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pokoko on 20 October 2012
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Mummelmann said:
Metallicube said:
A pretty damn impressive accomplishment considering they are coming off a predecessor that sold a measly 23 million and the entire Japanese market still refuses to buy their product.


That's actually pretty crazy. MS have done a tremendous job of getting support, fixing hardware issues and snagging massive chunks of the market. All in all, they seem like they're best set for the next generation out of all three.

Congrats and keep it up, x-box!

70m now and probably 80m+ lifetime is pretty impressive.  They really put the resources and funding into the Xbox project necessary to make it a success.  That it continued to sell well even after a major hardware fiasco is even more impressive, and I think shows just how invested Microsoft was in the 360.  I think a lot of people thought the Xbox brand would be a secondary product line for Microsoft but obviously it is not.

However, I don't really see any reason to think Microsoft is in the best position.  Despite what a lot of people think, market share does not, for the most part, carry over from one generation to the next.  Ask Sony, Nintendo, and Atari.  Though the next Xbox is a strong brand in North America, it's the weakest of the three globally.  The 360 had by far the lowest sales rate of the three major consoles, and the lowest installed base, despite having a full year's lead on the others and having spent a large amount on marketing and limited exclusives.

From my perspective, the Xbox brand is the most dependent on 3rd party games, which is why I think launching before its competition is very important.  It's always going to have the weakest launch line-up, unless Microsoft goes back to buying one year exclusives at the start of next gen or they have a Halo ready to go out the gates.  I'm not convinced the next Xbox won't finish third in sales rate once more next generation.