Xbox 360 to surpass original Xbox in units sold

by James Ransom-Wiley { Nov 14th 2008 at 3:29PM }

Following October's sales boost, Xbox 360 is now poised to do in three years what its predecessor, Xbox, failed to do in its four short years in production. "By the end of this month, we expect our global installed base to reach 25 million units, surpassing that of the first Xbox," declared Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division CFO Mindy Mount at yesterday's BMO Capital Market conference in New York. Mount was confident that this milestone was "only the start," though, since historically, more than 75 percent of a console's total sales come after its price has dropped to $199 or below.

And here's the part where we all say: Great, kid. Don't get cocky.

Tags: install-base, microsoft, xbox

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

BlackFreefall @ Nov 14th 2008 3:34PM

Xbox: 360, I am your father.
360: noooooooo

I just have to do it.

jonbo298 @ Nov 14th 2008 3:36PM

It's amazing how far the 360 has come with all its massive failure rates that *seem* to be slowly improving. Though they better hurry up with that sub-$199 non-crippled 360 to get sales going.

KD @ Nov 14th 2008 4:15PM

Just an FYI, but Wal-mart in Canada is selling arcades for $177 Canadian (and with the 20% diff in US money), means if you live near the border you can get a 360 REALLY cheap - about $140 US.

Just a thought.

Zeus.:God @ Nov 14th 2008 5:37PM

"Seems" to be improving? A failure rate is pretty much non-existent with the last two board revisions.

halo 3 sucks. @ Nov 14th 2008 7:40PM

"Seems" to be improving? Did you see the NPD charts?

Blank-Mage @ Nov 15th 2008 1:03AM

I would agree with Zeus, but my Xbox got the ring last week, so I wouldn't be sincere.

Enduro @ Nov 16th 2008 9:17PM

The Canadian dollar is actually equal or more valuable than the US dollar now-a-days. Breaking news: Everything in the US is seriously ----ed. Story at 11.

Neuromancer @ Nov 14th 2008 3:36PM

Hehe

"Mindy Mount"

Paulmichael @ Nov 14th 2008 3:49PM

Mount, Mindy please come up to the front.

Misfit Toy @ Nov 14th 2008 5:56PM

You need to stop riding that thought and dismount that dirty thinking now before someone gets hurt.

Dale @ Nov 15th 2008 1:19AM

If you saw her, you wouldn't want to mount her. She was my boss (and, oddly, would've been everyone at Joystiq's boss too but for the grace of the god of career changes).

Misfit Toy @ Nov 15th 2008 10:37AM

I don't think anyone noticed the finer intricacies of my previous post...sigh.

iFester @ Nov 14th 2008 3:37PM

That image is priceless! Great Photoshop work there. :)

a ham sandwich @ Nov 14th 2008 3:37PM

really?! i kinda thought it HAD already surpassed that milestone. hmm. either way, its still a good sign. plus, if im not mistaken, microsoft stayed in the red during the entirety of the original xbox's lifetime. now they're already turning a profit with the 360. am i correct on that?

Burritoclock @ Nov 14th 2008 3:43PM

You are correct on everything you said, except for the already surpassed thing, and since you were waffely on that you got 2.5 out of 3. Not bad ace!

DBuck_Eye @ Nov 14th 2008 3:48PM

No, you're thinking of the Wii.

Ignatius @ Nov 14th 2008 4:17PM

What's scary is that the Wii is going to surpass the N64 soon...

deaftly @ Nov 14th 2008 4:22PM

YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!

HI OHHHH!

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Nov 14th 2008 4:53PM

Actually, I believe that's already happened, Ignatius.

N64 units sold: 32.93M worldwide (according to Wikipedia)
Wii units shipped: 34.55M worldwide (according to Wikipedia, as of September 30th, 2008)

Given that the figure is over a month old, and that Wii consoles sell out like crazy... It's surely passed N64 by now.

Mr Khan @ Nov 14th 2008 4:53PM

Wii HAS surpassed N64. The next target is the SNES

a ham sandwich @ Nov 14th 2008 4:59PM

lol. thanks burrito!

Ignatius @ Nov 14th 2008 6:32PM

I think the world will end once it's lifetime sales pass the NES.

BPMOmega [gamertag] @ Nov 16th 2008 3:38AM

NES topped off at 61.91M worldwide... which the PS2 doubled.

343 Guilty Fart @ Nov 14th 2008 3:43PM

I am an Xbox, like my father before me!

Shagittarius @ Nov 14th 2008 3:45PM

Hand me my console, its the one that says bad mothergamer.

Jake11- Born and raised in W. Philly @ Nov 14th 2008 3:48PM

let's get at least 5 years out of this on, ok Microsoft?

MadBeagle01 @ Nov 14th 2008 3:53PM

My original Xbox crapped out on me early with one of their faulty Thompson drives, so I refuse to buy a 360 while they have known RROD issues.

josh @ Nov 14th 2008 5:24PM

the new 360s dont have RRoD issues do they? i have one of the falcon chipset ones and have been going strong for almost a year now...

xFenixKnightx @ Nov 14th 2008 4:08PM

Anybody else hear that broken record?

KingOfGods @ Nov 14th 2008 4:10PM

Haha way to hold a grudge

Dave @ Nov 14th 2008 4:56PM

I believe the primary issue causing the failure has been fixed with the introduction of the new Falcon chip and larger heat sinks. I would say this "issue" IS fixed.

Dirty @ Nov 14th 2008 4:59PM

My og box was blasted by a shotgun, ran over by a van, was in 2 earthquakes and a hurricane...... kept on going. That thing was a beast.

(parts of this post may have been slightly exaggerated for dramatic value)

WiNG [Life in a Game] @ Nov 14th 2008 4:06PM

Hold on, shouldn't the 360 be Yoda, and Vader is the PS3, and.... Ivy is copy/pasted 20x in the background for good measure?

Hala Madrid!! (THE BIRD IS THE WORD!!) @ Nov 14th 2008 4:12PM

Did you read the title?

This is not about 360 vs PS3 dude.

WiNG [Life in a Game] @ Nov 14th 2008 4:29PM

Yes, I read the whole article. It was informative and well crafted.

It was just a joke. I play Soul Calibur 4 on 360 a lot, so seeing any kind of SW reference to 360 makes me think of Soul Calibur.

Nick @ Nov 14th 2008 4:08PM

360 is the new PS2

Burritoclock @ Nov 14th 2008 4:11PM

Actually I think the Wii would be the PS2, the PS3 would be the original xbox, and the 360 is some sort of weird hybrid thing...

ryan @ Nov 14th 2008 4:22PM

Pricing and the huge library of quality games available(real key here)

Yeah, it's safe to say the 360 is the new PS2.

Burritoclock @ Nov 14th 2008 4:24PM

You say tomato, I say semantics...

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 14th 2008 4:28PM

The wii is the ps2 sales wise

360/ps3 is the ps2 games wise

All that means is that there's no ps2 this gen.

Dante G @ Nov 14th 2008 4:33PM

Actually the 360 is the new xbox

:P

Mr Khan @ Nov 14th 2008 4:57PM

The problem is that nobody is trying to do it all. For some reason, Sony is ignoring the strategy that made the PS2 so successful, which was all about a wide variety of games and good developer accessibility. Instead, they dedicated their resources to fighting for control of the hardcore market, figuring the rest would just fall into place somehow. Microsoft is only beginning to acknowledge that there is more than 1 kind of gamer.

Equally, Nintendo is obviously ignoring the capabilities of the Wiimote to provide a superior console experience, but they've ignored the demands of the core gamer for a long time, so its nothing new

Hala Madrid!! (THE BIRD IS THE WORD!!) @ Nov 14th 2008 4:58PM

@tmacairjordan87

I don't think that the PS3 is the PS2 games wise.

The PS2 has a lot more games than the PS3.

zuburi @ Nov 14th 2008 5:12PM

Actually, the 360 is the 360, the wii is the wii, and the PS3 is the PS3.

I know comparing dissimilar things to each other makes thinking easier, but it's probably for the best that you quit while we're all ahead.

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 14th 2008 5:23PM

Last I checked 8 years is > than 2 years so of course the ps2 has more games right now. I meant all the quality games go 360/ps3 while the sales go to the wii, not that the actual quality of the games on 360/ps3 are equal to the ps2 because right now I don't think either of them are close to the ps2.

Bowser the Baptist @ Nov 15th 2008 7:17AM

DS is the new PS2.

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 15th 2008 6:23PM

Nope. The ps2 had great games in just about every genre, not just Jrpgs like the DS.

Malkmus @ Nov 14th 2008 4:15PM

Yeah, I'm surprised as well that the 360 hadn't surpassed the original's sales all ready. It seems like 75 percent of the people I know have a 360, compared to 2 percent for the the original. Who cares if it did it in a year earlier than than the original, since that fourth year was its last. Obviously they didn't sell vary many that year. May as well not even count it as far as this goes.