Does Sony Need To Rethink Their Launch Strategy?

[Chronic]

Ok, Sony have always held the USA ahead of Europe when it comes to their console launches. This is evident with every console release, But even with the 4 month head start the PS3 had in the USA (and Canada) sales between the NA region and the European regions are neck and neck. The PS3 sold extremely well here in Aus and in the UK as well as many other regions. In many cases it was breaking records for total sales (money wise) and in the UK it even outsold the Wii despite it's high price (admittadly it was probably due to Wii shortages). While in America it staggered out of the gate and is barely finding it's feet. Now the differences in Economies show that the Average wages in European and Australaisian (minus the asian pacific) countries is much higher then the US. So even with the US being a strong market, Initial sales might suffer due to the initial high pricing of the console.

So my question is, Should Sony hold North America above Europe when it comes to future console launches?

[HWMbrogden]

I would like to think so with the 360 being such a huge deal in NA. Out of the US the 360 is pretty much unknown and in Japan NO ONE buys the thing. The markets are completely different based on region and SONY knows that, i guess its just tough keeping up with the entire world.

[Carl]

I would like to think so with the 360 being such a huge deal in NA. Out of the US the 360 is pretty much unknown

If that's what you think, you need to venture out of America. I know almost 20 people who own 360's, and 2 that own PS3's. Ask someone what console they have, and ill bet you they will say a xbox 360.

We earn a lot more than the American folks, and our economy is better, so we are more likley to buy the PS3; so yeah i agree with you OP, they should focus more on EU launches in the future. Rather than just letting them dwindle out,

[kudoshinchi]

If that's what you think, you need to venture out of America. I know almost 20 people who own 360's, and 2 that own PS3's. Ask someone what console they have, and ill bet you they will say a xbox 360.

We earn a lot more than the American folks, and our economy is better, so we are more likley to buy the PS3; so yeah i agree with you OP, they should focus more on EU launches in the future. Rather than just letting them dwindle out,

Ya because Europe doesn't make up only from England. If you counts most other countires they all get PS3 more then 360. Maybe its you need to travle out the US.

[Carl]

Maybe its you need to travel out the US.

I'm not in the US o_O Nor have I ever been. Nor do I want to ever be,

[greepoman]

Well the population of Europe is quite a bit larger than the US so it's no surprise ps3 can sell well.

The major problem I see is that Europe isn't 1 country...it's a whole lot of them. That means you have to go through so many languages, so many red tapes, so many tax systems, so many different adverstisements, etc. etc. each time you put something out.

It's much easier to just design and market for the US and make sure your product isn't a complete failure before going through all those hoops.

And even though what you say about average wage might be true, Americans still have a lot more money to spend because credit card companies allow people to get into ridiculous amounts of debt.

[Chronic]

The major problem I see is that Europe isn't 1 country...it's a whole lot of them. That means you have to go through so many languages, so many red tapes, so many tax systems, so many different adverstisements, etc. etc. each time you put something out. It's much easier to just design and market for the US and make sure your product isn't a complete failure before going through all those hoops.And even though what you say about average wage might be true, Americans still have a lot more money to spend because credit card companies allow people to get into ridiculous amounts of debt.

What do you think the credit card is a US invention that has never made it outside of your country? The fact is Europeans on average have more money to spend then in the US, So these people will spend that money. In regards to the advertising, foreign languages ect, Thats a weak point as Sony will have this outset before launch and is going to happen regardless of when it launches.

[Jack Raven]

I wouldn't say it is that mch of a launch problem - well, waiting sucks for us - but rather a problem of marketing. Until about a week ago, I saw like three ads on TV, those old This Is Living ones. Now they have that other one with some freaky man and a dog. Seriously, if I wouldn't know about gaming or the abilitys of the PS3 for that matter and then saw that crap... you can bet that I wouldn't ever touch that. I saw two commercials for R&C. Two. And I watch TV rather a lot, or at least in runs while I work. I think although it is important to show the capabilities of the console, they should put much more effort into ads for games. And not like at 23:00 when most people don't see it. Put them when all the kids come home from school and watch TV so they see it. If people don't know that there is a product, how do you think they will buy it?
It's cool to talk about all the things the PS3 can do in an ad. I know what they talk about. But I am not the rest of Germany. If you go to someone here and ask them what Blu-Ray is, they would probably tell you it has to do with fashion or some sort of sun ray. What I mean is, "nobody" ( I mean common people who are not as up to date as we are ) knows or even gives a **** about a CELL CPU, a Blu-ray drive or your ubercool XDR memory. Sony needs to show them what it does and why they need it in their living rooms.
Show more in-game footage of the goog looking games, compare the quality of a movie in SD to a movie in Full HD, for christs sake, tell them how many MP3s they can have on the HDD. But tell them something in a way they understand. The Wii does it right in my opinion ( no hate please, I love my PS3, and I have a Wii ). They show people playing in their ads. Happy people. People having fun, which is why about 99% of buyers buy a game for. ****, even Microsoft does something right in their ads. They show you stuff that drops the jaws of most who are not familiar to it. But again, what does Sony do? Some guy with lipstick and a creepy voice telling me that Blu-ray looks good - and while that happens, I see some pictures I can't make out flying around for no sense.
Sorry for going that off topic, but ****, I had to say that.

[Pompeii_Magnus]

And even though what you say about average wage might be true, Americans still have a lot more money to spend because credit card companies allow people to get into ridiculous amounts of debt.

American's can't compete with the Irish when it comes to consumer debt. We're the most heavily indebted county in the OECD ()! Maybe that's how we can afford all those shiny new PS3's

[Doc Evils]

I think the new ad company they are using will help alot. The old one created such ****ty ads, it really messed up the message they were trying to send out. I mean NONE of the were game related and had soem bizaree twist in it that sometines didn't even mention the playstation name!

[Chronic]

Not that advertising is what i'm talking about but Sony acheived what they wanted with those ads. Word of mouth, These adverts are the ones that get people talking. They say "WTF did you see that stupid Sony add ect", people remember them because they are weird, My mum saw an ad for the PS3 and she mentioned it to me, Yet shes never mentioned any 360 or Wii adds to me and they get more play time here. These adds are the ones that get people asking question and is a very old advertising technique employed by many many companies.

[greepoman]

What do you think the credit card is a US invention that has never made it outside of your country? The fact is Europeans on average have more money to spend then in the US, So these people will spend that money. In regards to the advertising, foreign languages ect, Thats a weak point as Sony will have this outset before launch and is going to happen regardless of when it launches.

Do you have a source for your wage info? Cause I really doubt it especially if you count the poorer countries in Europe. And if you're excluding those then if you should exclude the poorer areas in the US. The fact is the US VG game market is bigger or at least as big as Europe even though the population is much less.

As for releasing stuff in Europe I was talking about game companies as well as Sony's hardware. Certainly you can see why game companies (esp smaller 3rd party ones) would have trouble releasing in Europe. Then you could say why release the game console in Europe earlier if the game companies can't keep up?

Also I think the deal with the ps3's launch was they couldn't get enough blu-ray diodes for a worldwide launch (which is what they said they were going to do).

And are you really trying to tell me to shipping to multiple countries isn't a lot more difficult than just one? Getting a product approved in 10+ countries as opposed to 1? If it were that easy don't you think there wouldn't be such a delay on all products? Or Sony just likes to sit around doing nothing for months?

[Chronic]

I'm just saying they have to release in these countries regardless, So wether it's done first or four months later is irellevent. Sony will have departments dedicated to sort these issues out long before the launch is due. Also talking on the game factor, All games are programmed with all regions in mind, So no there would be no extra developement time needed. Just think about what you said "the PS3 was supposed to be a worldwide launch but due to the blue diode it was delayed". That is true but if what you said about the issues with multiple country releases and the games having different languages was true, Then a worldwide launch shouldn't have even been a possibility due to your fore-mentioned problem. But the fact is they aren't issues, Sure it's harder then releasing in one region. But it's no reason not to launch in that region at first especially if that market means more sales and at the moment it does mean more sales.

[tuaamin13]

Do you have a source for your wage info? Cause I really doubt it especially if you count the poorer countries in Europe. And if you're excluding those then if you should exclude the poorer areas in the US. The fact is the US VG game market is bigger or at least as big as Europe even though the population is much less.

As for releasing stuff in Europe I was talking about game companies as well as Sony's hardware. Certainly you can see why game companies (esp smaller 3rd party ones) would have trouble releasing in Europe. Then you could say why release the game console in Europe earlier if the game companies can't keep up?

Also I think the deal with the ps3's launch was they couldn't get enough blu-ray diodes for a worldwide launch (which is what they said they were going to do).

And are you really trying to tell me to shipping to multiple countries isn't a lot more difficult than just one? Getting a product approved in 10+ countries as opposed to 1? If it were that easy don't you think there wouldn't be such a delay on all products? Or Sony just likes to sit around doing nothing for months?

I think he means Western Europe has more money. The Euro is trading at like 1EU to $1.70 USD. GBP is even higher than that.

Anyhow, shipping to multiple countries isn't much harder than 1. Sony has done it before with the PS1 and PS2, and I'm sure they employ a whole army of lawyers to get through any red tape.

EDIT: Anyhow, SCEA fired their ad agency and hired a company called Deutsch. Hopefully they make better ads. SCEE still uses the same company SCEA used to.

[Strudel]

I think that all games, console etc should launch on the same day all around the world, it sucks being "punished" for living in the UK, I hate seeing things come out in the US and hearing from all my cousins over there saying they've already completed the game thats still got a few weeks before it even hits the shelves in the UK.

Also yes, we in the UK earn more than you in the US, however our games are more expensive too.
My wage (I work in tescos, its like a walmart) is £6.20 which is about $12.40 an hour.
However the PS3 costs £280 (40GB) which is about $560, and the 60GB just isn't for sale anymore, no 80Gb model as of yet!
Games cost £40, about $80.

So you see, In the UK we may be paid more, but we have to pay more too.

[Dorfdad]

Simply No the system has already launched so this thread is not correctly named, should they shift focus?

hardly they need to advertise more and plug more in the USA. They already have Europeans buying there consoles left and right while in the US XBOX's home tuff they are struggling.

[UCONN for life]

They need to advertise in the US even more now, because everyone here is smitten with the Wii and 360. American media has praised the 360 and Wii much more than European media, whilst slamming the PS3 more. Thats why the PS3 has had a harder time here. PS, overall, the US has more money to spend than any other country, but there are a lot of cheapskate, stupid consumers who like to buy crap from Wal-Mart and think that the PS3 sucks soley on price, not looking at specs or anything. They see one game, and make rash decisions.

[Redrider]

Ok, Sony have always held the USA ahead of Europe when it comes to their console launches. This is evident with every console release, But even with the 4 month head start the PS3 had in the USA (and Canada) sales between the NA region and the European regions are neck and neck. The PS3 sold extremely well here in Aus and in the UK as well as many other regions. In many cases it was breaking records for total sales (money wise) and in the UK it even outsold the Wii despite it's high price (admittadly it was probably due to Wii shortages). While in America it staggered out of the gate and is barely finding it's feet. Now the differences in Economies show that the Average wages in European and Australaisian (minus the asian pacific) countries is much higher then the US. So even with the US being a strong market, Initial sales might suffer due to the initial high pricing of the console.

So my question is, Should Sony hold North America above Europe when it comes to future console launches?

Ok if we are talking about the PS3 launch we need to compare Apples to Apples when discussing the N/A launch and the PAL region launches. First off the N/A saw less that 200K consoles with a bunch of so-so ports and R:FOM while there were no console supply constraints and more games.

Now when it comes to future launches (PS4) IMO Sony should do a real global launch or launch the PAL and N/A sales regions together after the Japan launch (if they still want thier Japanese fan base to be first). There were plenty "lessons" Sony should have learned about what not to do for a launch this time around and they need to apply the to future Playstation launches going forward.

[Vampirtc]

I'll admit that PS3 has a more healthy market share:
23% from Japan
41% from US
36% from EU and other

while Xbox 360:
3,6% from Japan
65% from US
32% from EU and others

but its clearly not true that Xbox 360 isn't selling only in US. I also live in one of those EU countries where X360 is more popular.

[PXG S3]

Launch strategy? Where else is the PS3 launching? I know, I am a smart ass.

[Saigon]

i am surprise this is not locked yet...but either way i don't think they should...as long as they tailor to japan as they should...remember japan determines the console winner...

[Trowa]

Sony needs the American Market, look at the numbers from the last generation (PS3, Xbox, and Game Cube)

- In America there have been 45.7m PS2s, 15.9m Xboxes and 12.7 million Game Cubes sold for a total of 74.3m game consoles sold last-gen.

- In Japan there have been 22.2m PS2s, .5m Xboxes, and 4.0m Game Cubes sold for a total of 27m game consoles sold last-gen..

- In Europe there have been 38.8 PS2s, 6.2m Xboxes, and 4.4m Game Cubes sold for a total of 49.4m game consoles sold last-gen.

- Australia and the rest of the world had 6.4m PS2s, 1.5m Xboxes, and .3m Game Cubes sold for a total of 8.2m game consoles sold last gen.

So America makes up 46.76% of the gaming market with Europe in Second with 31.09%, Japan in third with 16.99%, and the rest of the world only making up 5.16%. Say what you want about how the European economy doing better then the American economy, the truth is America is a better market for video games, so much so it pretty much takes the rest of the word to equal it. This generation has been a little different and Europe has closed the gap on the US especially when looking at just the PS3, but as a whole (Gaming Market) America is still the number one goal for Sony.

[Mana Knight]

From what I heard, the main reason for the Euro delay of the PS3 console was limited supply already. Sony felt the 360 wasn't a big threat to them throughout Europe, while it was a threat in NA, so SCEE allowed SCEA to have their consoles initially. It seems to make some sense. However lately, Europe has been getting stuff before NA (like the slim PSP and new 40GB PS3).