The Xbox 360 is currently leading over the PS3 by around one million lifetime sales across five major European territories – the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, according to data from Eurogamer that shows like-for-like sales of console hardware across October and November. The figures also show lifetime installed base figures, which indicate the one million lead. It’s not looking good for Sony.
The 360’s early launch gave it a lead to begin with, and a steady decrease in cost hasn’t hurt either. Europe isn’t the only one with a preference for the Xbox 360: in October, Xbox 360 sales beat out PS3 in Japan for the first time. As for sales in the U.S., Microsoft had strong Black Friday sales, where the 360 outsold the PS3 by a three-to-one ratio, if we’re to believe what we’re told. Hopefully we’ll see something to boost PS3 sales, like a digital video provider or a new feature for the PlayStation Network worth raving about (not Home). Although of course neither the PS3 or 360 can touch the Wii right now.
I still say that the 360 is selling more because of its failure rate, rather than new users. Not to say that it isn’t a good gaming platform. But when I have the option to get a game on either PS3 or 360, I get the PS3 version so I can be assured I’ll be able to play it a month from now.