Aussie Xbox 360’s fly off the shelves

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 25 October 2006 20:41

Your IT - Entertainment

According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 has not only performed extremely well, but has proven a terrific platform for third-party games publishers. The top selling games for the system to date include Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (Take 2 Interactive), Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft), Call of Duty 2 (Activision) and Saints Row (THQ), with other third-party publishers wanting to create games for the growing console user base as well.

Retailers are also reporting strong sales for Xbox 360 and are looking forward to a busy Christmas.

“Sales of Xbox 360 have been very strong for us and we are expecting this sales momentum to continue through Christmas,” said John Slack-Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Harvey Norman.

Microsoft tells us that “The new figures demonstrate that in its first seven months Xbox 360 has outperformed the PS2 in its first seven months in both hardware and software sales. Xbox 360 sold 100,000 console units in that period, compared to just 78,000 for PS2”.

They continue that “In terms of software, the margin is even wider; over 400,000 games have now been sold for Xbox 360, while only 190,000 games were sold for PS2 in the same period following launch”.

That, however, does not take into account the number of PS2 games being sold today. We don’t have the figures, but with a massive installed user base in Australia, and with the PS2 at only AUD $188, many PS2s will also be sold this Christmas, along with much PS2 software. Then there's the Nintendo Wii, the Sony PSP, the DS Lite and Windows XP computers that run a vast library of games titles themselves, all of which will also be selling well.

There’s never been more gaming and entertainment devices than ever. It’s a wonder kids or anyone else can utter the words... “I’m bored!” with so many choices, from the real world outside, books, DVDs, the Internet and every permutation of games and gaming console you could possibly want.

Whichever way you go, it’s going to be the most digital, gaming and entertainment focused Christmas ever. Enjoy!