The PS3 (crashed) launched in Europe yesterday amid throngs of tens of people and moribund sales. Archrival Microsoft generated more excitement at a Paris launch party than anything Sony provided.

Microsoft is clearly done taking Sony’s jabs without a fight. At one of the largest launch parties in Paris, MS drove a boat by the PS3 party adorned with huge “XBOX 360 HEARTS YOU” banners. That’s not all. MS flunkies handed out chairs to weary fans waiting in the PS3 lines printed with a link to this site. Classic!! They also sent SMS messages to game journalists saying "The Xbox 360 team wishes you a good night." To top things off, the MS army was armed with whistles, blowing them from rooftops to drown out the noise of Sony PR. The embedded video below shows the Xbox 360 boat cruising by and the French journalists commenting about it; they seem to get a real kick out of it. If any of you can translate it, I’d love to know what they are saying.

Sony has spent a lot of time since the launch of the Xbox 360 dissing Microsoft and the supposed lack of capabilities of their console. Now, even after the 360 has proven to be a much more formidable opponent to the PS3 than Sony could have possibly imagined, Microsoft seems unwilling to accept their success gracefully; they want to rub it Sony’s face a bit. Can you really blame them? No one’s PR machine is more abrasive (see below) than Sony’s.

The funny thing is it seems Microsoft didn’t need to bother wasting their time or breathe on Sony’s European launch. Ken and the gang’s idiotic comments to fans seemed to do all the damage Microsoft could have wanted.

At French events, one store sold a paltry 50 consoles out of 1000, and another store sold just 300 out of 1000. At the grossly under-attended event at the Eiffel Tower, where officials were told to expect 3000 people, roughly 40 people turned out. That’s not a misprint folks…40! 40 people out of 3,000?! Are you serious? I could email my friends and gather that many people at one event. Of course, Sony’s fan-friendly security was still turning people away that didn’t have invitations. At that point you’d think Sony would have PAID those people to attend.

One would-be gate crasher said, "I came from the suburbs, perhaps they don't like my face." Ouch babe!

Way to go Sony! You’ve just set your brand name back five years in France.