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There’s no doubt that Sony dominated the headlines at Leipzig – it was, to be honest, the only platform holder to truly embrace the new-found importance of Leipzig in the wake of E3’s dramatic streamlining.
Taking centre stage was David Reeves, who, despite a couple of autocue issues, put in a confident and ballsy performance – one that contrasted greatly with the ‘podium death grip’ of his SCEA couterpart Jack Tretton at E3.
And he had some big numbers to back up his confident mood. 140m PlayStations will be present in European homes by 2010, he said – and went onto state that first party titles Resistance and MotorStorm have already racked up over half a million sales in the territory.
And then onto the biggest news of the night – Reeves stated that PS3 had sold 13m units already in Europe. The actual figure was 1.3m, of course, but Reeves said his piece with such conviction that only a few in the assembled crowd raised eyebrows at such a figure. It was only later, when a number of journalists could be seen perusing their notes in disbelief, that the slip-up became apparent.
Perhaps Reeves’ mis-cue reflects the way PS3 has been performing in the market of late – while high on ambition, delivering on such promise has been a rather bumpier ride than expected. But PlayTV will certainly help its cause.
And so while Sony dominated the show in terms of a wider media impact, the consumer show that followed appeared to be just as effective, in Germany at least. TV crews beamed coverage from Leipzig across Germany on breakfast TV every morning, and the consumer element proved to be – at times – reminiscent of the scrum so memorable at the E3s of old. The Blizzard stand, in particular, attracted huge numbers.
The trade element was also a success. The sheer number of Brits doing the rounds made it a home-from-home.
Despite talk of an imminent move to a more accessible city, Leipzig’s organisers can sit back and be proud of a job well done. But one question just kept recurring among British execs: Why can’t the UK run a show like this?
