Microsoft claims Xbox 360 owns Europe - Is Sony lying about PS3 sales?
By Dave Parrack
Forget the Wii for the moment. I know, it’s a tricky thing to do seeing as it’s still selling in huge numbers and rallying against all the anti-Nintendo bias and vitriol aimed in its direction. We need to forget the Wii as we are about to travel to Europe and talk about the battle, not only of sales figures, but also of talk, between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
We usually talk about the hardware sales figures in America here on Blorge, purely because it is a large market, and it’s where most of our readers reside. However, Japan and Europe shouldn’t be forgotten either as they are also huge markets for the video game industry.
In terms of the sales battle between the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Japan doesn’t really figure in the fight. The Japanese don’t tend to buy electronics built outside of Japan, so Microsoft and the Xbox 360 knew they’d fail before they even began to try and sell a console to the nation where games rule.
Europe is another prospect, with gamers being very split across the continent over where their loyalties lie. The problem is, the companies involved can’t seem to agree on sales figures, with both Sony and Nintendo claiming they are winning the sales battle across the soon-to-be United States of Europe.
Back in May, David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s president claimed that the PS3 had overtaken and outsold the Xbox 360 in Europe. Reeves then claimed that Sony had sold five million units of the PS3 in Europe, which meant it had leapfrogged the Xbox 360 and in under half the time of being on release and available.
The numbers were accepted at the time by most people, with solid figures unavailable to counter-argue with. Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 did doubt the claim though, saying that Reeves’ statement was “not based on actual data”.
Now, in an interview with industry paper MCV, European VP of strategic marketing for interactive entertainment at Microsoft EMEA David Gosen reiterated the fact that Reeves’ claims were false, and again claimed that the Xbox 360 is still way ahead of the PS3 in Europe. He said:
“Anyone trying to call a winner this Christmas is calling too early. We are incredibly well positioned – our installed base in Europe is well over five million and contrary to what’s been reported we are at least, if not more than, three quarters of a million ahead of PS3.”
“If we look at the momentum in the business in the last few months, the trajectory has changed significantly. My only message to the analysts is to check their numbers,”
You may be wondering why this all matters as it’s “only Europe” but it is a key battleground in the fight for console supremacy. Both Sony and Microsoft realise this with the fact that America and Japan are lost causes for each respectively.
Whoever you believe in this increasingly bitter war of words, the fact that the PS3 is within 750,000 units of the Xbox 360 after just 18 months on sale has got to be worry for Microsoft.
And did I say we need to forget the Wii for now? Well scrub that because both consoles are losing out badly to the little Nintendo gem at this stage. Is it bad that there is this much of a fight going on for second place?
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Tips N4G
June 26th, 2008
Flame wars go on……..
Who can we believe. Bah, who really cares. Not me.
June 26th, 2008
Statistics, numbers, surveys etc can all be twisted by those who need the most favourable press. I know what I like and don’t need Microsoft or Sony telling me who’s best.
June 26th, 2008
Unless anyone reading this are shareholders in either company, then total sales etc shouldn’t really matter.
As long as both companies are releasing good games and giving consumers incentive to buy their products, then that’s all I am interested in.
June 27th, 2008
Microshaft sucks shit!
June 27th, 2008
Sony is lies… LIES ALL LIES!!! Sony is lies.. LIES LIES LIES!!!
hehe.. we dont need kC anymore… oh wait I forgot…
SPIDEYDOG AND SW AND ARVIS AND DWH!!! STOP SUCKING SONY’s IRON MAN AND REPENT OF YOUR SINS!!!
there… thats classic CAD…
June 27th, 2008
ahh dammit… HEY WAIT A SEC!!!
DIdnt future sega boy “jump ship”?? I thought you loved Microsoft now Sega man?? this is too confusing…
June 27th, 2008
i dont really believe sony or microsoft anymore, they both spew gaming bile on figures. But also doesnt australia get a look in?
June 27th, 2008
1. sony cited vgchartz, which by their own admission does NOT use actual data in their “estimates”
2. MS seems more credible in their numbers.
3. sony has a loooong history of lies surrounding the ps3.
4. the fact they can’t even make a dent in their own “120 million loyal ps users” (kuturagi’s words, not mine) has to be worrying sony.
5. the land “where games rule” is North America. More gamers, more games sold, more consoles sold, higher tie in ratios, and more online gamers than japan. Then again, why not, gaming started in North America.
June 27th, 2008
Biggest fanboys on this site:
1.) Kev (aka Kevin) (360)
2.) Ivan_psp (aka blog whore) (ps3)
3.) The Future Of Sega (360)
4.) Dark White Hair ( aka DWH) (possibly 360)
5.) ????????
June 27th, 2008
5.) DAVE PARRACK (PS3, 360, Wii)?
June 27th, 2008
Biggest ignoramus’ on this site
1. Bourne
2. Ivan PSP
3. Spideydog
4. DWH
wow…this is fun…
June 27th, 2008
lol yes DAVE P haha throw in a bit of NES for fun and we have ourselves a chart. WHo knows kiddies, if your really fanboyish you could take top spot! so stop this fanboy drivel. *looks at Kevin*
June 27th, 2008
bourne - you know sony’s in bad shape when you call facts “fanboy drivel”..
June 27th, 2008
Actually kevin i wasn’t referring to any particular comment, in fact i wasn’t actually referring to DAVE PARRACK’S article, and as i said in a previous post, i don’t trust BOTH sony or Microsoft, but people on here keep turning neutral articles (Ok this article is aimed at sony, but other DAVE PARRACK and blogger articles support other consoles and discuss bad points about other consoles) into fanboy wars, makes
humorous reading though.
June 27th, 2008
Ugh.
Sony lies about its figures, MS lies to counter… Yawn.
I say we take an Eastern European country with a low population, kick them out, and then make 3 piles of consoles.
Biggest pile wins.
June 27th, 2008
Kev, North America only rules ‘games’ to you because that is where 360 is still selling better (I think they are still are, aren’t they?) than ps3.
Saying Japan and Europe don’t count is f*cking retarded.
June 27th, 2008
SW,
I nominate Luxembourg. No one lives there. What say you?
@Kevin: Hey, why didn’t I make your list?
-Arvis
June 27th, 2008
arvis - because, you actually have some lucid comments. the other guys? not so much..
June 27th, 2008
well kev, i dont know about that….i agree with the “games” part, i would have to say japan is the ruler on “gaming consoles”…………and i would think i might be the 5th fanboy…..im not, but since i always post and look on this website every day i guess i am………..@ Dave P, you know M$ lies alot too…..just like how PS3 outsold 360 in 2007…..M$ covered it up…..there are articles about it, so dont say im wrong
June 27th, 2008
royzy - read it again, sport. i gave the reason why NA is the real land “where games rule”. not japan. gaming STARTED in NA, genius. you only think japan is the land of gaming becuase that’s what JAPANESE gaming executives have been telling you. gee..what a coincidence….
June 27th, 2008
Kev,
I’m no expert (obviously), but didn’t console gaming START in Japan, die, and then get RESURRECTED in North America?
Oh, and thanks, I make lucidity a daily goal!
-Arvis
June 27th, 2008
Which country invented Pong and Coleco Vision?
June 28th, 2008
Sony is not the lier hear Microsoft is… They are so desperate that they losing. Just because 2007 was great for them and they had a full year head start and only sold 19 million meaning if PS3 would had launch the same year it would have at least 23 million system sold.
June 28th, 2008
OH NO!!!
my only weakness… LISTS!!! Im melting.. Im melting…
This is so childish… why cant we just have a mature discussion??
Im sorry kev that I dont live and breathe games… that I dont know EVERY SINGLE FACT THERE EVER WAS ABOUT GAMINg… but I try… for example.. did you know that the Xbox was made by the same people who made Direct X??
and Bourne… looks like instead of saying things like “BRING BACK SLY COOPER” and “GOW !!!” I should be saying “MASTER CHIEF FOREVA!!!” “DEATH TO THE LOCUSTS!!!”
could you come up with a better sentence?? maybe Im losing my touch…
June 28th, 2008
er ok… totally lost
June 28th, 2008
reeves didnt say that the ps3 has completely outsold the 360, e specifically said that the ps3 has sold 6 million units faster than the 360, the 360 is on 6.8 million where as the ps3 on 6.28 and is catching up fast.. anyone who dosent belive me and owns a ps3, go on the stores and download the playstation day èress conference trailers. case closed and get it right.
June 28th, 2008
PS3 is kicking Xbox 360’s ass deal with all the FACTS.
June 28th, 2008
arvis - the very first “tv tennis” was created at MIT in America. if memory serves, Magnavox took the reigns from there. Japan was soon to follow but certainly NOT the creators of video gaming.
June 28th, 2008
Kevin,
Ahh… I seem to recall that Spacewar was the first “video game” way back on computers in the 60s I believe… wasn’t that also at MIT?
I guess I never thought that “tv tennis” or those little boxes that played Pong through your tv counted as consoles. But I suppose they technically were, weren’t they?
-Arvis
June 28th, 2008
Japanese created video games duh any idiot knows that. Tokyo, Japan is the dream world of gaming.
June 28th, 2008
The biggest FUCK on this forum
1. darkwhitehair
……My name is FUTURE OF SEGA YOU FUCK LOST!!!!!…….son of a fuck……PLAYSTATION PWNS X-COCK 3 DICKY!!! hee hee hee
June 28th, 2008
darkwhitehair……….Lamest. Gamer. Ever.
And to all of you two faced fucks, lets keep in mind that the PS3 swings the bigger cock, compared to 360’s small tweener.
But the thing that really mother fucken ass lick balls ass shit fuck ass balls BALLS PISSED me off, was that EA screwed over the loyal PS3 owners!! Those ungrateful FUCKS deserve to FUCK in Hell!
But fuck off balls shit got hell damn balls boobs fuck me BITCH!!! This forum sucks shit. And Microshaft will ose the console war
And to that Dido Tendo Wii Penis, it needs to rot in Hell!……..In Satan’s asshole..
June 29th, 2008
um… SEGA FUTure boy!!! how did you get out of your straightjacket?? do the orderlies know that youre missing from the assylum???
as I see it.. USA created a LOT of things… Microchips… TVs… and stuff I dont remember… but Japan came up with cheaper ones and ran em out of business… the only example I have is the radio and the TV… when Japanese companies were dumping them on the US… I hardly ever see any US branded TV sets… I think Visio is one.. but I never heard of it untill I saw it in one of the talk shows… then again… Im in asia… and all I see around me are Sony… Samsung… Toshiba…
If only Sony decreased their prices of Bravia… bitches…
June 29th, 2008
and why is it that fanboys have weird fantasies… fantasies involving the male genitalia… CAD does it… Future Boy Sega does it… should I be scared??
June 30th, 2008
@ Darkwhitehair……You sleezy piece of cock sucking shit! I will have you to know that MY NAME IS THE FUTURE OF SEGA you dislocated FUCK!!! GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!
Oh….by the way on July 2nd PS3 firmware 2.40 update will be out!!! yipeee!!!!