14 DAY TRIAL // David Reeves, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, must have had a pleasant sleep last night to wake up and write such optimistic details about two different PS3 SKUs and how they're not launching in Europe no matter what, how good some of the PS3's titles are selling and so on. Since when is the PS3 doing good and why is Reeves so detached?
"In terms of software, we've sold in about two million pieces of first party software," says the man as I found posted on MCV UK. "And the big ones are Resistance: Fall of Man at about 600,000 units and Motorstorm at just over the 500,000 mark. We're obviously very happy that these two new IPs have done so well." Good thing they have two titles to show off with and not just one.
Here comes the part with the 20GB and 80GB PS3s, that won't hit Europe as retailers are quite "happy" with the 60GB model. Retailers are happy too huh? "I can confirm that it's highly unlikely that the 20Gb version will be launch in PAL territories," he says. "The majority of retailers are happy that we launched with just the one unit. It has made things simple for them."
Simple? Yeah sure, they don't have to worry about anything when it comes to the PS3, including its sales, as it sits quietly on shelves, gathering dust. Reeves continued, implying that the 80GB model is really not such a necessity for Europeans: "As for the 80Gb console, there are markets like Korea where there's very high broadband penetration and the people there are used to downloading content, so they require a certain size hard drive. But at the moment we don't see a requirement for launching this version in Europe. Certainly not in the foreseeable future."
See, the truth is, the 60GB PS3 isn't selling good at all, and with 20 extra gigs of storage space, Sony isn't exactly sweetening the pot, not to mention that it'll probably cost more. Not much more, but just the thought of spending even more on an over priced console will make your hairs rise.
Towards the end of his optimistic report... "In terms of registered PlayStation Network users, we're at around the 460,000 mark, which we're very happy about." Again, they're "happy." Why are they so happy? If Sony's happy then Nintendo's heads must be having heart attacks. "We have about about 100 pieces of content online in PAL territores. And we've achieved that in 10 weeks."
Good to know Mr Reeves. When will we see a price cut for the PS3? Leave aside the 80GB SKU, we blokes here in Europe don't really need it as you say...