Xbox 360 sales surge

Stephen Withers
Friday, 29 May 2009 08:17

Your IT - Entertainment

Microsoft's claiming "record growth" in Xbox 360 sales.

According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 is showing the highest percentage sales growth among all consoles during 2009.

Citing NPD Group figures, the company claims sales are up 28 percent year-on-year.

Total Xbox 360 sales have now exceeded 30 million. Sony claims 22.73 PS3 sales as at March 31, 2009. However, that system was launched in November 2006, a year after the Xbox 360's debut.

Xbox Live usage has also risen since the service was revamped late last year. Microsoft claims more than 20 million active members, with a 136 percent increase in new members since November 2008.

TV and movie downloads are up by more than 100 percent, and purchases of games and associated content are up by 70 percent according to internal figures.

It looks like Microsoft is planning an advertising push on Xbox Live. The press release announcing the growth in hardware sales and Xbox Live membership notes that Xbox Live already reaches more homes than any satellite TV provider, and membership is set to overtake the subscriber base of the largest cable provider.

Unless console owners also sign up for Xbox Live, Microsoft has no way of pushing new in-game ads to them.