Xbox Xmas sales up 120 percent, MS claims to widen lead over PS3

[Zeus]

A European MS exec has revealed that sales of Xbox 360 hardware were up 120 percent in Europe over Christmas 2008 compared to the same period back in 2007. As you'd expect, they claim that their lead is now even wider over the PS3 platform.


Microsoft has revealed that its 360 hardware sales during Christmas 2008 were up 120 per cent in Europe on the same period in 2007.

Speaking to MCV, VP of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business in EMEA Chris Lewis said that the company now enjoyed a sales lead of one million over PS3 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He said: “Christmas 2008 was the biggest sales period in the history of the Xbox brand. Sales of the console were more than double over the period a year before, in excess of 120 per cent in fact.

“We’ve had record sales in January too – much better than we anticipated. We’re at over eight million console sales to end of 2008.


News Source: <a href="http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33356/Xbox-Xmas-sales-up-120" target="_blank">MCVUK</a>

[ThreeDog]

remember ms dont count NZ and AU in their europe/pal territories either so the lead over the ps3 could be even wider.

[Xenontc]

Of course the gap is getting wider..the 360 has outsold the PS3 every week since September.

[mcmanic]

who cares, i shall go and continue to play Killzone 2 now

[wkndplaya]

who cares, i shall go and continue to play Killzone 2 now

when it comes out let me know if everyone in your list is playing it or just a few I think you will be surprised :).

[dsav]

who cares, i shall go and continue to play Killzone 2 now

haha, i'll be playing tomorrow night.

can't wait.

[sigma8]

Of course the gap is getting wider..the 360 has outsold the PS3 every week since September.

Well, it must be widening the gap at a snails pace, because vgchartz pegs the install-bases at around 20 million versus 28 million.

A year or so ago, it was something like 6 million to 15 million. The Xbox360 had a lead of more than double. Now it has less than a 50% lead. To me that says "shrinking lead"

[DEDDOA]

Well, it must be widening the gap at a snails pace, because vgchartz pegs the install-bases at around 20 million versus 28 million.

A year or so ago, it was something like 6 million to 15 million. The Xbox360 had a lead of more than double. Now it has less than a 50% lead. To me that says "shrinking lead"

I'd say and an increase from the consistant 6 mill gap there has been since the launch of the PS3 to 8mill is an increase. If you use % you can make things sound better for the PS3, but % are usually used to fudge numbers (e.g. selling 4 of somthing when you only sold 1 before would give you a 300% increase which sounds a lot better than the real number of 3 more), but on real numbers, the gap has increased by 2 mill, so thats an increased lead even if the % seems less.

[sigma8]

I'd say and an increase from the consistant 6 mill gap there has been since the launch of the PS3 to 8mill is an increase. If you use % you can make things sound better for the PS3, but % are usually used to fudge numbers (e.g. selling 4 of somthing when you only sold 1 before would give you a 300% increase which sounds a lot better than the real number of 3 more), but on real numbers, the gap has increased by 2 mill, so thats an increased lead even if the % seems less.

I think both appraisals have some validity. Imagine if the Xbox continues to sell better, but the PS3 is always only a step behind. Maybe in another year, it'll be 40 million xboxen to 30 million PS3's. Yes, the Xbox's numerical lead widened, but the rate of sale has stayed constant, and its market share has decreased.

As a developer/publisher, you'll see that the Xbox is still the dominant platform, but the PS3 becomes an increasingly hard market to ignore--despite the fact that the Xbox continues to outsell it.

It's all insidiously tricky.

What MS (or Sony) wants to do, is virtually neutralize all sales of their competitors. This is basically what happened to the Gamecube near the end of its life.

[NewBeginning]

The PS3 has been suffering from a major slowdown since Christmas, so maybe earlier news about a price cut has some validity.