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Xbox 360 sales near 20 million

Is console really 'leading the charge' ?

Microsoft has shifted nearly 20 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide, and has even passed the 10 million mark in North America, the latest news from the firm reveals.

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Speaking yesterday, the Redmond-based platform holder said sales of the 360 now stand at 19 million, with over 12 million subscribers now enjoying Xbox Live, too.

"History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle," offered the be-suited Don Mattrick, predicting that Microsoft will beat Sony in the next-gen hardware tussle.

That said, Microsoft are some way off the Wii, which has a worldwide installed base of 24.45 million systems - and did in fact pass 10 million US systems some weeks before the 360. This forced Microsoft to re-clarify Mattrick's proclamation, which should have said "current gen high definition console" apparently. Snappy.

Sony might also argue with Microsoft's statement, the firm convinced that the PS3 is leading the charge in Europe, while we already know about the Xbox 360's problems in Japan. Ho-hum.

1. History has also shown that you can't win a generational format battle on a single continent! XBox 1 was hugely popular in the US - and it failed, HD-DVD was arguably more popular than Blu-ray in the US - and it failed.

   I don't know if it's some way of expressing patriotism or something, but American's tend to favour American products. The problem the Xbox has always suffered (and continues to suffer) is it's very unpopular in Europe and Japan. Which, with the exception of games like Madden and NASCAR, are equally important as (and in certain genres more important than) the American market. It's where the stigma of the Xbox only being good for FPS's and Madden games originates from. I'm guessing EA's publication that it's sold more games/generated more revenue from the PS3 last year has turned a few heads!

   Also let's spin "the first company to sell 10M units" shall we? Does that mean we ignore the 12 month head start the 360 had over it's rivals? Let's see what PS3 and Wii sales are like next year when they've been on the market for an equal time... do a true week on week compare of global sales for each console (i.e. assume all launched on the same day) and it isn't pretty reading for MS!

   Also does the 12M subscribers "enjoying" Xbox LIVE include the limited SILVER service? My betting is it probably does.

   This is merely more MS spin to mask the true state of the GLOBAL console market...

   Objective_View Thursday, 15 May 2008, 10:08:38