Speaking at the official UK launch of PlayStation 3 last night, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison highlighted the significance of the European market - which he believes is key to the console's success.
"This is the third continent out of three, but it is the most important," he told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz. "It's got most countries, it's the most people, it's the most cultures...
"The fact that we've got the launch here with more consoles shipped on day one that we've ever had in our history is a compliment to the importance of the European market."
PS3 launched in the US and Japan last December, but European gamers have had to wait until now to get their hands on Sony's new console. The official midnight launch took place at the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street, with most stores across the country waiting to their doors until this morning.
If Europe is the most important of the 3, then why choose to ship consoles to them last, with downgraded BC and still charge them more?.....just wondering?
Well I guess we can stop being your number 1 buyer of games and hardware.
sajj316 nope just an opinion as for this "Man, did you say that to start something?" all you need to do here is show up for that.
I know you Europeans are not seriously going to believe this!!! Sony has sh!tted on you over and over again by treating you like a third class citizen and now is trying to make it sound like they did it out of love!! Hahaha Tell Sony where they should put it!
like I said deepbrown how does anything you just said answer my rhetorical question about Europe being their most important continent of the 3? It seems your post did more to confirm exactly the point I was trying to make than deny it.
Sony shipped to the Japan and the U.S. first, obviously because they were expecting huge sales on their "hometurf" and of course because the US has bought more PS1 and PS2 than any other country.....so lets not be naive here; if you can't ship to all three simultaneously you ship to your "strengths" first to establish a large fanbase quickly....there are no garuantees as we have seen but thats a solid business strategy, -I don't think theres really even any doubt about that.
I didn't mention price but yes you are correct things always cost more there, but even with the conversion rate its still a little more expensive although I think that has something to do with the way Sony adjusts the price to compensate for the yen to pound fluctuation etc. but either way it ends up being a bigger gap in price.
Also I'm not sure about your BC figures, I've seen alot of different stuff, but lets just say your numbers are totally correct....that still is "LESS" BC than what was originally offered to Japan and America, right? which I think makes Phils comments no more than pure PR spin or at best a weak attempt to tell the Europe fans to "look on the bright side".....but what esle would you expect him to say?
For the European members that don’t seem to understand where I’m coming from here let’s do this. I’ll change the title so you can understand “America is "most important continent", says Harrison” If I were from China or Europe I just might be offended. Now if the title said something like “Europe is an important continent”, says Harrison” it would be less offensive.