Microsoft leads the console domination war

Jan 4, 2008 09:22 GMT  ·  By

Nothing can compare right now with the joy of Microsoft when the company announces the sales figures of 2007. They will also remember this holiday season, too and will probably wish to beat the records as soon as possible, because that's how the gaming industry works. And it seems it works quite well, since in the last three months of 2007 4.3 million Xbox 360 video consoles have been sold.

Add these sales to the 13.4 million sales data released by Microsoft in September and you'll have the final numbers: 17.7 million Xbox 360s sold since the gaming console was made available in 2005. Of course, the last three months' sales were boosted by some quality and very player appreciated releases, like Mass Effect or Halo 3. This latest title itself sold 8.1 million copies by the end of the year (for the 360 fans, this means that this game sold more than the PS3 consoles!).

Microsoft said that "Holiday 2007 was a blockbuster season for the gaming industry," adding that it was a blockbuster season for them, too, since the Xbox 360 kept its lead over rivals in terms of total dollars spent on hardware and software. This comment follows the latest data from Microsoft's rivals: 13.2 million Wiis and 5.6 million PS3s have been sold by the end of September.

The game sales figures looked pretty nice, too, for Microsoft, since Halo 3, the last installment of the highly acclaimed sci-fi shooter, sold 8.1 million copies, even though it was relatively recently released, in late September. Mass Effect, released in late November, sold 1.6 million. This means that more than 50% of the Xbox 360 owners have played one (or both) of these games. Great titles to come up with!

Microsoft's sales figures announcements come before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this weekend, when Bill Gates declared that he will give a peek into the future of the company's products, including the Xbox 360 - a declaration that gave birth to a real rumor-mania.