Euro PS3 chief notes "very rapid" growth in Mid-East and Asia

SCEE president and CEO David Reeves has pointed to a rapid growth in Mid-Eastern and Asian gaming markets as a "real shift" in the way publishers and manufacturers are now able to look beyond traditionally key European areas, such as the UK and Germany.

"What we’ve seen in the last year is a rapid geographical expansion," Reeves told MCV. "We have seen the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe and India all providing very rapid growth, not just in hardware, but software as well. This is also true of Southern Europe – Iberia and Italy. And what that means is it makes us and third party publishers less dependent on frontline teritories such as the UK, France and Germany. These are real shifts in the business."

In a wide-ranging talk with the British trade paper about SCEE's now-expanding fortunes, Reeves also points to strong PSN uptake as a "surprising" factor in helping the company's consoles along.

"One thing that has surprised us is in network purchases and the level of interest that has been shown around the network business," he said. "We’ve gone from zero to almost double digit millions in terms of what people have purchased in euros. And we’re obviously very happy about this. I suppose you might ask whether the retail trade would be worried about it. But what we’re seeing is that most of these purchases are incremental."

Well worth a read, this. Head over and take a look.