14 DAY TRIAL // The console war between the top three devices, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, has been waged in statements, features and services, but, in the end, the deciding factors were the sales charts released by the NPD group every month, tracking the retail sales of both hardware and software in the United States.
Every time the company releases its charts, the PR departments in all of the top three companies start working on putting a positive spin on the numbers, thus making them look like they have experienced the best month ever. As the NPD numbers for the month of May arrived, Microsoft was quick to comment on them.
Even though May was one of the slowest sales months, Microsoft's Xbox 360 managed to move a respectable 175,000 units, the same as last month. These sales make the North American console the only home device to experience a year-to-date increase of 22 percent over 2008 and to exhibit “the most year-over-year resilience of any console.”
Even though it was outsold by the Wii and DS, the Microsoft console dropped in sales only 6.2 percent over May 2008, a significantly smaller one than its other rivals, even the Nintendo ones that were very popular last year.
A large part of these strong sales in 2009 is due to the 199-dollar price point and the wide library of high-quality games that the console has in its portfolio, the Microsoft press release says. Credits have also been given to the Xbox Live online service, which can boast over 20 million active members worldwide.
The company has also mentioned that this month's best seller, UFC 2009 Undisputed, sold the most copies on the Xbox 360, managing to move 679,600 units in just two weeks since it was available for purchase in stores.
Overall, it has been a pretty good month for Microsoft and its Xbox 360 console.