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[Funky Papa]

Just because I feel a little propagandist today

London, 22 October 2004 — Xbox®, the future generation video game system from Microsoft, today announced red hot sales over the past few weeks. Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week, up 49% from the previous week[1], whilst turning in strong performances across Europe too.

Xbox, which retails at an estimated street price of €149.99/£99.99, has seen a growth of sales in recent weeks helped by a wealth of great value bundles, an exciting Christmas games line up throughout Europe and excellent value for customers. It is also bolstered by its increasingly popular online gaming service, Xbox® LiveTM – which now has more than one million members world-wide.

"This is fantastic news for Xbox – demonstrating its ever-strengthening position in the video game console market," said Michel Cassius, senior director, Xbox Platform and Marketing. "We have some fantastic games on the way – the innovative Fable, the debut of Electronic Arts' games on Xbox Live such as EA SPORTSTM FIFA® Football 2005, Pro Evolution Soccer 4 – also on Xbox Live - and of course the hottest game this Christmas on any platform, Halo 2. Any gamer confused about which console to buy this Christmas should get to the stores quickly".

Xbox continues to go from strength to strength, with cumulative worldwide shipments of 15.5 million consoles since launch and a worldwide shipment goal of more than 20 million units by the end of June 2005. The groundbreaking Xbox Live service is expected to expand to an excess of 1.5 million members by the end of June 2005, representing 50%+ growth. Xbox Live is the evolving, dynamic gaming service that continues to bring people together to share experiences, from social game play to healthy competition. Players in 24 countries around the world have spent more than 160 million hours (or 20,000 years) playing Xbox Live on popular games like Project Gotham Racing® 2.

 

[explodet]

I'm surprised they didn't give Fable more credit.
This says it's an upcoming game - hasn't it been tearing it up for a week or so already?

 

[Alcibiades]

first the DS info, now this...

Kutagari cries...

 

[jarrod]

UK = Europe?

Haven't we been over this one before?

 

[sonycowboy]

Could someone tell me the prices / bundles? Given that the PS2 normally sales 3-4 times the Xbox, for them to get > 50% is pretty huge. And it's not a price drop, right? Just bundles. Wow.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

UK = Europe?

Haven't we been over this one before?

"London, 22 October 2004 — Xbox®, the future generation video game system from Microsoft, today announced red hot sales over the past few weeks. Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week, up 49% from the previous week, whilst turning in strong performances across Europe too."

 

[Ghost]

UK = Europe?

Haven't we been over this one before?

It says 49% up in the uk AND strong performances in the rest of europe


quit yer bitchin'

 

[Pug]

To be honest stocks of the PS2 are in short supply due to the new model, so many customers are waiting. Saying that Xbox was also in short suplly for a while whilst stocks of the crystal machine were brought in. There's no doubts in the UK Xbox is gaining in strength but these sales are slightly ascew.

 

[sonycowboy]

UK shortage? LOL. I guess it makes sense, of course, but damn Sony knows how to shoot themselves in the foot. This hardware transition has cost them some serious bucks.

 

[Project Midway]

Could someone tell me the prices / bundles? Given that the PS2 normally sales 3-4 times the Xbox, for them to get > 50% is pretty huge. And it's not a price drop, right? Just bundles. Wow.

Its hard to say since there are lots of different xbox bundles. Here in Finland Xbox is little bit cheaper, you can find xbox with two games for around 149 euros while for example that PS2 Prince of Persia bundle is ~170 euros.

edit: now that I thought about it, I have seen Xbox + pgr2 + top spin for 129 euros. But 149 is the official price I think.

 

[snapty00]

UK = Europe?

Haven't we been over this one before?

Read.

 

[Jumpman]

I'm sick of Microsoft referring to the Xbox as a "future generation" games console. That shit should of stopped when the system was released. They could of stuck with describing it as part of the new generation of hardware for a while, but they didn't go that route, and now it's to late for even that. Sony and Nintendo also deserve some criticism for hanging on to the "Next generation" tag for way to long, but the "future generation" tag is many times more annoying IMO.

Microsoft please repeat after me: "The Microsoft Xbox is a current generation videogame console."

 

[kaching]

Look at it this way, Jumpman...it should make their PR for the Xbox2 really interesting...if Xbox1 is still the the future generation console, then what's Xbox2 going to be?

 

[jarrod]

Read.

Well, I read the first two snotty responses. Thanks for the third.

 

[Subitai]

Yeah, it's amazing.

Especially considering this isn't available yet.

Link

Halo 2 Xbox Pack


Xbox Crystal

2 Xbox Crystal Controllers

Halo 2

2 months free Xbox live


Price: €199.99

Makes me wonder if it could go up more. Especially if Sony doesn't fix their supply problem.

BTW, isn't Europe is Sony's biggest market?

 

[Jumpman]

Look at it this way, Jumpman...it should make their PR for the Xbox2 really interesting...if Xbox1 is still the the future generation console, then what's Xbox2 going to be?

:lol The mind boggles.

 

[Mrbob]

!!!!!!!!!

HAWT.

 

[jarrod]

BTW, isn't Europe is Sony's biggest market?

Yep, PS2 holds roughly 80% of Europe's console installed based. Xbox is roughly 10% and GameCube roughly 8%.

 

[Project Midway]

Yep, PS2 holds roughly 80% of Europe's console installed based. Xbox is roughly 10% and GameCube roughly 8%.

where did you get these figures? Link? I'm not saying I dont believe you but link would be nice. =)

 

[jarrod]

where did you get these figures? Link? I'm not saying I dont believe you but link would be nice. =)

Well, they're from the last comparative shipment figures we had (June I think?), iirc it was something like...

PS2~ 29.5 million
Xbox~ 4 million
GC~ 3.5 million

 

[Project Midway]

oh ok, cool, thanks. Damn PS2 has a huuuuge lead.

 

[jarrod]

Yep, Europe's really where Sony's made the largest gains with both PS1 and PS2. It's insane, they're more entranched there than Japan even. :/

 

[Subitai]

Yep, Europe's really where Sony's made the largest gains with both PS1 and PS2. It's insane, they're more entranched there than Japan even. :/

So, this is just good news for MS and basically neutral news for Sony considing their position.