James Delahunty
4 Jan 2008 18:18
Microsoft Corp. is touting impressive sales performance for the Xbox 360 console over the last three months of 2007. The Redmond-based software giant moved 4.3 million units over the fourth quarter of the year following excellent performances of titles such as Halo 3 and Mass Effect. This brings the total number of Xbox 360 consoles sold to 17.7 million since its November 2005 debut according to the company.
"Holiday 2007 was a blockbuster season for the gaming industry," Microsoft said, claiming the Xbox 360 kept a lead over rivals in terms of money spent on software and hardware. While neither Sony or Nintendo have released sales figures for the holiday season yet, as of September 2007, the Wii had sold 13.2 million units and the PS3 had sold 5.6 million units.
Microsoft's Xbox Live service suffered from performance problems over the holidays. Before the holiday sales surge, it had already 8 million members, many who pay a $50 yearly fee to play against friends over the Internet. "While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance," Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten said in a statement
The blockbuster title Halo 3, which went on sale in September, reached an impressive 8.1 million sales by the end of the year according to the company. The popular role-playing game Mass Effect sold 1.6 million copies by the end of the year after going on sale in November.
Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)