Xbox 360 leads PS3 by 1m in Europe Comments by Tom Bramwell

well it's cheaper and had a year's head start...

ps3 will make up the ground when it's £200 in europe

Well it's not a claim from MS themselves, so I'll trust that. I'm not surprised either, it's cheap, better marketed, and has the greatest game ever made on it (Tenchu Z).
As soon as Christmas is over and I've saved up, I'll be buying my second, since I want a big ol' Elite.

Who knows who to believe these days. Each company can exploit the fluctuating definition of 'Europe' to their own ends.

All I know for sure is that the UK is a 360 heartland, and since that's where most of my friends are, that's all that really matters to me.

So let me get this straight. Sony have now even lost the ability to claim european superiority........

I like a good fluctuate

I fail to see the significance. There's obviously no clear winner this generation, and there isn't going to be.

EDIT: Wii has won, and by a fairly clear, massive margin.

If I didn't treasure my PS3 since it's the only thing I've ever won, and hadn't cracked the memory card flap (I cried when I did that), I'd have traded it in as soon as I'd got bored with LBP, and got an Elite with HD-DVD drvie and all the cheap HD-DVDs aI could find.

I don't know a single other person with a PS3, but all my friends have 360s. One of them is the one that introduced me to Tenchu Z awesomeness. I really miss going online and going around doing stealth kills. I miss my 360.

erm, NA + eur + jap != world.

only 1m in it after a year plus head start, not so good. that gap could be closed in a month.

Are you implying Mexicans, Argentinians, Peruvians, and Austrailians are among those with the right to buy 360s! That's shocking!

Reeves was talking bullshit. There is no way Australia, NZ, Scandinavia etc. would make up over a million sales. Man is a clown and should have been demoted ages ago.

It's the beginning of the end, I am glad I didn't cave in and buy one it was just too expensive to justify it. Now you can pick up decent BluRay players for less than 200 there really is no need for me to get one.

How can the Xbox 360 have such a narrow lead with a whole year's head start? Can someone please explain that?

To be frank, being in the lead by even one consloe is a massive coup for microsoft. If you think how dominant the PlayStation brand has been the past ten years or so.

The onus is well and truely on Sony from now on. I'm sure they will eventually overtake, but the fact they have had to work for it is a big dent to sony in my eyes.

Edit : Drumbaby....please don't exercise your right to speak in here....

Portsmouth FC were founded seven years before Chelsea, why are they not higher in the league?

"There's obviously no clear winner this generation, and there isn't going to be."

O rly? Take a look at the graphs:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/38...

"Starting with November 2006, the PS3 lost ground to the Xbox 360 at a nearly constant rate through much of its first year, with a slowing during July 2007 when Sony first adjusted the prices of the PlayStation hardware. Microsoft's own August 2007 price cuts and strong software lineup then pushed the PS3 further behind through November. At the same time, the Wii was catching up to the Xbox 360, slowed only momentarily when Halo 3 launched.

"Sony's November 2007 price drop was very effective. Instead of losing ground to the Xbox 360, it actually made some modest gains through July 2008, with a bump from the June sales which accompanied the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. When Microsoft cut prices again, this time in August 2008, Sony began to lose ground and has ended its second year about twice as far behind the Xbox 360 as it was when it launched in November 2006.

"By comparison, Nintendo was still hampered by hardware shortages during Holiday 2007 but then caught up to – and surpassed – the Xbox 360 by mid-2008."

The winner in terms of hardware sold is the Wii by some margin.

How many of those 1 million consoles are broken?

If you speak of Sony as a brand, then you'd have to lump in the entire brands performance not just the PS3. The same with Nintendo too, who really do ram home the "ruling the roost" once you lump in the DS into all of that.

One thing I'm curious about though, the across all 5 territories thing. Does this mean the 360 led in all countries or just dominated one or two? I can see the 360 leading in the UK by a long shot but not Spain or Italy.

Why is this fucking site so obsessed with who sells more than who? I can't find a movie magazine site that says such-and -such studio's films have outgrossed somebody elses. It's completely pointless. Without the 360 we wouldn't have Gears, without the PS3 there'd be no Uncharted etc. Could we please focus on what matters and stop these idiotic fanboy-baiting stories.

/rant mode off

That's really bad considering the 360 is cheaper and had a year's head start.

Oh where are the other 5 million =p

"which also includes countries outside Europe, like Australia. "

Wait, when did them assies become independent? Send in the marines ffs!

All this is obviously all spinning and lies. Who cares?

@ drumbaby

"How can the Xbox 360 have such a narrow lead with a whole year's head start? Can someone please explain that? "

Becuase much of continental Europe is a hotbed of Sony fanboyism that wouldn't touch a 360 with a bargepole, even if it came with free cookies and ice cream for life. Well, it used to be, but I think the ultra-cheap pricing, somewhat improved reliability and huge established catalogue of games is winning many folks round. I honestly believed the PS3 to have overtaken the 360 by now - the UK notwithstanding.

Will add my name to the list of those confused by the choice of only five territories - mayhaps the figures would be more on par if all of Europe was counted? Who knows.

I bet majority of that lead is in UK only, a few months ago that was wlmost a million units there already.
So this suggest Sony already caught up every where else.

360 is a toy, Ps3 is a media center and the most inovative piece of entertainment hardware you can buy right now... well, it only depends on your wallet and good taste... Xbox have nothing to offer anymore and as soon as the PS3 drops the price (early next year) its game over for Microsoft especially in Europe.

Oh dear.

Yup, anyone with taste will go for the massive library of good 360 titles and anyone with common sense will buy the console now it is so incredibly cheap. I've always known that you where a loyal 360 supporter apology.

I'm actually quite suprised how well the PS3 has done considering it was late to the party, costs a packet, blu-ray hasn't exactly ignited the home movie scene, the controller feels like a limp piece of bog roll and it doesn't score many points on good exclusives. It's also a pain in the arse to keep clean.

A shame too as it's a fantastic system. I don't want to seem all 'fanboy' but next to the xbox it just doesn't come close. First to the party, realistically priced, didn't bother with a built-in HD movie setup (opting for movie downloads or optional HD DVD instead, genius), the controller is solid and properly thought out (unless you're on the d-pad, rare) and it has a good lot of quality exclusives. Say what you like about Halo 3 and Gears 2 but they're console shifters!

And then there is Xbox Live...

Again, I'm really surprised they're only a million behind!

@Apologie - erm, Media Centre on xbox is excellent. You should try it sometime.

I can see it in the store here in Austria (Saturn). I go there perhaps once a week. In the past two December holiday shopping Saturdays I've seen two stacks of 360's go. Arcades are sold out, and there are only dwindling amounts of Elites and 60GB pros left. On the other hand the Playstation 3's still have the same huge stack.

I got a PS3 recently and I'm loving my blu-rays.

Games, not so much

Headline reads like 1min. Now that would be close.

"360 is a toy, Ps3 is a media center"
Really? How comes I can stream movies, photos and music from my computer to my 360 then? And download movies from xbox live... I must have some kind of enhanced xbox... lucky me!

Xerx3s

exclusives??? you gotta be kidding me... have you seen the amount of top quality titles recently released for the PS3?? have you seen the titles coming out in 2009??? i dont want to bring a list in here ;p

seriously, PS3 will crush the Xbox360 in short time... mark my words. Price drop, exclusives, home, BluRay... = big success.

http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=P...

Is quite an interesting graph. It compares, from day 0 of launch of the respective console, sales from that point over the first 5 years. As you can see, the PS3 is actually doing better than the xbox360 did at the same stage of its life; but neither is anywhere near how the PS2 did in it's generation. The PS2 sales is interesting; always higher, but then frequently big surges in sales each christmas, that hasn't happened on anywhere near the same scale with the ps3/xbox360 yet

To add to that: http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=W...

Shows the wii, xbox360 and ps3 in europe... as you can see it seems most of europe are sony lovers, as it's pretty much caught up already

Whereas America aren't: http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=W...

Yes yes I know the Wii has won but it doesn't count for this comparison.

I simply don't believe that the number of consoles sold = the number of people using those consoles. I know a number of people that have or do own more than one 360 simply because their first (second, third and so on) has broken down in some way. I even know people that have bought a cheap arcade unit whilst waiting for their broken console to be replaced. These count as console sales but they don't count as new users.

I would love to know the actual number of active consoles.

I am currently waiting for my xbox to be replaced again (4th time!) due to the rrod so we know they are very unreliable. I have only had one ps3 however and don't know anyone that has bought a second whilst their first is being fixed. I don't want this to be seen as a xbox vs ps3 rant though. I own both and play on the 360 a lot more I just wish it was built half as well as the ps3.

Crush is a bit strong apologie. what are these amazing exclusives you speak of? i bought a ps3 last week and have so far been immensely disappointed.

@Apologie

hahaha, PS3 exclusives? Resistance 2 was pants, traded it next day (Wished I'd never got it), Little Big Planet was a one minute wonder and I rarely play it anymore, Home - OMG Home... sony sony sony.. what were they thinking. Home is a complete sham, there's nothing in there that's going to keep people coming back for more, it seems to be a glorified shopping mall? See the penny arcade strip about Home for more details.

Xbox360 just seems to have it all, fully integrated online system with a robust party system (for the most part) and all the major games/releases on the market at the moment. It just can't be beaten sorry.

I have both consoles and at present my PS3 is sat unplugged on the floor in my back room (was going to sell on ebay but I'll not get much for it so I'll leave it lol)

Careful Rich72, you are dicing with death! You may get a bit fat list in your face any second!

" These count as console sales but they don't count as new users. "
I'm actually quite happy with that... Live is getting a bit too crowded. There are enough users already. Not so sure if Ballmer agrees, but for me they shouldn't allow new accounts.

everybody likes to critisize the PS3, yes, Sony may have commited some mistakes... but given the laughable reliability of the X360, isnt that a bit of contradicting??? Microsoft didn't had any kind of consideration for they'r costyumers by releasing consciously a defective product... and yet,.

To be frank, being in the lead by even one consloe is a massive coup for microsoft. If you think how dominant the PlayStation brand has been the past ten years or so.

Exactly. The PlayStation brand managed to flatten the Saturn, the Dreamcast, the N64, the Gamecube and the original Xbox. That the PS3 is even having to compete so hard today, never mind in such a close race for second place, is a significant slip backwards for PlayStation.

And while fanboys may like to keep the focus on PS3 vs 360, the simple fact is that it's the Wii that has delivered the hardest body blow to the PlayStation. It was assumed that all those millions of mainstream PS2 owners were primed to move up to the PS3, but the Wii has comprehensively stolen that enormous and lucrative market from under Sony's nose. Considering the comparative fortunes of Nintendo and Sony over the last two generations, that's a phenomenal turnaround.

Here is what IGN thought of exclusive games in 2008 across the Wii, 360 and PS3:

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/937/937519p1.html.

i really don't understand the resistance 2 love, it truly is dire. a chore to play through with awful graphics and control. PS3 has COD so why this scored so highly is a mystery to me.

@ stepneg

"Now you can pick up decent BluRay players for less than 200 there really is no need for me to get one."

I was thinking that, but ended up buying a PS3 the other day. Mostly for Blu-Ray playback capabilities, but also because I didn't want to be in a position in a year or two's time whereby there was an amazing PS3 exclusive I really wanted, but already had a Blu-Ray player. I had the spare cash, saw a good deal in GAME and thought "You know what, sod it."

Excellent Blu-Ray player, although there are so many niggly things wrong with the console all I ever seem to do is bitch about it to my friends. Nothing that makes me regret buying it, but I just can't see myself spending time on the PS instead of the 360.

Is that it?

almost the exact same scenario as me bioreit. i think i'm glad i bought it. i'm loving wipeout..... a very expensive version of wipeout it now seems.

Well done Microsoft. It's cost you enough.

One of those sales in September was my new Elite, which replaced my launch unit RRoD (that evetually was part exchanged in GAME).

Poor Sony, I do like them too.

\shakes fist at Nintendo for stealing all the consumers and making them play Cooking Mama.

I wish PS3 was doing better to be honest because out of that and the 360, as far as a complete user experience goes, I much prefer using the PS3. That said, it's a self-made situation and I think Sony have still got it all wrong at present. For every PS3 advert I've seen 10 or more for 360. Even games that are multi-platform are tied very strongly to the 360 brand in the ads, and all at an attractive price. Even if Sony sorted out their ad campaign the average end user will still see a machine (360) that plays the same games at half the price. Unless you *really* want a PS3, it's a complete no brainer as to which you're going to buy.

@ Rich72

"a very expensive version of wipeout it now seems."

Ah see, now there we have to differ. Although I have yet to purchase WipEout HD, I will do so shortly. And I suspect that that one game alone will justify the PS3 for me :-)

In selected territories the 360 is beating the PS3 - no doubt. But it had a years head start and a massive price drop... I think next year the PS3 will have a price drop and has some cool exclusives - KZ2, FF and yes, Home will expand and become more of a draw (I know you don't believe it - but it will. My kids (14 and 15) think Home is excellent - that's who it's probably aimed at).

We'll see...