Obviously, and as I've repeatedly said (to a skeptical crowd, often) existing market situation is tougher for Microsoft in Europe. Half as many Xboxen were sold in the EU as in the US, so it's a much tougher battle - its success in the US was underrated, and its success everywhere else (except Japan) overrated.
Second, the 360 is challenging the soccer and racing titles on the PS3, but it's not successful yet with other titles that are big here, such as Singstar and Buzz - not only do you have to get good titles out there, but they also have to gain good market recognition. In that sense it's easier for them to benefit from Guitar Hero's success on the PS2 than to benefit from Buzz's success on the PS2, simply because the games carry the same name (although Scene It also just isn't nearly as good).
Another important difference is the benefits that 360 owners have over Ps3 owners in the US are not really present in the EU markets. Video marketplace simply is non-existant here. Except for some online demos and games, the Live service offers me basically nothing. To date, there are five lame free videos on the service, the same ones that were there already day one basically. On the PS3 I can't download new stuff either, but I still get more than on the 360 (trailers and such), which is ironical.
Also not un-important is that Microsoft doesn't do nearly as much with localisation. Most of the big Sony titles come with 13 spoken and written (subtitles) languages to choose from, which is great, because especially many young people in the EU prefer to be able to choose, and a lot of people live in a different language area from their own. Considering how many languages you can find in the EU, you can understand that it is an advantage. It may not be huge, but it's a considerable drop in the bucket and one that will be hard to overcome as Sony has a definite advantage with BluRay. I've heard complaints from people with Halo 3 on this one, for instance, buying a disc in Germany and then only being able to have German spoken languages.
Also, the DVD player aspect of the PS2 was more popular here. Each time the discussion comes up, people dismiss this aspect, simply because it didn't have a big impact in the US. But over here, the PS2 was released when few people had DVD players yet. The media qualities of the PS3 are rated much higher here than those of the 360 for that reason, and in combination with the quietness of the console, puts it significantly over the 360 in the eyes of consumers. With no TV download services to offset this as they have in the US, it again puts the PS3 above the 360.
Live costing money is also a downside. Apart from the credit card issue, which has been bigger here than in the US especially last generation, because a lot of young people didn't have access to a credit card, online play still hasn't attained the same level as in the US, partly because the Xbox didn't. To overcome this, I would halve the cost of Live in the EU, at least for a while.
The 360's marketing successes here have, in fact, been Forza 2 (though the trend started with the original Xbox, which already very aggressively challenged Sony on the racing front in the later years) and PES. Their only problem was that FIFA08 was quite good on the PS3, while next-gen PES didn't just suck more on PS3 than on 360 (especially initially and for SD owners), but its first version on the 360 was far inferior to the PS2 version, and the PES series hasn't transitioned well to next-gen yet in general. Other successes are FPS games, but with those they challenge the PC market here more than the Playstation brand fans.
The biggest success for the 360 in Europe so far has been the consistent reports of games looking/running better on the 360, combined with a slightly lower price for both the console and the games. But I feel the 360 has so far failed to make the most out of that and whereas they made the most out of their launch advantage in the US, they dropped the ball in the EU and I don't think there's enough time left for them to make up for it. Sony's got their stuff together at the end of last year, when a whole pile of great games were launched, the price was reduced, and now combined with BluRay winning the format war and all the big titles Sony is putting out this year (all of which have a lot of potential in Europe in particular), I'm not sure what they can do at this point in time.
Second, the 360 is challenging the soccer and racing titles on the PS3, but it's not successful yet with other titles that are big here, such as Singstar and Buzz - not only do you have to get good titles out there, but they also have to gain good market recognition. In that sense it's easier for them to benefit from Guitar Hero's success on the PS2 than to benefit from Buzz's success on the PS2, simply because the games carry the same name (although Scene It also just isn't nearly as good).
Another important difference is the benefits that 360 owners have over Ps3 owners in the US are not really present in the EU markets. Video marketplace simply is non-existant here. Except for some online demos and games, the Live service offers me basically nothing. To date, there are five lame free videos on the service, the same ones that were there already day one basically. On the PS3 I can't download new stuff either, but I still get more than on the 360 (trailers and such), which is ironical.
Also not un-important is that Microsoft doesn't do nearly as much with localisation. Most of the big Sony titles come with 13 spoken and written (subtitles) languages to choose from, which is great, because especially many young people in the EU prefer to be able to choose, and a lot of people live in a different language area from their own. Considering how many languages you can find in the EU, you can understand that it is an advantage. It may not be huge, but it's a considerable drop in the bucket and one that will be hard to overcome as Sony has a definite advantage with BluRay. I've heard complaints from people with Halo 3 on this one, for instance, buying a disc in Germany and then only being able to have German spoken languages.
Also, the DVD player aspect of the PS2 was more popular here. Each time the discussion comes up, people dismiss this aspect, simply because it didn't have a big impact in the US. But over here, the PS2 was released when few people had DVD players yet. The media qualities of the PS3 are rated much higher here than those of the 360 for that reason, and in combination with the quietness of the console, puts it significantly over the 360 in the eyes of consumers. With no TV download services to offset this as they have in the US, it again puts the PS3 above the 360.
Live costing money is also a downside. Apart from the credit card issue, which has been bigger here than in the US especially last generation, because a lot of young people didn't have access to a credit card, online play still hasn't attained the same level as in the US, partly because the Xbox didn't. To overcome this, I would halve the cost of Live in the EU, at least for a while.
The 360's marketing successes here have, in fact, been Forza 2 (though the trend started with the original Xbox, which already very aggressively challenged Sony on the racing front in the later years) and PES. Their only problem was that FIFA08 was quite good on the PS3, while next-gen PES didn't just suck more on PS3 than on 360 (especially initially and for SD owners), but its first version on the 360 was far inferior to the PS2 version, and the PES series hasn't transitioned well to next-gen yet in general. Other successes are FPS games, but with those they challenge the PC market here more than the Playstation brand fans.
The biggest success for the 360 in Europe so far has been the consistent reports of games looking/running better on the 360, combined with a slightly lower price for both the console and the games. But I feel the 360 has so far failed to make the most out of that and whereas they made the most out of their launch advantage in the US, they dropped the ball in the EU and I don't think there's enough time left for them to make up for it. Sony's got their stuff together at the end of last year, when a whole pile of great games were launched, the price was reduced, and now combined with BluRay winning the format war and all the big titles Sony is putting out this year (all of which have a lot of potential in Europe in particular), I'm not sure what they can do at this point in time.
