Sinking Xbox 360 sales still stymies Nintendo numbers
Console conflict for Crimbo
Microsoft shifted three quarters of a million Xbox 360 consoles during "Black Friday" week in the US. While that works out at 22 per cent fewer units than it managed to shift this time last year, the figures remain impressive for a console nearing the end of its lifecycle.
To be fair, overhauling 2011's Xmas Xbox sales would have been miraculous, and an increase in online membership shows the user base is still on the rise regardless.
Xbox Live subscriptions are up over 50 per cent from this time last year, Microsoft claims. Apparently 14 million people used the service globally on 25 November.
Microsoft's 750,000 unit sales means it just pips Nintendo's combined home console haul of 400,000 Wii U units and 300,000 classic Wiis over the same period. Still, if Nintendo had produced more stock for the sell-out launch of its new console, those figures might have been higher.
While Sony keeps mum over its own console's popularity during America's busy shop-fest, it has recently revealed worldwide stats that show the PS3 caught up with the Xbox 360 in terms of overall sales, despite Microsoft's rival having been on shelves a year longer. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Uh, reportage fail.
We're right... of course.
We all know the difference between a weekend and a week here... even if our recollection of one is far more detailed than the other. ;-)
So Sony can supposedly pat itself on the back...
...but I would have to think Sony paid a bit of a price for reaching product parity with Microsoft, both in money and in reputation. And at this point, it's pretty much a "who cares" thing. It's becoming clear the market for this generation is closing on the saturation point, meaning both Microsoft and Sony better be on the drawing board for the next generation. Sony as a whole is getting rickety, and Microsoft is probably looking nervously at Windows 8 numbers and perhaps seeing if they can find areas to improve. Nintendo's already fired the first shot with its Wii U, but it needs the games to tell its full story, to the jury's still out on it right now.
Uh, reportage fail.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/27/3698428/microsoft-xbox-360-black-friday-sales-figures-2012
The Register says "week". The Verge says "weekend".
Somebody's wrong. Who is it?
