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Microsoft Claims Xbox 360 Is King

 

Microsoft is making some pretty impressive claims about the Xbox 360, Kinect, and the system's place in the console market.

According to Official Microsoft Blog chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi, since its launch there have been 67 million Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide at a total profit to Microsoft of $56 billion. He says this means that it owns 47 percent of the current-generation console market, and according to Mehdi these sales numbers have broken the traditional pattern for a home console. Instead of selling fewer consoles as it gets older, the Xbox seems to get better with age, selling more consoles each year.

However, Mehdi's math doesn't add up. If the Wii (approximately 90-plus million units sold worldwide) and PlayStation 3 (60-plus million) are also in the current-gen market, how can Microsoft claim almost half of the console market by itself?

He also mentions that the company has sold 19 million Kinect units and Xbox Live has 40 million members (although no distinction is made between the different membership tiers).

Mehdi attributes the platform's success to the fact that they are constantly adding new software and features to the Xbox platform. This claim is interesting, since the response to the announcement on GI's website about the new Amazon Instant app ranged from the apathetic to the openly hostile. Whether or not fans appreciate this newest addition to the Xbox platform, every Xbox user can agree that the 360 is more than just a gaming console.

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Comments
  • I agree.
  • Yes... its a pretty genius plan to make a console that broke constantly so people had to buy 3 or 4 of them.
  • Kinect sucks. Don't get cocky, Microsoft - you're one step away from getting abandoned. I just want to play games. And why burn out a $300 piece of hardware held together with rubber bands and cheap plastic?
  • As someone who only has the internet and no cable TV, I welcome the access to all the different options for viewing internet media.  No harm, no foul.  It has saved me from buying another Roku at the moment.

  • in b4 the flame-war that this 'news' piece all but ensures.

    Also replies to anything online, anywhere, are not indicative of anything in the real world anymore. Particularly not when it comes to gamers, the most entitled & whingy of any set of consumers (although a lot of the ones that yammer online don't actually buy anything). See for example the Consumerist poll finding EA to be the worst American owned and operated company in 2012- not Bank of America, not Blackwater, not Haliburton, not any of the US oil/gas companies, not GMC, nor any of the other companies driving our economy into the ground, or engaging in shady business (and in some cases, military) practices- nope, EA, the company that had the audacity to publish a game that gamers didn't like the ending for...

    I'm not down on gamers, I'm down on the downer-attitude of the 'culture'- and how the tone of this article really only serves to feed into that, regardless of the somewhat ridiculous claims of the MS rep.

    Also while you're 'spilling the beans' on silly old MS, why don't you at least provide a link to the very similar stories GI has published from both Ninty and Sony claiming dominance, so that the fanboys commenting here don't get the wrong impression that MS is the only one bending statistics to their favor. You know, Inform.
  • i like xbox better than that kinect console
  • nah PC is king have only been playing like 5 months on pc and is very addictive! no crappy kinect,move,etc. games on sale everyday! lot of indy games.
    nah the list is too big... PC IS KING!
    Edit: and pc is the most owned console ever :)
  • Not to be rude, but I really only use a 360 because my friends have them(and I like Halo). If I was buying a system for myself, I'd have gotten a PC right away.
  • Xbox is a king, hahaha That's the funniest joke ever
  • LOL What a cocky ***! I love my 360 as much as the next guy, but with that mentality they're going to go nowhere but down. Specially with the huge number of exclusive titles that the PS3 has (and the xbox doesn't).... My 360 is my main console right now, but my ps3 has started seeing the light of day a lot more these days... Not to mention the fact that PC has overall the larger games library and more indie games worth looking into.
  • I love my 360, but what makes me love my PS3 more is the horrid XBL system, the having to convert dollars to MS points that never match an exact amount for purchase, and the concept that I have to pay for Gold, THEN Hulu or Netflix with it when I can just pay for Hulu on my PS3, and that's it. It's also horribly annoying that I can't physically load videos onto my 360's HDD. Awful decision, in my opinion.

    As far as Kinect goes, I've never been interested in it, and won't waste my time on it.

    If I were asked to choose only one console, it'd be PS3 without a doubt, though. Probably has something to do with the fact that MS put out a faulty console and two of mine RR'd, though.

    I just think MS has dealt with too many self-made problems to say something that cocky.
  • Microsoft may be acting cocky, but the 360 and the Kinect are the best things out right now. The Wii is slowly dieing and the PS3 needs to get there beeppp together.
  • To bad they haven't released a meaningful exclusive xbox game in several years.
  • No publisher has ever claimed that their product was the best before.

  • The xbox came out before the others right?
  • Really? Actually, the PS2 has sold the most units ever, and it's still being made.

    Oh, and I bought my Xbox to play games on, nothing else.
  • Xbox Sucks!!
  • Can't completely agree with Xbox yet sales are top...

  • What's that? A company is toting around their console and acting as if it is supreme? I am so shocked.
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