accent) because it probably vary more than the spanish in each latin america. Or why release in Brazil but not Portugal and Guiné. Launch in france and germany but not netherlands, austria and switzerland. Or launch in new zealand but not Singapore, Hong Kong and india.

Because of common languages in the Latin America (spanish), several ex-colonies talking French and English and some places talking German, if MS really wanted and saw real value they could easily launched in like 30 countries and be on the 50's right now.

They didn't done that because they knew that for the price they were asking they wouldn't ever get a good marketplace against PS4 launching together or after. Now that they have a price parity they can at least get some numbers to boost their shipping, but I wouldn't expect nothing more than 20% on total numbers (sustained) on a 72 vs 72.

All consoles have had stacked launches in the past and we didn't attribute it to having launched in few markets. Or would Wii have sold more if released in 200 countries? PS2? Sold more on Japan launch (2 months after release) than x1 in 13 countries have been doing.

And to finalize, most mainland european countries can import with ease from other europe countries, and most places in the world can import through legal or grey market. In Brazil altough PS4 and X1 are officially available, because our price is US$1800,00 for PS4 and about US$900,00 for X1 a lot of people import from US and save like US$1200,00 on PS4 and US$200,00 on X1 easily. So those countries inflate the numbers of US, UK, France, Mexico and Germany right now... when they officialy release on Tier 2 countries we will have those numbers diminishing the bigger market (of course I don't expect them to get under 10k combined because the generation is still in a crescent fase).

This has been said before in much less words lol. Much less. A for effort tho

It never seems to sink.

"Enough of the 13 vs 72. Ms didn't release before because they knew it wouldn't help much."

Pretty much that. In the end, I don't believe it would have made a difference either way. Microsoft knew that importing would take care of any real issues, and without them having to bother with "official" launches that they weren't ready for.

The fact is, they knew that most of those countries were going to go for the PS4, anyway. They secured launch units in places they thought would be pro-Xbox first. In effect, they were conceding certain locations to Sony, much the way political parties will concede certain states they know will be against them.

Sony, on the other hand, has been a more global brand. Last gen, they depended on a more varied consumer base, which they needed to protect.

The real negatives would be in audience perception. I think Kinect came off as a scapegoat, which was yet another blow to it's already ragged image.

I think it was a good choice for Sony to release in all those countries, now we have a 360 vs PS3 situation in those countries where the everyone has probably chosen the PS4 as their gaming platform. X1 will have to work hard to sway them, the same way PS3 had to work hard to sway alot of gamers back.

I do agree that the other countries were "left aside" to save face... after the reception in reveal, E3, bad pre-orders, backlash, etc even in their stronghold they knew of the slaughter on other markets so they prefered not to expose themselves... as you said a strong political partie won't subject to run on a area where they will get like 10% against their biggest rival 60%... they will preffer to make a coaliation and put a partner to try to make the 40% into 51% and maybe win, but when losing not having to take the blunt.

I don't how you can criticise Sony for being better equiped for launch; ever since the reveal all MS has done is play catch up. No one asked for a kinect for every XB1 or any of the other excuses thown for why the XB1 is only in 13 markets, why the XB1 is the way is completely on MS; to fault Sony for being able to handle more markets is ridiculous. What's pretty ironic is I remember when Sony was branching out to said markets with the PS3 and people scoffed at the idea of being any useful; well it looks like it's paying off.

Well we all know that Sony is strong on "others" since ps2 or even ps1.

Its true Xbox One is selling bad. Its not good. But it wont be good either if they accepted it publicly. Try to understand from microsofts point of view. This is how corporations fight back. They are taking time. And want to gain momentum.

poor kowenicki. 13 vs 33 is going to be this generation's 250 million.