thismeintiel said: I believe it was confirmed in June's NPD article that at least the 360's from the "Back To School" giveaway were included with NPD's numbers. Though, I don't think those have any effect on Dec, as the sale was over. |
Maybe someone who was monitoring this closer than me would know, but based on the monthly numbers, the Back To School promos didn't seem to have a massive effect on the numbers for Aug/Sept, seeing as how sales didn't spike unusually high until November and that was almost entirely due to Black Friday sales.
I'm pretty sure the Back To School promo wasn't the only way to get a free Xbox though.
But even if they were free, technically someone paid for it even if it was MS. So, unless a cargo ship full of consoles goes to the bottom of the ocean or never reaches consumer hands, eventually any unit shipped = a unit sold.