Nintendo Wii outsells Xbox 360

Posted by admin on December 15th, 2008

by Jaspreet Kaur – December 14, 2008

Washington, December 14: The gaming console market is buzzing with Nintendo’s Wii system as it is selling like hot cakes and giving its rival, Microsoft, sleepless nights. According to the research group NPD, the sales of Xbox 360 on Friday were not enough to cover the gap in sales with Nintendo.

The statistics reveal that the difference in sales of Nintendo’s Wii system to Xbox was 3-to-1 in November. If the shipments for the same month are compared, then the figures show that Wii shipments totalled to 2.04 million while the Xbox shipments were only 836,000. At the third place was Sony’s PlayStation, with shipments of 378,000 units.

Nintendo DS is the clear winner in the portable market with 1.57 million shipments. But clearly, the mediocre sales of Xbox 360 might come as a rude shock to Microsoft.

It was reported by Redmond company last week that there was a 25% rise in the sales of its Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console. It surpassed the sales of PS3 3-to-1.

The jump in the console sales was heightened with the release of popular games like Gears of War 2, Fable 11 and Lips.

There was a 22% increase in Xbox 360 shipments in the most recent quarter. This increase over years led to a total of 2.2 million units. This spurt was prompted by the efforts of Microsoft to reposition Xbox as more than just a gaming device.

Last month only, Microsoft had launched New Xbox Experience. This service encapsulates the Xbox 360 gaming console as well as Xbox live online network. This enables users to view movies streaming from Netflix. Also they can chat, share photos as well as engage in a number of other online activities.

This gives Xbox an edge over other gaming devices as it is the only device that provides a direct link to Netflix.

The price of Xbox 360 video game console was cut down by almost 30% for some models in September. With this the prices of many other products also fell. This included the entry level Xbox 360 Arcade system, whose price fell from $279 to $199.

The basic Xbox 360 model was priced at $299. This was a drop from $349 at which it was priced earlier. Even the high-end Xbox 360 Elite came down to $399 from $449.