Microsoft Celebrates Sales Success at CES

[Logan Westbrook]

Microsoft Celebrates Sales Success at CES

Everything seems to be on the up for the Xbox 360, especially sales of a certain motion controller.

Microsoft revealed a trio of sales triumphs for the Xbox 360 at its press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show last night. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that more people were playing on the Xbox 360 than ever before, both online and off.

According to Ballmer, the install base of the Xbox 360 had now passed the 50 million mark. He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months. Xbox Live had also reached a significant milestone, with 30 million registered accounts on the service and a new user signing up every two seconds.

Probably the biggest cause for celebration in the Microsoft camp, however, was the success of Kinect. Spending nearly half a billion dollars on marketing seems to have paid off, as the motion controller sold eight million units in just sixty days. This represents an attach rate of just over 15%, which aligns nicely with predictions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102028-Kinect-Could-Give-Microsoft-Billion-Dollar-Revenue-Boost-Says-Analyst] made by market analyst Sandeep Aggarwal in July, who also said that Kinect would boost Microsoft revenue by a billion dollars in the first year.

Source: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/ces-kinect-sells-over-8-million-360-breaks-50-million-190914.phtml]






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[z3rostr1fe]

90% of those Kinect sales may have been attributed to people dismantling and hacking the thing, plus people playing games that allows you to play with jiggle physics.

 

[mad825]

Too bad the hype doesn't live-up to it's name. Damn you capitalist swine.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

90% of those Kinect sales may have been attributed to people dismantling and hacking the thing, plus people playing games that allows you to play with jiggle physics.

No chance... more likely that less than 10% of sales were by hackers.

OT: Well I'm still really enjoying my Xbox... and my brother got Kinect and I have to say it is pretty damn good, can't wait for some of the more hardcore titles to come out on it.

The rich get richer and I'm all right with that.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Every 2 seconds? The Xbox is more popular than Farmville!

 

[DTWolfwood]

congratz on owning the US HD console market that you've already owned for the last 3 years Microsoft. lol

Now if you have news on how your doing in Europe and Japan, i'd like to hear about that.

 

[Danpascooch]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

Xbox Live had also reached a significant milestone, with 30 million registered accounts on the service and a new user signing up every two seconds.

Definitely the best part of the 360, but I can't really celebrate because I'm sure they are including non-paying silver members in this figure, and who gives a crap about that?

Probably the biggest cause for celebration in the Microsoft camp, however, was the success of Kinect.

Aw crap

 

[Danpascooch]

90% of those Kinect sales may have been attributed to people dismantling and hacking the thing, plus people playing games that allows you to play with jiggle physics.

You're not serious are you? Do you have any idea how many middle aged moms bought this thing for their kids?

My bet is about 2% of them were bought for hacking, this thing sold a TON of units, and your average person doesn't buy ANYTHING to "hack" it.

 

[Delusibeta]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

 

[Baresark]

LoL, what would people expect? It's new and shiny and nice, and even though the games aren't mind shattering, it's new and different enough that people will of course buy it for their kids and themselves over the Xmas holiday.

Personally, I think the things they are doing with it after hacking the drivers is far more interesting than any games I have seen on it. Microsoft should endorse this versus railing against it like little children.

 

[Danpascooch]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

That only shows the entire year, not just the last 6 months.

 

[Danpascooch]

LoL, what would people expect? It's new and shiny and nice, and even though the games aren't mind shattering, it's new and different enough that people will of course buy it for their kids and themselves over the Xmas holiday.

Personally, I think the things they are doing with it after hacking the drivers is far more interesting than any games I have seen on it. Microsoft should endorse this versus railing against it like little children.

I haven't seen them railing against it, do you have a link? In fact, I believe they said they left the connection purposely unencypted or something to that effect.

Anyway, it's only a good thing for Microsoft since they turn a profit on each Kinect sold, although if they didn't, I could understand being annoyed at the hacks.

 

[Ghengis John]

*Sigh.* Just another thing that has become too popular despite under-par quality. AKA Justin Bieber and Twilight.

I have one and it's pretty darned fun. I mean you can lie, only you would know the truth but... have you tried it?

As for Kinect's success I'm happy to see it's coming together for them, if only because I feel this form of motion controller has a lot more promise than the wand method nintendo and sony are adopting. Of course the final analysis remains to be seen. Will they actually SUPPORT the thing?

 

[Baresark]

LoL, what would people expect? It's new and shiny and nice, and even though the games aren't mind shattering, it's new and different enough that people will of course buy it for their kids and themselves over the Xmas holiday.

Personally, I think the things they are doing with it after hacking the drivers is far more interesting than any games I have seen on it. Microsoft should endorse this versus railing against it like little children.

I haven't seen them railing against it, do you have a link? In fact, I believe they said they left the connection purposely unencypted or something to that effect.

Anyway, it's only a good thing for Microsoft since they turn a profit on each Kinect sold, although if they didn't, I could understand being annoyed at the hacks.

It was my mistake, I wrote that in haste and was thinking about the article about the Kinect and a porn game. My bad, your right, they aren't railing against it. And you are completely right, they make money no matter what by selling them, all the rest is after that fact.

Really, if you think about it, they could only do themselves a favor by endorsing home made products that use their technology. They don't charge anyone to use their "controller", only to buy it.

 

[Delusibeta]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

That only shows the entire year, not just the last 6 months.

Hmm...

http://www.vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons[]=Wii&cons[]=PS3&cons[]=X360&cons[]=PSP&cons[]=DS®[]=America&start=40398&end=40545

I still call shenanigans.

 

[Danpascooch]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

That only shows the entire year, not just the last 6 months.

Hmm...

http://www.vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons[]=Wii&cons[]=PS3&cons[]=X360&cons[]=PSP&cons[]=DS®[]=America&start=40398&end=40545

I still call shenanigans.

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 01st Aug 2010 to 01st Jan 2011:

Console X360
America

5,908,438



VGChartz Hardware data for the period 01st Aug 2010 to 01st Jan 2011:

Console Wii
America

5,963,463

That is for the past six months from your own source.

I know it says Wii is more, but it is SO close (they are 0.93% different, LESS THAN A PERCENT DIFFERENT) that I am willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt here, I mean, the real interval would be August 6 to January 6, not August 1st to January 1st, and there has to a margin of error on that thing.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Microsoft may be celebrating, but I think they might be celebrating a bit too soon. While Kinect did quite well for itself over the holidays, that wasn't really much of a shock. Heck, it was released just before the holidays and had a massive marketing campaign. Quite frankly, it would be pathetic if it sold poorly right off the bat.

However, what was most notable about the holiday season sales wasn't the Kinect sales themselves, but the fact that, aside from the bundled-in Kinect Adventures, none of the Kinect software managed to break the top 10. This even caught me by suprise, since I honestly expected that at least Dance Central would chart at the top of the list. While it didn't sell poorly, it's not exactly turning out to be the "killer-app" many people were expecting it to be. Heck, even the Wii equivalent, Just Dance 2, managed to achieve a position among the top 10.

What this indicates is that consumers aren't primarily purchasing Kinect for the software, but for the novelty of the device (unless Kinect Adventures is a killer-app, but I don't see any major phenomenon around that game). That is fine...for a little while. Ultimately, though, it is the software that sells hardware. If consumers will not find anything compelling about the games themselves, Kinect momentum is going to drop off quite quickly.

There was once a console add-on that sold so well over the holidays that the supply could not keep up with the demand. However, the sales of games for the add-on were disappointing, which resulted in a quick decline of sales of the add-on and the retirement of said add-on just a scant few months later. That add-on....was the Sega 32X. While I seriously doubt that Kinect's fate will be exactly the same (if nothing else, it has already garnered more success thanks to the fact that the market is much bigger and more globalised nowadays), the high sales of the add-on itself and the relatively low sales of the actual software could be indicators that history is repeating itself.

I guess we will just have to wait and see how it holds up in the next few months.

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

This is Microsoft we are talking about. "Talking out of their arse" is what they do best. Afterall, in the end, Microsoft is first and foremost a marketing company:

 

[crimson5pheonix]

He added that that the 360 had been the top-selling console in the US for the last six months.

Seriously? More than the Wii!? WOOOOOOOOOOO! I knew that little white dell-quality box would lose momentum!

VG Chartz [http://www.vgchartz.com/hw_annual_summary.php] says "Nope." Unless you can find a better source, I'm going to assume he's talking out of his arse.

That only shows the entire year, not just the last 6 months.

Hmm...

http://www.vgchartz.com/hwtable.php?cons[]=Wii&cons[]=PS3&cons[]=X360&cons[]=PSP&cons[]=DS®[]=America&start=40398&end=40545

I still call shenanigans.

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 01st Aug 2010 to 01st Jan 2011:

Console X360
America

5,908,438



VGChartz Hardware data for the period 01st Aug 2010 to 01st Jan 2011:

Console Wii
America

5,963,463

That is for the past six months from your own source.

I know it says Wii is more, but it is SO close (they are 0.93% different, LESS THAN A PERCENT DIFFERENT) that I am willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt here, I mean, the real interval would be August 6 to January 6, not August 1st to January 1st, and there has to a margin of error on that thing.

Better yet, use July to January. That's actually 6 months. And in that six months, 360 wins 6,370,170 to 6,240,262.