Xbox 360 sells 700,000 units down under


Aussie Microsoft exec says 360 to reach one million units sold in Australia/New Zealand by Christmas 2009; says 360 still "more compelling offer" than PS3 Slim.

It’s been a big month for sales figures, new consoles and price cuts, and the hardware race in Australia is showing no signs of slowing down. This week, Microsoft revealed how many 360s have been sold so far in Australia, and made a bold prediction of reaching the one million units sold mark by the end of the year.

Speaking at an Xbox 360 showcase in Sydney yesterday, group category manager for Xbox 360 in Australia Jeremy Hinton said Microsoft’s console was the fastest growing in Australia for 2009.

“We’ve just hit 700, 000 consoles sold in Australia, and we’re now finding that it’s the fastest growing console down under,” Hinton said. According to Hinton, the Xbox 360 Arcade and Pro are both selling equally well, with the Elite finding sales success in “select channels”.

“The Pro is attracting people who are looking for that additional hard drive space that the 60GB console offer; others who just want jump in a play from $AU299. At this price, the Xbox 360 is the cheapest console on the market," he said.

Hinton responded strongly to Sony’s recent announcement detailing the new PS3 Slim and price cuts for the remaining PS3 consoles, saying the 360 would still be more appealing to Aussie consumers.

“It’s only going to help them [Sony], although I don’t know that anyone was surprised by the announcement given the months of rumours before it. But it’s a long way until Christmas and I think the Australian consumer will still see the $AU299 price point of Xbox 360 as the more compelling offer," he said.

“We [Microsoft] always have things planned. In the past we might have been in third place and we might have been thinking about what Sony’s doing, but now things are different. We’ve had our Christmas plans set for a long time and they won’t change simply because Sony’s plans do.

“We [Microsoft] expect to hit a million Xbox 360 consoles sold across Australia and New Zealand by the end of this year. We’re confident we can reach this goal with the console’s current price point and the new experiences we’re bringing through Xbox Live such as Movies on Demand, Facebook and Twitter.”

Great, Microsoft is slowly building a fanbase for next gen. Congrats.

what are they saying people are dumb down under? the ps3 is the smart choice anywhere. for the price, it offers sooooo much more, sorry what a dumb thread

What's the PS3 at? If it hasn't hit a million yet, I wonder which will hit it first now that the slim is out at $500...

Edit: PS3 sits at 520k. It'll be interesting to see who hits a mill first.

Australians are seeing the better value with PS3 behind 180k and being out for a yr less then the 360 and selling for $150 more than an elite 360 and $400 more then an arcade 360.

ps3 clearly is the better choice with an almost as good online as live for free with blu-ray and etc... as ted said since ps3 is at the 520k mark it is only 180k behind so with that i believe that ps3 can reach the 1 million mark first....