I think people should lay off the ridicule a bit.  If you think he's wrong then just tell him why.  We also don't need this to turn into another brain damage inducing thread full of ignorant stereotypes.  

Now, regarding the OP, while it's true that the US market is the biggest, it's hardly the only one that Microsoft cares about.  You're exaggerating to ludicrous degree.  Also, I assure you that no one would take 10 million US sales over 15 million worldwide sales.  Just look at how much money Microsoft has spent in Asia trying to push the Xbox brand.  The money they've spent in Japan alone has to be significant by this point.

Honestly, the most successful businesses--which certainly includes Microsoft--understand that the potential for growth in the rest of the world is enormous when compared to the US.  They want in on that and they want in on that badly.  Just look at the film industry, which is seriously becoming focused on the global picture.

That growth has all the players in the entertainment field salivating.

You guys are attacking him way to quick, he makes some good points in that U.S does spend the most on games. PS3 outsold 360, yet 360 beat it in software sales, and you know why? Because it dominated it in the U.S, also look at the original Xbox's attach rate, it was amazing.

Sure U.S doesn't equal the world, but it is the most important market by far, and people that say the other countries spend just as much as U.S are kidding themselves. Check the other big markets like Germany,France,Italy,Spain,Japan, U.K(not 100% sure on this as it is very similar to U.S) and you'll see that there software sales are much less than U.S in attach rate to consoles sold.

If you were to ask any of the big 3 if they would rather sell 40 million consoles in the U.S, or 40 million in the R.O.W they would choose U.S.

I came to this thread with the sole intention of seeing if people would agre with this title or not, dreading what I'd see inside.

Thankfully, everyone is talking about just how terrible this post is. Being from Jamaica, hearing the whole "america=the world" or is the only region that matters or seeing so many people view anyone on the internet as being american by default or having people view anyone outside the country as caricatures based on tv stereotypes is really annoying. I like you guys.

Holy shit lol. You especially.

Facts are a wonderful thing, particularly if you are trying to make a point. I would suggest including some in your next post.

Just as one example: did you know that Nintendo earned approximately 5.5 billion dollars PROFIT in 2008 (Wii and DS). Pretty good when apparently "the market it captured did not end up spending money on it"

Threads like this is the reason I prefer Mexico to the U.S.


















Of course, being Mexican makes me a bit biased.

I'm kind of confused by your post.  You're saying that Europeans are well informed about the US but then you say that most of them see a massive country with a large amount of diversity as being divided solely between two silly stereotypes?  Maybe I'm reading something incorrectly.  I'm sure most intelligent Europeans know better than that.

See, i'm not even 10km from the dutch border, meaning when i want to get to the northea coast i usually get to the dutch one. It's just half as far.

Belgium is 50km. Other countries are like 300km, 700km... away. And that means different language, different mentality (fuck, us guys from the lower Rhine are nothing like those Lederhosen wearing weird Bavarians) and so on.

So you have differences within a single european country, like from Cologne to somewhere in deep Bavaria (Texas vs. New Yorkers if you want so) and at the same time you are surrounded by more or less deferent countries with different languages and so on.

The US have one big East Coast, one same thing on the western side, those Mexicans somewhere down there and those weird canadian cousins somwhere up there. At the same time it's almost 10 million km². From a german view that is gigantic.

That actually means, there is practically no european state as isolated as the US is in many ways. And i guess that is why we most times care much more about neighborstates. They're actually really near.

As for the US and politics, they are still important. Just take a look at eastern europe right now. I think that could be different, if we where more of politically united, not only economywhise. So yes, we always take al look on what the US does. For us Germans in special, we have been some kind of playground fpor geopolitics for decades. Get to that situation and you always take a close look at the big guys.

For the rest, yes, most Europeans or at least most Germans do have a black and white look on the US. Exectly those to extremes. Reality is usually somehwere between there.

Wow. The lack of patriotism in this thread astounds me. You all need to say the pledge or shut the hell up.

This thread reminds me of the mind set when TV shows get cancelled, DVD/BD sales do bad, or when comics do bad. The head companies decide with only the US numbers, and pull stuff. Never do they look at the sales and viewership from the other countries/media options.

I don't quite understand your response: I'm in Europe right now...