Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system kicked off the holidays with record-breaking console sales on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year in the U.S. Retailers reported Xbox 360 console sales over the Black Friday weekend were on pace to beat previous years, outselling the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and estimating a 25 percent increase from Xbox 360 Black Friday sales figures from 2007.
Strong game sales rounded out a historic Black Friday for Xbox 360, with record-paced software sales continuing for key Microsoft titles, such as “Gears of War 2,” “Fable II,” and “Lips.” Xbox 360 continues to have the highest game attach rate of any console at 8.1 games per console.
“We entered into the Black Friday sales period with cautious optimism, knowing that dollar for dollar, Xbox 360 offers more social entertainment value than any other console on the market,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Record Black Friday sales in the U.S., coupled with our existing global install base of 25 million and an online community of more than 14 million Xbox LIVE members, have laid the groundwork for continued global sales momentum in 2009.”
Xbox 360 sales have also surged worldwide since the September price drop, outselling the PlayStation 3 week over week across Europe. Console sales in Europe are up as much as 400 percent, with sales nearly double year over year and reaching 7 million consoles sold this generation.
With a mass-market price point starting at $199.99 worldwide (estimated retail price) for Xbox 360 Arcade, a games lineup of more broad-appeal social titles than any other platform, and the recently launched New Xbox Experience, Xbox 360 is leading the industry and inviting everyone to play.
I’m surprised its not more. I bet the Wii outsells both.
Worldwide sales figures
Wii – 34.55 million, as of September 30, 2008[23]
Xbox 360 – 25 million, as of November 25, 2008[24]
PlayStation 3 – 16.84 million, as of September 30, 2008[25]
Nintendo [NTDOF 287.5 -5.50 (-1.88%) ] actually increased U.S. shipments by 50 percent this quarter to avoid product shortages that have slowed sales in each of the last two years.
Of course, the ps3 still isn’t as good online as the 360. Based on the latest home beta release (1.03) it isn’t going to be any time soon either. Also their consoles cost more, and blu ray players getting cheaper isn’t helping.
To bad because the ps3 is a great console, just seems like the psn is run by 2 guys in a basement. For instance I wanted to rent hancock in HD on my ps3, I got an email saying it was available for $5 to rent in hd on the ps store, 2 days later, I looked all over the playstation store and it wasn’t even available except for to BUY for $15. 2 freaking days and sony didn’t realize they hadn’t put up the rental links. If that was MS, it would have been fixed in 10 minutes. It’s probably still not up because unless it’s thursday, the psn gets nothing new.
I try not to be brand loyal, I have a 360 and a ps3, games are about even, slight;y better on the 360, but sony is really fuggin up IMO with the support and updates for their psn.
i dunno nick, i used to think that about BRD, i bought a panasonic and im not sure they are dying out man, there are tons of BRD movies out there and tons getting released. Over all im very happy so far. I still will not buy a sony tho
I bought my father a Sony BR player for his birthday last month. I then got the “itch” to buy one myself. After entertaining the idea of purchasing a PS3 for a Blu-Ray player for myself, i decided to go with the Panasonic BR player instead. Not because the BD35k player is better…but because Sony is refusing to allow their production movies to stream onto Xbox’s through netflix. Sore fucking losers.
