Microsoft expects 1M

Friday 1 September 2006
Microsoft is so confident of Xbox 360's success in the face of the launch of PlayStation 3 this November that it's expecting to hit "a million 360 sales well ahead of Christmas".

The tech giant has "built up a good head of steam, so it certainly won't be nip and tuck," says Chris Lewis, VP for home entertainment, without actually telling us anything.

Lewis also confirms that Microsoft's confidence means there'll be no cutting the price tag on 360. During an interview with games industry publication MCV, Lewis stressed that 360 offers "great value right now and great choice thanks to the Core and Premium systems. There is plenty to be driving demand".

The numbers are certainly positive for Microsoft. There have been over 50 million downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace so far, 60% of 360 owners are Live-enabled and more than two billion Microsoft Points have been spent, with eight million Live Arcade games downloaded by an impressive 65% of the Xbox Live community. In other words, Sony has it all do to now.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.