But does anyone in Europe care?   The PS3 has been a real failure in the US (and hasn't even performed to expectations in Japan).   So how will consumers in Europe react to its launch?   

This article has a lot of background data and numbers, and seems to imply that the PS3 is going to repeat its crappy turnout in Europe, too.   I have to say that I agree.   As a longtime gamer myself, I'm not sure I understand what it is that Sony is hoping to achieve with the PS3.   It's way too expensive, has few exclusive game series (and even fewer that are actually worth playing), and comes with a lot of lame or broken functionality (its online and downloadable capabilities, for example, are terrible).  

So why should Europeans switch from XBOX 360 and/or Nintendo Wii?   Well, one good reason is that the PS3 is pretty much the cheapest Blu-Ray Disc player out there right now.   Sure, there's no HDMI cables, but if you want to set it up yourself (and you believe that BD is going to surpass HD-DVD) you can start watching the handful of BD movies right out of the box.   Does anyone care enough about BD to justify widespread purchase of the PS3?   Time will tell.