Microsoft hails record month for console, declares 2010 “biggest year in Xbox history” with 42% sales spike year-over-year; ongoing Kinect shortages predicted.
Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft announced three milestones for the Xbox 360. The console’s worldwide installed base has now reached 50 million, with 30 million Xbox Live members currently active. The company’s new motion-sensing system, Kinect, also shipped 8 million units during its first 60 days on sale.
Today, prior to the NPD Group releasing its annual and December sales date, Microsoft announced more sales milestones for the Xbox 360. In December, the console sold 1.9 million units domestically, the largest one-month haul in the platform’s history. The month also saw two multiplatform titles for the console–Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin’s Creed–and one exclusive–Kinect Sports–crack NPD’s top 10. (The full top 10 was not released by Microsoft.)
Microsoft also revealed some yearly stats for the console. Though it did not release total 2010 sales numbers for the Xbox 360, it did say domestic sales were up 42 percent year-over-year for the console. With a little more than 4.77 million units sold in the US in 2009, that means around 6.77 million Xbox 360s were sold in 2010. The company also said that more money was spent on Xbox 360 products than any other platform, totaling $6.2 billion including games.
Microsoft also warned that its Kinect motion-sensing system will be in short supply through March. The company said that in order to keep up with demand in December, it “pulled units from its January and February production.” Apparently that wasn’t even enough, with the company saying that the add-on sold out in many locales.
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