For generations now, the PlayStation brand has enjoyed greater success in Europe relative to its stance on North America – a dominance that stems from the PS2 era. It’s a trend that has evidently continued with PlayStation 4, after SCEE President Jim Ryan revealed in an interview with VG247 that the current-gen hardware holds “70-90%” of the market share in continental Europe.
According to Ryan, the PS4 enjoys market leadership all across the continent, but it is the mainland where the console enjoys the greater margin over its closest competitor.
“We have a very significant market leadership. Well, we have market leadership in every country in Europe, and have very significant market leadership in continental Europe. Extremely significant. I don’t think market-share’s any less than 70%, and frequently greater than 90% in continental Europe.”
So, with such a strong market lead and the recent launch of the improved 1TB PlayStation 4, will we soon catch wind of a price cut for the original, base model? Unlikely, according to Ryan.
“Particularly in Europe… our momentum is still very considerable,” Ryan said. “We’re happy with the price and we’re happy with the value proposition.”
While there are many factors that filter into the hardware’s success across the four corners of Europe, the fact that the Xbox One was released incrementally across the continent two years ago may have ultimately hamstrung Microsoft’s system. Couple this with the early emphasis on Kinect – which was allegedly responsible for the hold up thanks to the complex issue of mass translation – and it’s hardly surprising that the PlayStation 4 has continued the trend of Sony’s dominance in the territory.
Whether Xbox One will ever reach parity with PlayStation 4 in Europe – and indeed worldwide – in terms of sale remains to be seen, but it’ll be interesting to see how the fate of each console pans out across their respective lifecycles.