Microsoft
announced today that its Xbox 360 video gaming and entertainment
system has sold over 10 million units in the U.S., thus making it the
first next-gen (now current-gen) video gaming console to break the 10
million mark in the U.S. Microsoft's second video gaming console, now
in its third year, narrowly beat Nintendo's Wii, now in its second
year, to the punch. As of late April, the statistics were holding at
approximately 9.9 million Xbox 360 units sold in the U.S. versus 8.8
million Wii units. Sony's Playstation 3 still has quite a bit of
ground to catch up on, lagging behind (as of late April) at only
approximately 4 million units sold.
The
U.S. install base of Xbox 360 console contributes to global sales of
over 19 million units. According to the press release, that sales
number of over 19 million units sold worldwide is “more than any
other current-generation console”, which is somewhat humorous when
you take into consideration the 24.45 million Wii units sold
worldwide. Apparently Wii doesn't count for Microsoft, as confirmed
by Shacknews
earlier today, which received this clarification to the original
press release statement,
"Xbox
360 has the largest global install base of any current gen. high
definition gaming console, Wii excluded.”
Either
way, the announcement is a bit of a boon for Microsoft, especially
since the company's own publishing house, Microsoft Game Studios,
recently announced another major lineup of blockbuster
titles scheduled for release later this year,
including
Epic Games'
Gears
of War 2
and
Silicon Knights'
Too
Human
.
Of course, this announcement was only enhanced by the company
reaching another milestone – 12 million members on Xbox Live,
admittedly thanks to the popularity of Take-Two Interactive's
recently released
Grand Theft Auto IV
,
which beat
Microsoft's own
Halo
3
for
the opening day and first week sales records.
According
to Microsoft, gamers eager to experience the online features in
GTA
IV
helped boost the global membership of Xbox Live past the 12 million
member mark earlier this month. “Reaching an installed base of 10
million consoles in the U.S. is a significant achievement and an
essential milestone on the road to market leadership,” said Billy
Pidgeon, research manager at IDC, a global provider of market
intelligence for consumer technology. “Perhaps more important is
the Xbox 360 worldwide online base – 12 million Xbox Live gamers is
the largest community in the connected console games sector, which
represents the greatest growth opportunity in the console market and
where Microsoft has been the leader for two generations.”
Say
what you will about whatever problems the console has had in the past
(and still has from time to time), it still has some of the best
games available on the market today, and it leads with the industry's
highest software attach rate over any of the other consoles this
generation.
GTA
IV
added
yet another game to the list of platinum selling titles – selling
over one million units – which, according to the press release,
brings the number of platinum titles to more than 16, thus doubling
the number of platinum selling titles on Wii and a “16:2 lead over
the Playstation 3 in game titles topping one million sales.”
According
to our numbers though, there are actually approximately 26 platinum
selling Xbox 360 titles, approximately 20 platinum selling Wii
titles, excluding
Wii
Sports
,
since it comes with the console, and a total of five platinum selling
Playstation 3 titles. Whatever Microsoft's numbers are based on, they are clearly not considering
worldwide sales.