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European Playstation 3 release probably underwhelming
Going bananas here... A long time after the release of the Playstation 3 in Japan en the Americas in November 2006, next week the console will be 'introduced' in the European territories. And what an introduction this is, Sony has made a whopping 50,000 ps3 units available for release in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg area). Please note that this is an almost 30.000.000 population. With the enormous amount of units being made available 0.0016 % of the population will be able to obtain one. This is one in 600 people! And the biggest portion (44,000) of those 50,000 units has already been reserved so being able to just buy one will be virtually impossible. Well let me tell you I won't be standing in line waiting to buy my PS3, nor will I be able to buy one anytime soon. It's basically Vapourware and will be for a long time to come.
It sorta reminds me of that slab out of 'a 2001 Space Odyssey', the whole scene with the primates attempting to touch it....The complete European area will be getting 1,000,000 consoles during the initial release. And to make things more interesting only the most expensive version will be on offer!
Due to shortages of various components and blue-ray drives it was impossible to simultaneously release the console world-wide. Research shows that the Playstation 3 is suffering because of the delays as the competition has released their consoles a lot sooner. Er... the Wii officially became available in Europe in December 2006 but I still haven't seen one in the shops, but Microsoft's X360 that was released world wide in 2005 and the latter sells very well, a lot better than the PS3 according to my data.
If only I could go out and buy a Wii.....the games have been in the stores for months, also peripherals can be bought. But the console itself..... Can you imagine those Kids that got a Wii game for Christmas and are still waiting for the console to play it on?
Source: Nu.nl (http://www.nu.nl/news/1009608/55/Playstation_3_schaars_bij_introductie.h...)
A little info:
Belgians are divided linguistically into Dutch speakers, called Flemings, and French speakers, called Walloons, with a nominally bilingual population in Brussels. Some 67,000 German speakers live in the east. Approximately 900,000 foreigners reside in Belgium as well. Population density is the second highest in Europe, after the Netherlands. Beglium has 10,276,000 approx residents (2002).
The Netherlands has over 16,067,754 (2002) approx. residents, most people speak Dutch, a few speak Friesian and there are areas where 20% of the population consists of immigrants speaking a variety of languages making it a true multicultural society. Luxembourg has a population a little over 448,569 (2002) approx., languages spoken here are Lutzeburgs, German, French.
- Mark Vergeer's blog
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Comments
I agree that a cautious
I agree that a cautious buyer MUST take a wait-and-see approach. If you don't plan on eventually owning all three like I aspire to, I think the majority of answers will be revealed on which platform will be worth getting by January 2008, when all three systems will have plenty of inventory in the pipeline and all will have a somewhat level playing field for big name releases. The 360 is a very safe bet right now (unless you're a Japanese gamer), simply because it's been out the longest and has the most extensive library and most robust online features, as well as being based around very practical and usable technology (standard wireless controllers, DVD-ROM, etc.). The Wii is just fine for those who want an alternate game system, but we need to see what the much-needed second wave of games offers, as the library is presently weighted to slightly watered-down ports from other systems with tacked on Wii features and party-style games. The PS3 is just fine if you really want a hi-def DVD player and to be able to play your PS2 back catalog, but it again needs a game infusion and a relatively high percentage of exclusives are finding their way onto the 360, which is roughly equivalent in regards to power.
Again, I believe all that will normalize after holiday 2007. I think by that time the Wii's lead over the PS3 will be negligible (maybe a million or two units, running) and there will be even more of a gap closed on the 360 (thanks in big part to its Japanese performance).
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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PS3 Slow but Steady?
I picked up two gaming mags on the flight back home (Game Informer and EGM), and there was plenty of speculation in there about the PS3. At least according to some articles in these mags, the PS1 and PS2 didn't exactly hit the ground running either, but took awhile to build up momentum. Most of the authors are speculating that it'll take another year before we can really tell if the PS3 will do the same.
If I were going to buy a console at this point, it'd definitely be an Xbox 360. I was extremely impressed with XLA and could easily see myself spending hours and hours on it. I think it'll take another year or so before we'll be able to tell if the Wii is just a gimmick or a true contender.
I haven't seen figures for
I haven't seen figures for other territories yet (other than Australia I think, where it also did well), but the PS3 has become the best selling launch console of all time in England (or is it the whole UK?), toppling the former number one, Wii. Xbox 360 is now third. Of course, despite selling a few hundred thousand units (or close to it), there is still apparently PS3 stock still available.
Those are actually very small figures in comparison to what happens in the US and Japan, but it's interesting that obviously worldwide videogames are growing in popularity, which is why it seems each new generation seems to spawn record sales...
Keep an eye on the PS3's sales figures. It has no chance of catching the Wii for at least six months (and may not for the whole year), but now that it's finally a worldwide system like the other two consoles, it can start to be more competitive than its been in total units sold.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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Ah, I would be able to buy one afterall....
The PS3 doesn't seem to be so popular, the unit hasn't sold out and it is possible to actually obtain one from a shop just by showing up and buying one. I won't though, something is holding me back. It cannot be my shiny Samsung 32" HDTV? So what exactly is the reason why the units haven't sold out? What is it that makes the PS3 launch so different from the Wii-launch?
The Wii is a completely different story, completely sold out in the Netherlands for months to come. But it is freely obtainable in Germany where units are sitting on shelves in rather great numbers. In the Netherlands there isn't a single unit in sight, and this will probably be the case for months to come. Strange marketing technique Nintendo has, with games and peripherals sitting on Dutch shelves and ads in countless magazines but not a console in sight. Perhaps I should go visit my inlaws, drive 30 mins to Germany and pick up a Wii over there. Or I might attempt something similar when I am Maastricht for a conference right after Easter weekend.
Damn that x360 sure looks cool on my shiny new Samsung 32".....
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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Amiga and c64 vasty different....
In my opinion the c64 and Amiga experience is vastly different when comparing PAL and NTSC releases running on both machies. Special US c64 releases that had to be totally recreated because of irrepearable timing issues of the original PAL releases exist, sometimes inferior rush jobs and sometimes better with some nice improvements.
My NTSC on PAL Amiga experience is limited. A lot of NTSC c64 stuff functioned properly on PAL C64's, but the other way around could pose timing and screen problems due to the slightly faster NTSC cpu and different screen refresh rates. Proper use of interrupts and timing made programs compatibe with both machines. Mostly cracks, productions from small software houses, PD / homebrew and scene demos were not always compatible with US machines. I believe most major software company releases were compatible with both c64 versions.
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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Pal vs. NTSC
Don't I know it, Mark. My dad had lots of overseas trading buddies, and we got lots of Amiga software from Germany, Switzerland, and Indonesia. A great bulk of it was in PAL, so while the game would play, the bottom part of the screen was cut off. Funny thing is, I didn't even realize that this was happening on a few games, so I played them all that time without knowing part of the screen was missing. When I finally saw these games displaying properly, I was stunned!
;)
LOL, so in the end we all get screwed somehow. Don't worry about me going berzerk, the fact that I live accross the big pond has its advantages. During the c64 era PAL releases were plenty and sometimes NTSC releases were vastly different and way more than just a different timing adjustment.
It is wierd reading this forum on my DS and replyingn it aswell. Slow but remarkably doable......
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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;)
It is wierd reading this forum on my DS and replyingn it aswell. Slow but remarkably doable......double responses and all, a little flakey though
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Mark Vergeer - Editor / Pixelator
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Xboxlive gametag
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I'm jealous too! How
I'm jealous too! How bizarre we don't get the loaded DVD's. I remember the good old days when Europe was all on cassettes and we were on disks. Now it seems like we're getting the old switcheroo in return with DVD's and CD's...
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
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I'm quite jealous
Dangit. Now I'm really getting jealous. Why the $#$@ haven't these things been released in the US? We Americans *never* get the cool stuff. We have to wait forever...
Lol, I better stop before Mark launches an empty bottle of Chimay at me.