14 DAY TRIAL // The people at Microsoft are definitely happy these days, as the Xbox 360 console is seeing a massive surge in sales across all territories, even those loyal to its archrival, the PlayStation 3. Black Friday only showcased the popularity of Microsoft's console, and confirmed the fact that price cuts and bundles are a sure way to sell products.
But the company won't rest on its laurels, as it still has a long way to go in order to beat the Nintendo off the top on the console manufacturers chart. The Wii is a tough product to dethrone, but the North American giant still has a few aces up their sleeve, as Chris Lewis, vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft EMEA, recently talked with Edge and said that the Xbox 360 would be fighting the small white Japanese console.
Lewis pointed out that his company’s strategy was to appeal to the hardcore gamers, then going towards a more mainstream audience, with casual players being the main focus of the Xbox 360 at this moment. According to Lewis, Xbox Live is the central pillar for development and will certainly attract a lot of people towards the North American console in the future, fact which will guarantee big sales.
“The approach and strategy right from the outset was to appeal to the more mature, harder-core component first-off. We’ll remain committed to that community. We’ll continue to bring content like Halo and Gears of War. I think Nintendo and Microsoft have probably done most to open up a broader spectrum of people to gaming. From our point of view, it’s about Xbox Live, about having online right at the center of the architecture. I certainly think we do have an appetite for getting into those broad family genres, and that part of the strategy will continue to be so, but I think we clearly want to appeal to all tastes. Our aspiration is to win overall, and to do that we need to continue to bring content to all the different genres in the market, with Xbox Live at the heart of that.”
Some very interesting statements from the Microsoft executive, proving that the Redmond giant is very confident in its console and that it will even threaten the reign of the Nintendo Wii, which is currently the best selling console of this generation.