Price cut doubles Stateside Xbox 360 sales
But can they keep it up?
Everyone loves a bargain, but none more so than US gamers it seems. Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console have risen by 100 per cent following a recent Stateside price cut.
The console cost cut-back, which saw the RRP of all three models reduced, went live on Friday, 5 September. A week later, Microsoft yesterday reported that over the two days following the price cut, its retailers reported that sales doubled when compared to the previous weekend.
Although growth was seen across all three models of the console, the real question is how many were sold - something that Microsoft conveniently chose not to mention.
The most recent US sales figures, from analyst NPD, revealed that Microsoft sold around 205,000 Xbox 360 consoles Stateside during July.
This might sound impressive, but it’s worth noting that Sony sold 225,000 during the same period, whilst Nintendo sold a whopping 555,000 Wii consoles.
COMMENTS
Blu-ray must have been a part of the reason
I don't know about the relative merits of the console - but I would say that the fact that the Sony plays the now dominant Blu-ray disks must be important in the sales figures.
I think the RRoD problems have caused big problems as well.
MS are doing the only thing they can - price cutting. I'm surprised they don't drop the price to $50 and pay for 20 free games per console - after all, this thing has lost them about 6 billion already so it can't be about making a profit. It's someone's ego project.
Amazon.com sales indications?
As of right this moment, Amazon.com's 1hourly sales figures show PS3 (80GB) ar #5, Wii at #9 and the first 360 model being the Elite at #34 which is interestingly enough lower than the DS Lite or PSP-2000 as well.
With the price cuts, you might expect the Arcade and Pro systems to be doing better? The Xbox360 with 60GB HDD (aka Pro) is sitting at #48 and the core arcade bundle all the way down at 50.
It's a spot check of course, but interesting none the less.
Looking at the UK version of Amazon is even more interesting. The UK likes them some Wii, it's the only console I could see in the top 50 best sellers in their PC & videogames list. When I limited the seach to console hardware I found that Wii was #1, PS3 was #2 followed by three models of DS Lite and then finally the 60GB Xbox360. Again these are updated hourly, so it's just a snap shot.
Still interesting, ain't it?
Applesauce
I don't believe these figures. No version of the xbox has been much higher that 45 in the amazon.com (us not uk) sales charts for quite a while and the PS3 is making a comfortable top 10 week after week. I realise that amazon is not the last word, but I reckon it's a fairly decent gauge on the situation. I suspect MS are engaged in Sony tactic of reporting units delivered to the retailers and not units sold.
Price cut doubles Stateside Xbox 360 repairs
Microsoft must think the RRoD boys in Texas are getting bored... one or two semi trailers of dead xbox's per day must not be enough to keep them busy.
