Sony: We Are Expecting Record Sales for the PS4 in Europe

While those of you in North America merrily fill your faces with Thanksgiving turkey, the majority of Europe is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the PlayStation 4. The next generation console may be old news by now in the Land of the Free, but the platform is poised to deploy in the Old World imminently. And writing on the PlayStation Blog, Sony has revealed that it’s expecting record breaking sales.

In a surprisingly candid message, the company stated that it will be dialling back the PlayStation Network a touch in order to help cope with the release day demand. “We want to make sure that your online experience is positive,” wrote blog manager Fred Dutton. “To help ensure that this happens, we have made the decision to switch off a couple of features for European customers on day one. These features will then be switched back on a few days later.”

Absent from the launch suite will be the ‘What’s New’ screen, which acts a social feed for all of your friends’ in-game activities, and the ‘Content Information’ area pertaining to each game. These are some of the format’s best features, but it makes sense to turn them off while the servers are getting hammered. After all, the platform holder has hinted that it’s expecting its system to break European records over the coming days.

“Following the successful launch of the PS4 in North America on the 15th November, we have seen an unprecedented influx of players onto PSN,” Dutton continued. “When we launch in Europe on Friday, once again, we are expecting record sales and record numbers of people logging onto PSN at similar times, alongside the North American players already on PSN.” We suppose that the fact that it's a public holiday in the United States doesn’t help.

We’ve also heard whispers that the PS4 is going to break a whole slew of records this weekend – especially in the UK. The Xbox One managed to move about 150k units during its first 48 hours on British store shelves – a figure that wasn’t quite enough to beat the PS3’s impressive 165k tally. Apparently, there’s a strong chance that the manufacturer’s latest console will smash that sum, though. We should find out for sure early next week.