i would rather not be in the championships than get to the final and play like shit and lose !!!!

ms say they are still ahead in Europe.

I dont have a link but that is what they say.

It will be hard for them to beat sony in Europe but they are obviously serious about it.

In my local store the 20 gig is going for 199 Euro. I live in Ireland btw.

With money getting tight all round people will look at the price of consoles more closely imo.

they actually think they can beat PS3 in Europe... lol that is soooooo funny. wat kinda drugs is microsoft takin cause i want some of those.

You would have to discount the UK from your comment, because the UK is far more Wii/360 than PS3. Everyone I know that had a PS2 and loved it does not have a PS3. Even in Game the 360 space is alot more than PS3.

One of the three European capitals? Whaat?

I hope you are the little brat on the photo because if you are any older its a real shame.For you ,I mean.

Maybe we arent that stupid mind you.Maybe we just  prefered to buy a console that didnt RROD on us ,that had backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2(at least the 60GB with both) ,that had assured us from the word go  the games we were waiting without having to cross the fingers and hope and pray for a last minute port due to MS signing big checks.

Maybe we just noticed the PS3 had Wifi built in so we hadnt to wire all the house to the disgust of our girlfriends (when you grow older you will understand) or families.Maybe the wireless and battery-free controllers were just a plus over the 360.

Maybe we understood that the console was fully operative in an HDTV and if you had one of these the Blu Ray was a massive plus.

Maybe we just dont want to pay Bill Gates and MS 60 euros a year for the rest of our lifes to play online when we can do the same for free with the Sony system.

Maybe we didnt want to support the really poor MS products as its underperforming and resources consuming Windows.So we didnt want to support with the 360 all the propietary software of MS that goes with it:DirectX ,XNA ,Windows,etc.

Maybe we just realized that 95% of X360 games would be coming sooner or later for PC(that we all have got or will have to buy another in few time) while the PS3 exclusives are really exclusives.

Maybe we arent stupid at all .....maybe YOU are stupid for not having thought about any of this dont you think?

I'll stand behind the quality argument as well.

I've got many friends who spent significant time (semesters, extended vacations, childhoods, etc) in Europe. In many of the countries, even the UK, quality is paid for. People are perfectly happy to spend a lot of extra money -- even twice as much as a competing similar product -- to get one they know is a quality product. People have more expensive shoes, spend more on furniture, spend more on things that are expected to last a long time. They don't just buy the cheapest one because they can't tell the difference. They buy the brand that they've known to produce quality, honest products.

Microsoft is an American company with an American mindset. It's no fluke that the 360 is the least reliable home console in history and perhaps the least reliable piece of electronics in history. Microsoft is a low quality company with low quality products. I'm not slagging on them; this is simply a reflection their overall strategy. They rightly believe that Americans are short sighted and buy cheaper products over quality products. They want to believe it's just as good, and they're foolish enough to believe lies and marketing-speak willingly so it can help them rationalize their poor purchase.

Microsoft has the additional problem of denying reality. The only area they're successful is their software monopoly -- Windows and Office. Everywhere else they fail, and yet they paint it with a rosy picture. They underestimate competitors ("Google is a one-product company"), they underestimate products ("Android is just paper"), and they lie to themselves and their investors about situations ("Sony isn't gaining any momentum, and we found a way to craft some statistics that agree with this statement").

Microsoft does not have a chance in Europe this generation because their lack of quality is well known there where it is one of the top factors when products are purchased. Here in the US, where people want to believe the 360 has been fixed and that the reliability issues are overblown, MS has been able to bounce back a hell of a lot better.

I got a 360 because I'm willing to fight through the customer service to get it replaced and accept that as part of the cost of the console.

yeah the administrative power is devided in three different cities.... Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg... kind of complicated and not really the subject here lol....

Don't worry, I'm from Europe. To call those cities the European capitals is quite a stretch ;) At most, they're the cities of the EU headquarters. We're understood now though.

A lot of good points. From what I can see, people here view the 360 as third choice because:

• PlayStation and Nintendo = gaming. Microsoft doesn't have a legacy.
  
• Microsoft have an extremely bad reputation here and people would prefer not to give them their money if possible.
• The PS3 has a very similar library so there's no huge draw in terms of a massive exclusive library.
  
• Paying for online is considered too far when the other consoles have free online and almost everything on the internet is free. We already pay for the internet and for games, we shouldn't have to pay more to play those games on the internet.
  
• The Wii is viewed as a family console, the PS3 viewed as for mature (as in over 26) gamers, and the 360 viewed as for teenage boys. There are fewer teenage boys than the other two groups.
• The PS3 has blu-ray.
• All the hype's with the Wii so it's what new gamers and those unsure exactly what they want will buy.
• And most importantly of all, RRoD. The three year warranty has improved things, but not much, because it shouldn't be happening in the first place. We expect products to do what they say and to do it for as long as we want them to. Products dying because they weren't made properly is just completely and totally unacceptable here. From what I can gather on here Americans don't seem to feel the same way, they just view it as an annoyance. I really can't emphasise how strongly Europeans view it as a disgrace, a rip-off and a con. We're used to our electronics lasting until we want to replace them with something new, we are not used to having them conk out. We will not buy products that do that.