Moore claims 360 will surpass 10 million milestone

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 6th 2006 at 1:55PM }

It seems that a new numeric obsession is gripping Microsoft executives across the world: 10 million. Considered a lofty target before the system launched and reiterated just yesterday, Microsoft has always stood by their belief that the first manufacturer to dash past the "10 million sold" finish line will be crowned the winner of ye grande console race. Speaking to Bloomberg, Peter Moore goes a step further and confidently claims that the 360 will not only meet, but surpass the 10 million mark before the year keels over. When asked if the 360 would exceed the hallowed milestone, the vice president confidently replies, "Yes. All indications are that we came off a very strong Thanksgiving holiday.''

He goes on to point out that "They [sic] key is we're in stock, we're available, we're delivering well to retail." Certainly a valid observation (and one shared by certain analysts), but one that depends less on the 360's individual appeal and more on the fact that the competition didn't pitch in full force. The monthly NPD numbers are expected to arrive tomorrow, upon which we'll have a better idea as to how much further (farther, if you want to stick with the racing metaphor) Microsoft needs to go before the month concludes.

[Via GameDaily BIZ]

Tags: 10 million, 10Million, holiday sales, HolidaySales, lucid dreams, LucidDreams, Peter Moore, PeterMoore, Xbox 360 sales, Xbox360Sales

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Brian (the REAL Brian) @ Dec 6th 2006 2:02PM

For that to happen, they would have to sell around 2 million 360's in 25 days. I don't see that happening.

Erik Novak @ Dec 6th 2006 2:31PM

I think we can all agree that the PS3 didn't pitch in full force, but the Wii did. What's not being taken into account here is that those who didn't get a PS3 are MUCH more likely to get a 360 than those who didn't get a Wii. It's a much more demographic since the 360 and PS3 are much more comparable in what they're offering.

x876543 @ Dec 6th 2006 2:05PM

Well I'm getting one after the first price drop. I have a Wii currently and that's crazy fun, but I enjoy online play (which I do on my computer currently and mostly with Quake 3 Arena).

So M$ can add one more system sold once they drop the price. :)

Hannibal @ Dec 6th 2006 2:08PM

I went to my local Best Buy the other day to buy a wireless router and they had about 100 360s stacked up in the middle of the video game section. I came back about 3 hours later once I realized my old Wireless-B card wouldn't work with the new router, and there were no 360s left.

I'm thinking it'll be a very merry Christmas for MS.

RHP @ Dec 6th 2006 2:33PM

I'm assuming 10 million is worldwide.

Are the NPD numbers US only or are they all inclusive worldwide?

Microsoft HAS been quietly expanding to other countries this year. And I've noticed quite a few promotions for the Xbox lately that seem to have been successful (Amazon, MicroCenter, etc)

Jason W @ Dec 6th 2006 2:46PM

I think they have a great shot of making it. Good luck.
I hope all 3 systems get there within the next year so we can continue to have 3 viable systems.
Since I bought the 360 first and it has the most games that I like right now, im biased toward them right now. That could change. If Virtua Fighter is online on the PS3 I may shift but all signs point to no.
It looks as if the Xbox will be the way to go for online play and I love online play.

John @ Dec 6th 2006 2:18PM

#3 i wonder how many of those will be sent back with the three red lights problem!

lol

UnmaskedHero @ Dec 6th 2006 4:38PM

I'm buying one for my younger brother who lives in a different state, so that'll be one more for MS.

Xavier Gill @ Dec 6th 2006 7:54PM

Where the hell are they selling these 360's? They're not doing that great in the US ( http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=11067 ), every Joystiq reader knows they only push a pathetic 2000 a week in Japan and we sure as hell aren't buying them over here in Europe considering the games are now $99 after tax.

Unless hes talking about 10million shipped...

Embassy @ Dec 6th 2006 2:21PM

yeh i think alot of people criticized MS for dropping the 360 so early but im starting to believe thats the smartest move they've ever done regarding the XBOX brand.

regardless it'll be fun to see how this holiday playes out. the wii seems to be making good strides too.

jc @ Dec 6th 2006 2:22PM

I know several people that will pick one up when the price drops.

I wonder tho, when MS says it will sell 10million by the end of the year... is that year 2006 (Dec31), or their fiscal year?

Confucius @ Dec 6th 2006 2:57PM

I say:

Readily available alternative to a short supplied PS3 coupled with the end of the year rush to meet "little Timmy's" demand for high def gaming will allow MS to meet thier gaols for year end sales.

Saneless @ Dec 6th 2006 2:50PM

"4. #3 i wonder how many of those will be sent back with the three red lights problem!"

Probably about 3-4. MS is lucky, if they were a Sony Manufacturer it'd be more like 5-6.

I'm not waiting for a price drop as much as I'm waiting for 2 things:

1) Bigger HDD. 12 gigs of usable space is pathetic
2) XBMC functionality. If it matches what XBMC has to offer I'll buy it the second it happens.

baby sea tuna @ Dec 6th 2006 2:53PM

"4. #3 i wonder how many of those will be sent back with the three red lights problem!

lol"

Hey, don't knock it. Consumers re-buying consoles to replace their busted ones is what got Sony to 100 million last generation...

B33 @ Dec 6th 2006 2:32PM

"yeh i think alot of people criticized MS for dropping the 360 so early but im starting to believe thats the smartest move they've ever done regarding the XBOX brand."

Nope, worst move ever made by a console company. The system and the games were all unfinished at launch. Terrible.

Austin @ Dec 6th 2006 2:36PM

They must have taken solid notes from Sony's PS2.
1. Get to market first with a good (not necessarily the best) system.
2. Moderate price point
3. By the time your competition launches you will have a dominate number of games taking up a lot of shelf space.
Amazingly enough they do this without the arrogance of sony.

NorCal05 @ Dec 6th 2006 2:37PM

"The system and the games were all unfinished at launch. Terrible."

Funny, that's what journalists are saying about the PS3

> @ Dec 6th 2006 3:14PM

Hey Austin, you must have never heard of the Dreamcast... it jumped the gun and came out over a year before PS2 with the same price point. Heck, Peter Moore was marketing chief for Sega as well.

> @ Dec 6th 2006 2:47PM

Hey Austin, you must have never heard of the Dreamcast... it jumped the gun and came out over a year before PS2 with the same price point. Heck, Peter Moore was marketing chief for Sega as well.

Pip @ Dec 6th 2006 3:22PM

They must have taken solid notes from Sega's Dreamcast.
1. Get to market first with a good (not necessarily the best) system.
2. Moderate price point
3. By the time your competition launches you will have a dominate number of games taking up a lot of shelf space.
Amazingly enough they do this without the arrogance of sony.
4. WHAT???

Animus @ Dec 6th 2006 2:50PM

"Nope, worst move ever made by a console company. The system and the games were all unfinished at launch. Terrible."

Gee, isn't that what Sony did with the PS3? Now tell me, which one is better off?

Saneless @ Dec 6th 2006 2:52PM

#8 "Nope, worst move ever made by a console company. The system and the games were all unfinished at launch. Terrible."

Yeah, Sony really did screw it up. Oh well, they'll learn next time.

crono141 @ Dec 6th 2006 2:55PM

"Hey Austin, you must have never heard of the Dreamcast... it jumped the gun and came out over a year before PS2 with the same price point. Heck, Peter Moore was marketing chief for Sega as well."

Yes, but that is where the similarities stopped. Dreamcast was well on its way to being an decent PS2 competitor when sega could no longer support it. Microsoft does not have this problem.

The current situation is much more similar to PS2 launching a year before Box and Nintendo, as all 3 are viable competitors.

Also, the horsepower difference between the PS2 and dreamcast was much larger than between the PS3 and the 360. Like it or not, MS is in it for the long haul, and launching a year earlier was a good move.

MC @ Dec 6th 2006 6:53PM

I certainly would be happy if I were MS right now. That said, the whole 'first to 10 million' game is a bit of a racket. Who knows what the Wii is going to do post Christmas? It's a wildcard if there ever was one.

Embassy @ Dec 6th 2006 2:57PM

b33

and look where that "terrible" start has gotten them..??...

was it a messed up launch..??..hell yeh...most are....

but i think its crytal clear NOW..that the launch debacle paid off in spades.

and >

the difference between the dreamcast and 360 is the company...i think sega only had a million bucks allocated to US marketing for the deamcast...and im sure its safe to say that MS whipes their ass with a million dollars before breakfast in the morning...if the DC has the XBOX's budget..im sure it wudda lasted a hell of alot longer than it did...especially since its considered one of the better consoles(regarding games/fun factor) ever released...

JCA @ Dec 6th 2006 3:11PM

You people and your friends waiting for price drops. Give it up. It is not going to happen next year. They will release a "refresh" during 2007 but it will not be cheaper...they will increase the Hard Drive capacity, have the newer 65nm uP and maybe some other bells and whistles. This unit will replace the old one at the same price.

Predicting here that the Core System just flat out goes away.

Pete C @ Dec 6th 2006 3:00PM

"For that to happen, they would have to sell around 2 million 360's in 25 days. I don't see that happening."

Right, because you know how many they sold in November. Nobody knows the true figures yet.

Ben @ Dec 6th 2006 5:15PM

Some facts you might have not known:

NPD data does not include Wal-Mart stores. Yea...that's really reliable. (sarcasm).

As of December 18th, 2001, Sony only sold 6.5 million consoles, after they launched back in October of 2000. Microsoft, on the other hand, launched in November, and on December 1, are around 8 million.... Hmm.. looks like Microsoft is off to a better start than the PS2 was.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/tonyhawksproskater3/news.html?sid=2833634

ThatBozGuy @ Dec 6th 2006 3:14PM

The milestone numbers dont matter, the raw unit numbers help but also dont matter.

The real story is stickiness and legs. All those machines are loss leaders, They cost more to make and market than they sell for. So the real story is how long a machine sticks to a user and his/her interest to buy software and peripherals.

History already has taught us lessons about approachability over best or earliest machine and sony has won that going away hands down every time.

Dreamcast was first by a year and arguably the better machine but sony had the wider appeal, development and adoption.

Its not a unit number game, just look at the pc market there are arguably more dedicated pc "game" units than consoles combined and yet gaming is still not huge on the pc side apples to apples unit numbers dont matter, its perceived entertainment value and sony has been doing that right since before microsoft existed, my bets on sony and history.

Sithlet @ Dec 6th 2006 3:20PM

A 360 is my next planned purchase after an HDTV.

> @ Dec 6th 2006 3:16PM

Soory about the double post. My bad. Somehting is wonky with the commenting system here.

VampireHunter Z @ Dec 6th 2006 5:01PM

I guess historically the first console that gets to 10 million always wins. The playing field is a lot bigger these days so I believe first to 15mil is a better goal. I can't imagine that after 10mil everything will be in cruise control. PS2 sold 100mil+. 10mil is a far cry from this. But I think the biggest gain to getting there first is that they are in a better position for stronger 3rd party support.

battledrill @ Dec 6th 2006 3:42PM

I was waiting for a pricedrop and then I found it at Microcenter. $100 MIR. Got me a premium with a one year warranty which will prevent me from hassling with Microsoft to fix the machine if it breaks. I honestly feel bad or pity for some of you that are near a Microcenter and dont bother to come out and purchase one. The price drop is going to be $60 dollars at the most if we go by previous price drops.

MaX PL @ Dec 6th 2006 3:48PM

saneless, stop making excuses for the fact that youre cheap and want to mod the xbox.

i hope you never get one.

ymmv @ Dec 6th 2006 4:10PM

MS will easily reach that target. They sold about 1.6 to 1.8 million Xbox 1's in nov & dec in the US alone. The Xbox 360 will probably do better. And then there's Europe where the only competition will be the Wii. No PS3 in sight. The 360 will do very well here.

X @ Dec 6th 2006 4:54PM

HA, HA, HA $ONY FANBOYS EAT CROW!!!

XBOX360 ROCKS THE HOUSE!

Sloar @ Dec 6th 2006 4:15PM

@25

It's not a problem with the commenting system, it's the browser on your ps3 you're using.

Miibody @ Dec 6th 2006 4:22PM

#27 that's because they have Peter Mouthpiece Moore....the same man who was "sure" about the Dreamcast.

Wow a company mouthpiece saying his product will do great.....that's news.

I love how MS has their trolls posting in these blogs as well. Doesn't work MS! The 360 is a poorly engineered piece of crap.....everyone I know who owns one has hardware problems with it.

Pete C @ Dec 6th 2006 4:22PM

#22, you are dead wrong on both points. There will be a price drop by spring next year, and the Core isn't going anywhere. The only reason they didn't drop the price this year is due to Sony's supply woes. If you don't think they will drop price in 07, you don't really understand the console business paradigm.

Iscariote @ Dec 6th 2006 5:09PM

"All those machines are loss leaders, They cost more to make and market than they sell for."

I believe the 360 is no longer a loss leader. I read that it costs somewhere around $325 to manufacture a 360. So tack on marketing costs and shipping and MS is probably breaking even at $400 for a 360.

Jimmuy Bay @ Dec 6th 2006 4:45PM

Could somebody answer Xavier Gill's question(29) because that is what I want to know.

Jose @ Dec 6th 2006 5:04PM

To answer #29

The 360 sold 100k units in Japan in 1 day when they started the preorder of the 360/Blue Dragon bundle. On December 7th there will be 100k more 360 consoles in Japaness Consumers Hands.

As far as numbers goes, id suggest we wait to see tommorows NDP numbers to see how well November went.

BklynKid @ Dec 6th 2006 9:16PM

#33, do you actually have more than one friend against which that "statistic" can be put against?

daxiang12 @ Dec 6th 2006 6:03PM

Ben,
As much as I hope X360 will sell 10 million by year's end, the article you quote said that PS2 sold 6.5 million from the launch to Dec. 18th, 2001 in US alone. 8 million for X360 is the global stats.

MACDAD @ Dec 6th 2006 6:50PM

XBOX 360 SALES! What everyone wants to know. First of all if you are an Xbox 360, Sony PS3, or Nintendo Wii fanboy get lost. This is not for fanboys and I am tired of all the trolling.

Now for sales.

US and Europe actually have the two largest markets and dwarf that of Japan by twice as much. In fact last generation the PS2 sold over 40 + million units in both Europe and the US while it barely sold over 20 million in Japan. Therefore it is very possible a console need only to excel in Europe and the US to win a generation.

Furthermore the Xbox 360 has SOLD over 8+ million units worldwide. This is faster that the PS2 sold in its first year. This is a huge feat considering the Xbox 360 has not even had its price drop like the PS2 did have in its first year on the market.

Secondly Microsoft now makes approx. $80.00 per Xbox 360 Premium sold.

This is before the new 65nanometer chip is out. Therefore it is reasonably to think that the Xbox 360 will have a $100.00 price drop next year which will be more than the PS3 could fathom since Sony is still working out Production issues on its current Version 1 PS3.

It is pretty clear that Microsoft will undoubtedly finish 1st this generation because they in fact will be over 10,000,000 by December 31 of this year.

Keep in mind that the PS3 wont even be launching in Europe until MArch of next year at the earliest. By this time the PS3 will be competing with the Xbox 360 with an installed base worldwide of about 14 Million units.

There is no sense in arguing about the success of the Xbox 360. It is a Success.

It will more than likely win this generation. The question now is who will come in second. Either the PS3 or the Wii.

Until the PS3 gets production issues resolved it looks like the Wii has the best shot at reaching the coveted second place. However as we all know the Wii's graphics are less than spectacular and it may not have staying power.

The battle really isnt between the Xbox 360,PS3, or the Wii anymore. The 360 barring catastophic production inability will win.

Anyone who is considering the Xbox 360 to be the next dreamcast is sorely naive. The Xbox 360 by the end of its this year will have matched the Dreamcast lifetime sales. In fact it will actually have sold more than the Sega Saturn.

This is all within its first year. When the price drop happens it will even sell more.

Bottomline stop trolling about the system being a failure. If you dont like the games for it thats your opinion. Then again I dont see how thats possible because it has more games than both the PS3 and Wii combined. Therefore talking about its games like they suck means your a fanboy and have nothing better to do but troll.

Peace,

MacDAD

rip @ Dec 6th 2006 7:41PM

@MACDAD

"There is no sense in arguing about the success of the Xbox 360. It is a Success.

It will more than likely win this generation. The question now is who will come in second. Either the PS3 or the Wii.

Until the PS3 gets production issues resolved it looks like the Wii has the best shot at reaching the coveted second place. However as we all know the Wii's graphics are less than spectacular and it may not have staying power.

The battle really isnt between the Xbox 360,PS3, or the Wii anymore. The 360 barring catastophic production inability will win."

Good lord, talk about fanboyism right there.

Umm, maybe you missed the recent articles stating that Nintendo is increasing it's Wii sales forecast and is now looking to sell well over 6 million units by March. At that rate, they will could easily reach xbox 360's 10 million in the 13-14 months from launch.

And using the numbers YOU used, the xbox should be at 14 million installed. The Wii could be at 10-12 million. Hardly a resounding victory for a console that launched a full year earlier.

In other words, the Wii is looking like it will match or exceed xbox 360 sales. In other words, Nintendo would be competing for the number one spot.

Your dreaming if you think the fight for #1 is over and the 360 won. PS2 sales started slowly due to production shortages, questionable build quality and a very weak launch library. Those are pretty crippling problems, but look where the PS2 ended.

As for the graphics quality of the Wii, are you kidding? Your using that as an argument? Everyone in the world knows the graphics are weak, but everyone seems not to care. Review after review comes out saying the Wii is wildly fun to play and recommend the system.

Yes the 360 has had nice sales. But to make such grand statements like you've done is absurd.

Oh, and finally, the Wii launch numbers blew the doors off of the 360. Wii is projecting to sell 4 million in it's first 40 days.

Jeramy @ Dec 6th 2006 10:44PM

i know a number of people buying a 360 before the end of the year, so it's possible.

as for the head-start, i think it was a great move. enough people have boughten a 360 now to cement it in as a competitor to the playstation brand. and plus there will be an ample supply. granted the hardware may be inferior to the ps3 (barely, and even then i'm giving it up just to move on), but the hardcore crowd is the only one lamenting. 360 has a great software lineup and ms has the perfect hand.

Brad Lee @ Dec 7th 2006 12:23AM

I don't really know if MS can pull it off or not, but if they don't they're idiots. Since Sony has been getting such horrible publicity all MS needs to do is show confidence and they'll look like the better option and attract more sales.

So, if they DON'T achieve their 10mil goal, after yapping about it so much, they'll look foolish. They'll 'pull a Sony' so to speak.

@ rip

I wouldn't call him a fanboy. He has some good points, but I do agree with you that Wii is the console MS should be worried about. It's like PS3 isn't even in the equation anymore. Wii and 360 both will benefit from high supply and sales through the rest of this year and early next. Meanwhile, Sony will struggle to get PS3s to USA and Japan, AND they'll have to scrounge up units for their Europe launch as well. All the while Wii and 360 will be selling like crazy.

I think 360 vs. Wii is going to be an interesting battle, especially if 360 drops $50-$100 starting next year. A price drop, coupled with Halo 3 (or a bundle deal) would drive sales through the roof, which will (of course) create a duel against Wii's upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid, and Mario Galaxy. Yes, that should definitely make for an interesting fight.

All the while Sony fans will have to wait a year for their big titles. Heck, they may have to wait a year just to get a PS3. I'm glad I was never that big a fan of Final Fantasy or Metal Gear... or I'd be pissed right about now.