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Why is Xbox One doing so badly in Europe?

G

Game4life

Banned
What is the reason the Xbox brand is doing badly in Europe compared to NA? Is it because the games content is simply unappealing? Is it because of the services ? Is it just the poor marketing? I know there are plenty of Gaffers from various parts of Europe here who would be better able to answer these questions because content wise I feel there is not too much of a difference currently between the next generation consoles. Also I should add this this isnt just about the Xbox One but even X360 did much worse there in the previous gen.

What is the mystery code MS needs to crack to find success in Europe?
 
M

Man

Member
Why should people go for the lesser option? It's really that straight forward.

The X360 did Well in Europe because it earned that success but the XB1 is a screw up.
 
D

Doctor_Thomas

Member
They need to actually care about the European market. Calling most of Europe Tier 2 doesn't help, making your console focused on the US with Europe being an afterthought doesn't help.

They don't care, never have and never will.
 
D

Datapack

Banned
I was gonna get a Xbone, but then MCC happend.
Lol, ain't touching anything Microsoft anymore if it ain't about the PC.
 
H

Hamster Plugin

Member
PS3 was already doing better than Xbox 360 so most of it is just PS3 owners moving on to PS4.

Also Microsoft's original Xbox One offering was very USA-centric. TV and movies, TV and TV.... all which will only be available in the US. That HDMI In port is quite useless for many people here in Finland.
 
G

Game4life

Banned
Man said:
Why should people go for the lesser option? It's really that straight forward.
Click to expand...

But I would argue that last gen X360 was not specifically a lesser option. It was a different console and different ecosystem but not the lesser option. Yet it was not able to crack that market. I am wondering if it is a marketing issue or is it an issue of services?

gai_shain said:
It's made for the US
Click to expand...

See this is what I dont get. Content wise nothing about Xbox one is inherently more American than Playstation. Both get all the shooters ( if that is what is considered more popular in the states) or atleast most of them. The fact that this myth is still carrying on implies that it is a marketing issue and not a content issue.
 
P

Pankratous

Member
Average European is a smarter consumer than average American. Edit: For clarification I'm not saying Americans are daft, just that they live in a much larger consumption society.

General consensus is that PS4 is the better machine.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
Sony had brand awareness. Always have except for UK & Ireland last gen. The Xbone launch was also very US centric that left a lot of us in the dark.
 
V

V_Arnold

Member
MS never did well in Europe, the 360 was the exception to the rule.
Even back in the days when PS3 were mostly a failure, many countries still eat it up at a higher rate than Xbox 360.

So, to be very clear on this:
PS2vsXbox era: PS2 was at its height of popularity, Xbox could not gain a large enough foothold, it did not offer superior gaming experience compared to PC's, while PS2's library WAS different.
PS3vs 360: the Red ring fiasco, on top of the high price, focus on FPS games again and lack of japanese lineup once more made it not that popular*, outside of UK.
Xbox One: now, its opponent is actually very competent from the start, and PS4 could not be more of a success story. Compared to that, it is unclear why Xbox One should be preferred.

Basically, it lacks the mindshare the 360 had in the US. And it has stronger competition than ever.

*It was still popular, just not as much as I predict the PS4 will be in mainland Europe, in a few years.
 
K

kinoki

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
It was designed for the American market. They forgot about half of Europe from the get go. They launched a lesser alternative to a popular brand. Since launch they've more or less forgot that Europeans exist.
 
F

Frankfurter

Member
From the continental European perspective the questions seems to be: Why is Xbox One doing so well in the US and the UK? Because it seems to have pretty much nothing going for it against PC, PS4 and Wii U.
I just feel like, speaking for Germany, Microsofts offerings are incredibly unappealing. No free online, not many exclusives if you discount the games that eventually make it to the PC, too expensive, not exactly a nice looking device. Pros? Xbox Live I guess.
 
W

Webby317

Neo Member
Xbox One is doing well in the UK. As for the rest of Europe the PS brand has always stuck and been most popular since the PS1.

In my opinion both the Xbox One and PS4 are great systems but I have always found the Xbox to be more of an online multiplayer machine with a great community. The PS is my lonely single player gaming machine!
 
Z

Zalman

Member
Europe, for the most part, just doesn't care about Xbox. Also, to be fair, Microsoft treats a lot of these countries like crap.
 
7

7threst

Member
To be considered a tier 2-market where your console releases way late compared to the PS4 doesn't really help.
 
K

Komo

Banned
Pankratous said:
Average European is a smarter consumer than average American. Edit: For clarification I'm not saying Americans are daft, just that they live in a much larger consumption society.

General consensus is that PS4 is the better machine.
Click to expand...

I mean, exclusives are a thing
 
S

Shahed

Member
Perception of it being a very US centric product doesn't really help. Playstation. Also localisation issues. Not sure if it's still the case, but I know there were cases of countries not having access to Live, and heck in one case I think it was in the wrong language and you couldn't fix it
 
G

Gravemind IV

Member
Lack of marketing I would say. A lot of exclusive deals completely pass Europe. I remember the unveiling of the Xbox One, with me only thinking that 90% of the features outside of actual games wouldn't work here (TV integration and whatnot). Then they delayed it here (Netherlands) for a year or so in order to input dutch voice commands (nobody cared for it) only for them to be (I believe) still absent.

Personally? Outside of being my next-gen only console, the decision was purely based on Halo being exclusive to it.
 
F

Fliesen

Member
The entire HDMI-IN thing, you know the one that takes the signal from your cable box and pimps some fancy interfaces on top - most Europeans can't even make use of that, because many of us don't have (or need!) external cable boxes, as broadcasters across Europe adhere to the DVB-C standard, which means our TV's built in tuner handles the channels. - we don't need to daisy chain 2 boxes into our TVs and switch to HDMI input and use a separate remote to pick a channel.

So there's one big "appeal" of the Xbone which is already irrelevant to most of us.
 
Huggers

Huggers

Member
The playstation brand is so much stronger here. Coupled with the mess Microsoft made of launching the new Xbox and the focus on US tv services etc it is hardly surprising. Have to say though the German software numbers for last year shocked me. Totally Sony dominant. Even more so than I would have thought
 
J

Jonnax

Member
gxGv8Qa.jpg


Also PS4 is cheaper and has more games.
 
R

Rad-

Member
Lack of marketing and the price point. XO cost 529€ here when it launched wtf.

Also Playstation brand has always been bigger here. You say "Playstation" to elders here and they can connect that to video games. Say "Xbox" and most people don't have any idea what it means.
 
L

le.phat

Member
Europe doesn't seem to be hyper focussed on guns and fps games so some of xbox's biggest games have little appeal here. Also i don't know what services are offered in the US, but i believe that the xbox one is pretty much just that, since outside of Netflix, none of the extra services are supported in my country at least. Then again, i don't know anyone with an xbox one.
 
N

Nokterian

Member
Tier 2 country's what was tier 1 country like the netherlands..i mean the irony out of this the distribution center for microsoft is located in the netherlands but our country had to wait a whole year that's pretty hilarious if you ask me.

But i do know a lot of people bought it anyway from germany or other country's in EU. But Microsoft is a american company and shows stuff for america because well a lot of stuff we see on E3 never comes here anyway.

I do know sony is more popular here as it been for a longtime saw a article a few weeks back that PS4 is the most sold console here in the netherlands no surprise there.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
1. Marketing pre-launch almost solely tailored towards US consumers
2. Announcing half of Europe as Tier 2 was PR commiting suicide
3. 500 Euro vs 399 Euro at launch, easy decision.
 
G

Game4life

Banned
three_muffins said:
I (sadly) have to agree with this. It was marketed as a multimedia console but a lot of services were / are not useable in Europe.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Does it have lesser services for various countries in Europe compared to Sony? Any specific countries that you would know where this is the case?
 
U

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
No piracy yet isn't helping. I suspect that helped the 360 out (and price).
 
M

maximrace

Member
Because they don't try here ( Belgium), they don't have a good budget and don't market the console. That way Playstation gets all the mindshare and when you want a console to play with your friends you buy a Playstation. As long as they don't turn around the mindshare Xbox won't sell here
 
D

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Fliesen said:
The entire HDMI-IN thing, you know the one that takes the signal from your cable box and pimps some fancy interfaces on top - most Europeans can't even make use of that, because many of us don't have (or need!) external cable boxes, as broadcasters across Europe adhere to the DVB-C standard, which means our TV's built in tuner handles the channels.

So there's one big "appeal" of the Xbone which is already irrelevant to most of us.
Click to expand...

Even then, even with a viewing box, there were issues I recall with judder because of 50Hz broadcasting, against the XB1's 60Hz output.
 
F

Fisico

Member
V_Arnold said:
PS2vsXbox era: PS2 was at its height of popularity, Xbox could not gain a large enough foothold, it did not offer superior gaming experience compared to PC's, while PS2's library WAS different.
Click to expand...


To be fair, in countries like France the Xbox only sold half what the GC did too.
The brand just never really took off.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
First impressions are everything and MS left a very bad one with the X1.

Not only that, the Xbox brand hasn't really been that successful in mainland Europe. It only really found some success thanks to Sony's blunders with the PS3 and even then, it couldn't fully capitalise to become the best selling console in the mainland, even though it had the better price, the better games, better online infrastructure.

There's simply not an appetite for the Xbox brand in mainland Europe. Is it because it's US focused? Who can say, but it's not like the PS4 and U don't also have features that are only available in the US or UK and not available in mainland Europe.

Maybe there's a lack of trust in products from MS? I could understand frustration from using Windows for decades and then being faced with the option of buying a console from the same company wouldn't sit well with a lot of people...
 
M

mooksoup

Member
That pre E3 reveal really killed them.

If they focused so much on US TV / Livingroom media centre features, it turned of US gamers, imagine what its like viewing from somewhere all those features are useless.
 
B

bigjig

Member
I don't think Americans realize just how extremely American the Xbox comes across to non-Americans. The PS4 doesn't scream Japan to me. The Xbox you may as well wrap it up in an American flag and serve it with a cheeseburger
 
K

Kayant

Member
Game4life said:
What is the reason the Xbox brand is doing badly in Europe compared to NA? Is it because the games content is simply unappealing? Is it because of the services ? Is it just the poor marketing? I know there are plenty of Gaffers from various parts of Europe here who would be better able to answer these questions because content wise I feel there is not too much of a difference currently between the next generation consoles. Also I should add this this isnt just about the Xbox One but even X360 did much worse there in the previous gen.

What is the mystery code MS needs to crack to find success in Europe?
Click to expand...

Probably a combination of those factors. They didn't put as much focus or care towards EU in the beginning outside free Fifa 14 at lunch, delayed consoles for many countries because of "localization" come lunch the content wasn't there, don't advertise XB1's launch in many of these countries when it launched + the fact lots of people were already importing from other countries. Maybe traditional with Sony consoles? But that needs some research.

Also the reveal was made completely for the US.
 
J

Jonty

Member
I'm hoping that some non-UK locals with insight will back this up, but my understanding from working with Xbox 360 was that Xbox never, ever really took off in mainland Europe. It's always been a Sony heartland, even in the darkest days of the PS3. Not sure why, but I think it was just that the Sony/Playstation brand was more credible and Microsoft never really got any traction. Possibly due to a general European suspicion of big American corporations.

The fact that the 360 was so popular in the UK (which is the biggest EU console games market - I think Germany's bigger but very PC-based) concealed this last gen, but now that Xbox One has stumbled the disparity is more obvious.
 
1

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
Europe was always pretty Sony focussed, to change that Microsoft needed to come up with a better product than Sony and they didn't.
 
A

Android18a

Member
I'm in the UK, I've got an Xbone but no PS4 yet.

Xbone won me over for Forza Horizon 2. PS4 is tempting me with the RPGs though.

Most people I speak to here seem to think I'm an idiot for buying the Xbox over Playstation this time. I'm not sure yet, neither console seems to have much of a library worth shouting about yet. Give it time.
 
Majmun

Majmun

Member
Is the "Ps4 is cheaper" statement even true anymore?

The Xbox One is cheaper here where I live. Holland

Hell, it's even cheaper in NA.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
The launch was a mess. The Xbox has been in stores in a lot of countries only since September of last year. Set top boxes are seen as ancient, I plug the card into my TV directly. Lots of services are not available.

And don't forget the Ps3, a fuckup as it was, ran circles around the 360 already. Microsoft never had a chance but with 360 they did eat some share from Sony by having a headstart. Instead of going for this scenario again they threw all of this away by fucking up with the X1. They're pretty much back at OG Xbox levels, perhaps even worse.
 
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