Gears of War 3 Does Not Drive Xbox 360 Sales

For the last few months, the Xbox 360 home console from Microsoft has managed to top the monthly sales chart for the United States that is offered by tracking firm NPD Group, but it is not exclusive video games like Gears of War 3, from Epic Games, that are driving this good performance.

Speaking about Gears of War 3 Michael Pachter, who watches the video games industry for the firm analysis Wedbush Morgan, said that it is “a great game, the biggest exclusive by far, but it is far from the best selling 360 game.”

He added, “It’s also a hard core game, and #3 in the series, so not much of a system seller, the hard core already had 360s and bought Gears 1 and 2. So I don’t buy into the argument it helps compete.”

The first Gears of War video game was designed to show off the power of the Xbox 360 and show players why they should pick up one of the Microsoft made game consoles.

Since then Microsoft has made it a point of keeping the series exclusive, saying that each new installment is a testament to how much further the hardware of the Xbox 360 can be pushed and that the game helps sell more consoles.

Gears of War 3 was one of the first titles to be launched during this busy fall season and has performed well, selling more than 3 million copies during the first week and helping the series go over the 1 billion dollars (745.2 million Euro) sales mark.

Epic Games is still delivering extra content for Gears of War 3 in order to keep fans engaged with the series.

It’s not clear whether Microsoft and Epic are preparing a fourth title in the franchise for the Xbox 360 or whether the developers are getting ready to create an experience for the next Microsoft home console.