Having launched a year after the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 obviously has some ground to make up. Microsoft already had a solid install base, and with the hefty price of the PlayStation 3 it is understandable that it’s taken Sony’s machine some time to catch up. While still falling behind the 360 in the United States, the climate could be very different in the European countries according to SCEE President and CEO David Reeves.
"We don’t often mention the competition, but I will give you some interesting data: In terms of installed base in some of our major markets, such as France, Spain, Germany and Italy – plus some distributor territories in smaller markets like Switzerland – our current cumulative installed base is now higher than Xbox 360.
"It has not yet reached that in the UK. But the team here expect to overtake the installed base of Xbox 360 across all PAL territories in late summer. It’s also worth mentioning that last week we outsold Xbox 360 in PAL territories by a ratio of three to one."
The European countries have always been a Sony favored area so the PlayStation 3 doing so well is not surprising. Overall, this is good news for Sony, especially since this year is looking great in terms of games. Let’s hope the success Sony is claiming to have begins to trickle over here since the PlayStation 3 continues to look better and better, especially as Blu-Ray wins the format war, and the possibility of a system failing is considerably less with Sony’s black box.
[Via MCV]
