PS3 delayed in Europe
I suppose you already heard the news that Sony's new Ubermachine Playstation 3 will not have a worldwide launch because of production problems. Sony once again decided to smack every European who wanted to buy the system right away into the face without caring much that Europe is indeed one of the biggest markets for Sony with more than 38 million Playstation 2 systems sold compared to 42 million in the United States and 23 million in Japan.
Sony is still claiming that the launch in Japan and the United States will not be postponed but the current situation does not look very promising. They plan to launch in Japan with 100000 systems and in the United States with 400000 systems. Am I the only one that thinks that this figures are not really impressive? I mean, 100000 systems for Japan ? This must be the worst premiere start of a console system ever in Japan, the 400000 systems for the USA aren't impressive either.
Consider that many European die hearts will try to catch one of those rare systems by importing them to Europe using well known internet shops like lik sang or play Asia. Customers in the US and Japan will surely face at least the same severe shortages that the XBOX 360 had when it launched, and Microsoft managed to supply 1.5 million systems.
I do not think that it is that bad if the release date for Europe gets delayed. Sony has a history of producing bad console system which get improved over time. They will manage to sell all of the 500000 system that's for sure, but they are also facing a big opposition with every passing day. They pissed of Europe; and customers in the United States and Japan who will not manage to buy a PS3 at launch date will surely be angry as well.
Microsoft has a comfortable position in Europe with the biggest contender out of the way for the Christmas season. Nintendo will also profit from Sony's absence, both parties should be very happy about this decision.
The important question however is: what will the customers do? Will they wait until the PS3 becomes available? Will they buy a Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii or both instead? Time will tell but most people on gaming forums seem to favor the second option and buy a Xbox 360 or Wii for Christmas and forget about Sony.. for now.
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I’am not saying they hate Europe – I just want to say that their priority is Japan, then USA and then Europe.. Everyone in Europe should consider this before making a decision which system he is purchasing.
I’m sure Sony doesn’t have an anti-European agenda as you seem to suggest.
Rather, it makes sense to launch in Japan and US because they are both using the NTSC video format.
Also, a European release typically requires multiple language support (English,French,Spanish,German, etc.) — whereas a US release only requires English.