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Microsoft Claims Black Friday Victory Over PS3
by David Jenkins
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December 2, 2008
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Microsoft says sales of the Xbox 360 have resulted in the company’s biggest U.S. Black Friday ever, beating the PlayStation 3 three-to-one.
Analysts recently suggested that the Wii was the most popular platform over the key sales weekend, with the Xbox 360 hardware bundles and software title such as Wii Fit, Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World at War also selling strongly.
Microsoft now claims that sales for the Black Friday weekend are up 25 percent on the previous year - when the company claimed a two-to-one victory over the PlayStation 3. No specific sales figures were given for this year, but 2007’s results were put at 310,000 hardware units.
According to Microsoft, the best-selling first party software titles were Gears of War 2, Fable II and Lips - maintaining an attach rate for the Xbox 360 of 8 games per console.
Although Black Friday is conceptually not a part of European retail tradition, Microsoft also says that sales of the Xbox 360 have surged worldwide since the September price drop. The company says hardware sales have nearly doubled year over year in Europe, and that the Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 "week over week".
"We entered into the Black Friday sales period with cautious optimism, knowing that dollar for dollar, Xbox 360 offers more social entertainment value than any other console on the market," says Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment business.
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I got my friend who is a sony die hard a 360 simply because I thought he would enjoy and that it would be one more person on my list. But he still plans on getting a PS3 and enjoys throwing in my face how the PS3 has more features and how you get more bang for your buck. Sony is probably hoping everyone feels this way and thats why we see bigger HDs.
I don't think it's a terrible strategy, it's just the wrong one for 2008. I have a feeling there's some nasty emails and conference calls going on at Sony right now. From a business stand-point, it's embarrassing that Sony who won last generation by a 5:1 ratio is loosing customers.
The fact of the matter is nearly all of those customers who purchased the 360 over the PS3 probably weren't effected directly by the recession, but the perception is that times are hard and we need to save money where we can. I think their success could be directly tied to the recession.
Probably more than you asked for but I love a good rant before dinner. Whats more interesting is that Video Games are much like the alcohol industry. "People drink when times are good, and they drink when times are bad." Who would have thought it was recession proof?