Marcel Winatschek

Europe Always Waits

Living in Europe in the mid-2000s and being into games meant accepting you were always months behind. Japan got the new console first, America got it weeks later, and Europe was somewhere at the back of the line. The pattern had repeated enough times that frustration had curdled into resignation. Just how things worked.

The PlayStation 3 was no different. November in Japan and America. Spring 2007 for Europe. Sony blamed PAL component shortages. I didn’t know if that was real, but it hardly mattered.

I was getting the Wii anyway. Nintendo was announcing its launch date September 15th, and that felt more interesting. So the PS3 delay wasn’t exactly crushing news.