The PS4 Is Absolutely Destroying The Competition in Europe

Those percentages are nothing short of ridiculous.

Yeah plus its only a matter if time before they take the lead from Wii U in Japan. I'd say 2016-2018 will be the PS4's prime portion of its lifespan.

Yet EU is often the guys left out on features and programs, never made any sense to me.

@ShogunRok Couldn't agree more.

I've noticed all my daughters school friends are switching form xbox 360 to ps4 this gen. I don't know of anybody that's gone the xbox one route I know this a small snap shot but you'd never get this last gen. I'm SE UK if you're interested

@gingerfrog same here, in "lovely" kent 😊

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Very true, it's something that needs sorting out.

Too bad is that the company don't look to Europe as they should.

I mean, look at the PSN Store, all the best goodies are US only. The EU store seems only to get "refurbished" goods...

Said it before..the only reason 360was so popular(in uk at least) was that it was so easy to mod and buy pirated games for...paying around £8 for a pirated game compared to £30 plus for a retail game was a no brainer for a lot of people with kids and xbox360..the numbers are surprisingly high though..on the other thing someone mentioned about uk/eu being ar times forgotten by Sony, it will be the same old excuse..varying exchange rates across europe, localisation into different languages blah blah..

It's a bit of a shame that the Xbox One is having such a hard go in Europe, don't really know why, the launch was horrid, but under Spencers leadership, I value both systems about equally right now.

In general though, Microsoft and Nintendo seem to do a bit better in NA when compared to Europe, I guess that has to do more with the evolution of gaming, we grew up with Nintendo and DOS/IBM compatibles (and the Genesis for a time), Europe had it with SEGA and Amiga.

@BLPs
The extreme fanboy calling others fanboys. Gotta love the irony. We get it, Sony sucks, Nintendo is perfect.

@BLPs @Gamer83 Okay guys, let's not get into this! It's far too hot today.

Certainly impressive helps that PS4 price at least in the UK have been steadily dropping always sparking more sales.

I use to be PlayStation gamer until last gen, I tried the PS3 and felt let down by it and favoured the 360. This gen I naturally tried a Xbox one first, liking the 360, but I found I hated the system! I just purchased a ps4 recently and can easily say that the ps4 is definitely better, and Sony definitely has ne back as a fan! !

@ShogunRok
I just made the one comment, wasn't planning to go further because I know I'm on thin ice.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

Impressive figures that mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.
The Playstation has 1 (2 if ya wanna go there) competitor. It is beating its competitor. Great. We are not talking about a multi-competitve market such as clothing, smartphones, shoes etc. Look at those market shares - slightly more complex. As has been seen in this current generation, loyalism is weak and players are happy to move to the "best console" each gen.

Why is the PS4 the best? Why will it continue to be the best? Why is PS5 going to be the best?

The PS4 is winning this generation SOLEY because it has the more powerful hardware and the results that have come about because of this. Pretty weak competitive advantage if you ask me... Yes it has some impressive games (vapourware??) but they are not the reason the millions of consoles are being sold.
MS (and Nintendo) have far stronger competitive advantages that are far more threatening to Playstation than simply DDR5.

I get this article is simply celebrating a good result for Playstation and that's great, however I'm stating this comment to point out that the celebrations may need to be now and loud because they may not last for long.

Let's hope Sony will start using it to their advantage instead of becoming even more arrogant than they are now. A Sony in the lead doesn't address problems, they wave them away and for some reason the PS3 and the big hack wasn't lesson enough for them.

More and more people are getting fed up with PSN, don't understand why they have to pay for PS3 games they already own, can't believe that the DS4's analog sticks still haven't been fixed and lots of people who jumped ship after the 360, are now returning to the brand they fell in love with years back. I'm not saying the One will ever be a succes in continental Europe, because quite frankly no Xbox ever was, but all people I know that chose PS4 coming from the 360 regret it now. To put it in perspective: at the time of the launch the PS4 was $100 cheaper and a way more promising console, so off course we all went the blue way. But when you're completely honest, at this point when a regular Joe walks into a store wanting to buy a console, the One is arguably the better choice. It has the best online service, the best support, more exclusives at times when it matters, they have a damn fine controller that is actually evolving with time and it has BC come this fall.

It's time for Sony to stop resting on its laurels and make sure they hold on to the lead. Changing consoles or choosing a One is difficult because your friends have a PS4 or you have already invested in the PS4, but keep on annoying people long enough and they'll end up in the loving arms of the competition.

Those numbers are downright insane. Whatever their marketing plan is over there, bravo to them.

I live in the UK and have a ps4, I know at least 10 others that have ps4's. Everyone I know that's a gamer wants a ps4. I'm yet to meet anyone with an xbox1

@Neolit - I totally agree with that analysis, I told my buddy who's the Store Manager of a GameStop here in the U.S the exact same thing.

It's going to be a replay of Xbox-(original) vs. PlayStation 2, if they keep getting their a**es handed to them.

And "if" that's the case, we definitely should expect "both" of this generation of consoles to have the "more normal" 5 year cycle vs. the 7 to 8 years of last gen. "Except" of the two, I think Microsoft may cut it to 4 maybe 4 & a half, and then Sony following after at 5 maybe 5 & a half years.

@Neolit

That is fair enough, especially with the willingness of Microsoft to port some of its first party titles to the PC. I guess it depends on your personal evolution, during the PS1 era I owned a N64, during the PS2 era it was the Dreamcast and the Gamecube, the latter which was quickly sold in favor of the Xbox. I learned to love the FPS genre during the late 90's on both the PC and N64, so with Rare gone, Halo quenched my thirst more than anything on the Cube. After that it was the 360. As for the Playstation family, I was always envious of its exclusives, but my dislike of the dual shock kept me away from dedicating any money towards that console until the PS4.

We've shown you love, Sony, now give some back to us Europeans.

The arrogance of Sony and some of its fan's has turned me off. I had a PS3 but switched and got an Xbox One.

Just shows Europeans have common sense really

I find it ironic Xbox fans call Sony arrogance, did you not see Mircosoft XboxOne announcement? #Dealwithit.

@teknium_ that's not true, the need for always online at the backend of 360 has rendered pirated software unusable. Also games dropped in price quickly, remember 4 for £20 in game anyone?

The Xbox 360 was the better console on price, performance, 3rd party games and the wow factor from gears, forza and kinect. That's why it sold well.

The xbox 1 is now more expensive, had worse performance, is out of touch with 3rd parties, and the wow factor from forza and kinect is gone replaced by monetization and laughably awful gimmicks. That's what's actually happened.

@themcnoisy from early in the 360 life cycle its was easily "chipped" and games were cheap...not at the end, but early on a chipped xbox with no online was why it was so popular...especially with working class families

@teknium_ wrong the xbox 360 has the highest game attachment rate compared to every console ever invented, standing at roughly 10.25 late last year.

Luckily in your area you had a bloke who could chip games and computers and was happy to do that. Thus you and your friends had chipped computers. This is far from everyone. I personally knew 1 fella who got a chipped xbox and he swopped it so he could play gears online.

They'll be one more PS4 on sale later this week as I trade mine in. Keeping the PS3 as it has games I actually play (not for a while, admittedly) but from day one the PS4 for me has been a colossal waste of time and this will be only the second console I've ever traded in, after the Wii.

They've laid out the groundwork, now they need to get a couple of heavy hitting games: Uncharted 4 is big, but they need some more to seal the deal. I expect a big price drop this Fall for the console. Well, there will be on the base PS4 500 GB. The new slimmer one will be 400.

@themcnoisy you clearly are referring to LATE in the 360 life cycle.. Im referring to the first few years when any game could be played online on a chipped system... And MANY MANY people did exactly that... Gears of war included

@eLarkos
Heard the same thing last gen, only it was the Wii that people were saying wouldn't continue to sell. It led the entire generation. If Sony plays its cards right, it can certainly hold on to the lead. It's already outselling the competition significantly without a price cut or its big hitting first party games, which are on the way (just like last gen, it's taking longer than it should, however, and I've been very critical of Sony for that). But the competition hasn't exactly taken advantage of Sony's mistakes. MS is fighting for control of the North American market, its strongest market and the one that was the reason Xbox 360 was ahead of PS3 in sales until the tail end of last gen. This time around, it's apparent it's going to be much closer, and that's a huge problem for MS because it seems pretty clear that Europe, and obviously Japan, still prefer PlayStation.

@Gamer83
The Wii is a poor comparison as it was non traditional gamers (e.g My mother) who were continuing to purchase it.
That's beside my point anyway.
Why do you think PlayStation got off to such a great start this gen? and what was so unique about it that you think that next gen their competition or new competitors cant do the same? I would argue that next-gen Sony themselves arn't going to be able to keep up as gaming increasingly becomes digital. However i'm keen to hear your opinion.

@eLarkos

Sony did with the PS4 what MS did in 2005 with the 360. Good hardware for a console, an affordable price and a great marketing campaign. It also doesn't hurt that it gets all the big third party games, and like it or not, those are the games that sell the most. I love great exclusives as much as the next guy but as Wii U has shown first party games alone won't carry a console and neither Xbox One or PS4 are knocking it out of the park in that category. X1 has Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2. PS4 has inFamous: Second Son and Bloodborne. The thing is the big games are coming. The competition... Wii U has been on the market for a lengthy time, has no third party support and people outside the hardcore Nintendo fanbase seem totally indifferent. MS is still fighting an uphill battle in its strongest market. I never count MS out because it has deep pockets but unless there's a massive change in Europe or Sony completely drops the ball in North America and MS takes advantage enough to double Sony up over here like it did last time, there's a good chance PS4 leads this gen. And again, it's doing well now with no price cut, and 'no games.' It's got Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V and Ratchet & Clank for next year and who knows, maybe Horizon or Persona 5 are 2016 as well. Then all the multiplats and Sony may drop the price as well. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so who knows what will happen. But MS and Nintendo aren't the only companies that have cards to play still.

As for next-gen, I'll worry about that when we get there. If it's mostly digital, I may not even bother because, imo, nobody benefits from that. But it does seem the long term plan, judging by stuff both companies have done, that Sony and MS want to turn PlayStation and Xbox into services more than continuing with traditional consoles. I hope that isn't the case but no sense worrying about that when the new consoles still have at least 3 or 4 more years to go.

@Gamer83 Yea, fair enough if your not interested looking too far forward to next gen quite just yet. Strategy is is where my interests lie and so far Sony aren't doing anything to convince me that they are in a position to hold. I see a future of gaming where there will be far more competition at the top level than just the current big 3 and simply having the strongest hardware at launch isn't going to be enough to be succesful. MS are in a good position, Nintendo are in a good position (to do their thing), Apple, Google, FB are in a good position.

The only strengths Sony currently have are industry relationships and a gaming userbase.... Both of which we know are incredibly fickle.

Street Fighter VI, Tomb Raider - Apple Game Exclusives... it isn't that far fetched. Especially in an era when an iTunes subscription is all that is needed.

@eLarkos
If Apple enters it's over for everybody.

@Gamer83 I'm sure at least MS and Google would disagree, but yea, they are the thoughts running through my mind.