Sony talks PS4 vs Xbox: "Europe is fortress PlayStation"

The PS4 has sold three times the amount of the Xbox One in Europe, according to Sony exec Jim Ryan.

"It’s been pleasing that in North America, we’ve been 2-to-1 against Xbox," he told Time. "But in Europe, it’s really been fortress PlayStation by at least 3-to-1 in unit sales.

"And once you get up in the heady heights of 100m units, you’re talking of a different audience altogether, where having this range of stuff like Detroit: Become Human and FIFA and Call of Duty and Star Wars, it makes the job a whole lot easier."

Ryan also took the opportunity to talk down one of the Xbox One’s key selling points – backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 software.

"When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much," he added. "I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?"

The sentiments echo similar comments made by Ryan to MCV in 2015.

It is an entirely legitimate approach, and if you are seeking to upgrade 360 owners to Xbox One, it is a very logical approach to take,” he said of Microsoft’s then new Backwards Compatibility program.

We have experience of backwards compatibility. The earliest PS3 model was backwards compatible with PS2, and it is a much requested feature… but actually it’s not so greatly used.”

We are trying to commit our resources and put our emphasis on delivering on the promises we made right at the start of this whole PS4 thing, to be the forward-looking, socially-connected console. We are placing our bets on things like SharePlay, on things like Play as you Download, and things like Suspend/Resume. Unfortunately there are just not sufficient enough software engineers in the world for everyone to do everything. Each platform holder has to make their choices, we made one and they made another.”

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