Europe has traditionally always been a very strong territory for Sony and PlayStation, ever since the original PlayStation. Even the weaker PlayStation products, such as the PS3 in its early years, or the PS Vita, manage to do reasonably well for themselves there. Even at its best, Xbox has been unable to make many inroads in Europe against PlayStation, with the exception of in the U.K.
And it looks like Sony executives are acutely aware of that fact, too. Speaking to Time, PlayStation America boss Shawn Layden said, “All of the rumors of the demise of the console are very much premature. In fact if you’re watching [sales tracker] NPD for PS4 and Xbox One sales, you put those together and console gaming has never been as big and vibrant as it is right now. And that’s just here in the States.”
Sony Europe’s Jim Ryan added, “It’s been pleasing that in North America, we’ve been 2-to-1 against Xbox,” says Ryan. “But in Europe, it’s really been fortress PlayStation by at least 3-to-1 in unit sales.”
This seems about right- Sony inherited Sega’s strength in Europe and has ruled the roost in the region ever since. Xbox has always been weak in the territory- even Nintendo usually ends up doing stronger.