Promises, Promises / The Importance of Europe

I am angry. Very angry. I feel a little betrayed and disappointed but at the same time I expected this horrid feeling of discontent. I knew it was coming, per se, and just couldn't bring myself to face the music, and even now I certainly can't quite bring myself to dance.

I am British. American users (well, American girls at least) will first off think about my "awesome" accent and differing culture. Despite being quite an Americanised, all-English speaking country, we are of course still a part of the multilingual EU.

As you all undoubtedly know, Sony has just shattered under the pressure of the frankly insane launch schedule they forced upon themselves and finally announced that Europeans will have a four month wait before they can play their much anticipated Playstation 3 console.

Personally, I wasn't going to purchase the console, and for me this was just the latest in a long line of business mistakes by Sony. However, this announcement has indeed angered me and opened up some old wounds of things that are certainly wrong with this industry.

Time and time again, videogames are delayed, pushed back, releases cancelled and shifted and moved. I usually don't mind. Generally, the most delayed games are some of the best in history. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was pushed back well over a year, and the title turned out to be fantastic. But a time must come where enough is enough. Of course, as with all major problems there's a very simple solution to the problem: The Industry must stop promising what it cannot deliver.

I have no doubt in my mind that Sony analysts knew that it was too soon for BluRay devices to be manufactured quickly and cheaply, and higher ups decided to run with the "international launch" for the PS3 regardless, and it has now resulted in this: Massive disappointment for fans, disappointment for developers, and what is essentially a PR disaster. Anti-PS3 enthusiasts have already launched This is Waiting, a play on words on the European slogan for PS3, "This is Living." Filled with amusing pictures depicting the PS3 and the likes of Ken Kutagari in funny situations, the site serves to spread dissent amongst Playstation fans and is essentially another nasty blow to Sony and their PS3 console.

While it may be good to promise things, when you don't deliver it's bound to come back to haunt you and Sony has learnt that lesson the hard way. The mentioned-earlier gaming blog UK Resistance began a "PS3 Lie Watch" campaign, comparing their promises at E3 2005 and the actuality at E3 2006 with a simple image that speaks volumes.

Not to target Sony, of course: The lies and broken promises are rife throughout the industry, with EA's first shots of the next generation Madden football title from E3 2005 blowing everybody away, only to be found later to be what Gabe and Tycho of Penny-Arcade would call 'bullshot' -- and, if you don't read the comic, it doesn't take much imagination to work out just what it means.

Bullshot is fairly commonplace, with games left right and center using pre-rendered shots to fool people into purchase. This is where Nintendo's approach with the Wii is admirable, with their lack of focus on graphics a risky tactic that is apparently at the moment working. There's a very simple way to avoid these PR disasters and fan upsets, and Nintendo has found it -- stop promising. Nintendo has kept quiet about the Wii, not revealing or promising anything until it is final and set in stone. By doing this, they've never failed to disappoint -- only impress.

But the focus of this article is indeed Europe and Sony's sudden decision to drop Europe from its worldwide PS3 launch. For too long now, Europe has been shafted as the "Third largest" videogame market in the world. I'm about to prove that wrong.

These sales figures, taken from Sony's Business Page Prove my point completely. Europe is the Green, and Japan is the Orange. As you can see, European sales of the PS2 best the Japanese figures by another half, and in the case of the PS1, the European sales almost double the Japanese, and actually challenge the US, falling around half a million short of besting the largest game market in the world. I would dig these figures out for the PSP too, but I don't believe there's a need. I think this explicitly proves that Europe is a bigger market than Japan.

So why do we always get second dibs? Why are we always the first to get the chop from schedules? On a note within journalism, why are many European PR companies plagued with only receiving small allocations of title review code, while some of their US counterparts receive more than enough to go around? At this time, I can't help but feel a little bitter to the industry. For while I was not going to by a PS3 at launch, I feel let down by Sony and the industry as a whole, both as a British Journalist and a British Gamer.

The games industry is growing up. This is a stage in it's growth where it can be influenced and changed, moulded for the future, and one thing that cannot go on in the future is this. While I understand that there is some localisation to be done for Europe, and I also understand more than well enough that sometimes simultaneous launches are just not possible, but Europe seems to still feel neglected, while the rest of the industry is maturing at a rapid rate -- and I'd really hate to be an Australian, with the wait they have for most titles.

Must I really wait a few months for Starfox DS when there is a region-free, English Language version available across the pond? The answer to me is no -- I imported. Did I really have to wait an extra month for Dead Rising? Unfortunately I did, while the excellent Saints Row managed to launch nearly simultaneously.

In a few short days Nintendo are set to announce their launch plans for the Wii -- or that's what we're all praying they announce. If it turns out as everyone expects, with an international or near-international launch, it could prove to be a huge blow to Sony in Europe. Gamers are getting more fickle as the things that tied them to a single console -- exclusive titles and services, disappear, with every console having an online service, and many huge titles going multiplatform.

This Christmas in Europe, Sony will take damage. Not because they're the last next-gen console to launch, as the Xbox managed to survive just fine last generation. Not because of the console's high price tag. Not even because they missed the Christmas period. But because they made a promise to their consumers and they failed to keep it. That will damage them, their profits, and the consumer's trust in the Playstation brand name more than any of the other bad press about the PS3. This was huge news, and unlike the farce that was their E3 conference, casual gamers have heard about it -- the delay was even reported two days running on the national news here in Britain.

I'm not of the opinion that thinks the PS3 will be the end of Sony. The PS3 will sell, and it'll sell well. But Sony has certainly not made their job of securing some nice tidy profits this generation any easier.

Europe can no longer be shafted and ignored like it is a small time market. It needs to be given the attention, and moreover, the respect it deserves. No company will ever dominate the videogames market without impressing the Europeans.