Xbox 360 outsells the original Xbox, Microsoft heads down to the trophy shop
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 25th 2008 11:42AM
posted November 25th 2008 11:42AM
In the manner of a modern day fable on par with The Little Engine That Could or Rocky, Microsoft has just announced that sales of the Xbox 360 have outraced total sales of the original Xbox, a mere two days after the 360's third birthday on November 22. Do you feel yourself getting teary-eyed? Sure, the gang in Redmond could have stopped believing, or reaching for that rainbow (or whichever tired cliché you prefer), but it looks like all the hard work has paid off -- Microsoft has won a race with itself, and in doing so has given us all hope. To put this in perspective, a total of 25 million original Xboxes were sold during its lifecycle of November 2001 - May, 2005 (roughly three and a half years). The company has yet to release precise sales figures for the 360, but between price cuts in Europe, Black Friday, and the New Xbox Experience, they expect to ride out the tail end of this year with a huge sales boost. Great job, guys! We knew that some day your company would be a success.
[Via Joystiq]
[Via Joystiq]
Wow, I wouldn't say Xbox live was a rip off, it's a solid gaming service and isn't too expensive.
£40 (in the UK) for a year, that works out at less than a pound a week to T bag your adversaries on COD4 and GoW2.
If you don't want to game online just get a FREE silver membership for movie/game download etc.
oh I also had a video blow-out with my first console after 1 month of hardcore 1080p use, wasn't a prob though as Gamestation swapped my harddrive into a new console and dealt with the rest.
Good to hear it's doing well as it blows PS3 out of the water IMO.
If you shop around online, you can find 13 months of Xbox Live Gold for £26.
£2 a month is expensive compared to the opposition (i.e. free) but you're getting easily the best online experience possible on a console.
If the 360 could be hacked to use XBMC and let me play any HD content I would have purchased 3 of them like I did with original xbox (which I still use as a media center).
I actually got an Xbox 1 jumping ship from Nintendo (had already bought a Gamecube and was disappointed). Halo 1 surprised the hell out of me. It was one of those long lasting gaming memories for me, up there with games like Mario, Mario 3, Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye 64, etc.
I've been an Xbox fan since. I do also have a PS3 and a Wii, but the Xbox 360 easily gets my vote for best GAME console.
ah YEEEAAAH!
I did the same, was a long time GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (N64) fan, and Halo provided me with my next love
Yeah, Perfect Dark 64 was another one. The "combat simulator" was the most extensive offline multiplayer setup I had ever seen. You could add like 8 bots, each with a different personality and difficulty. I remember putting in the expansion pack to play in highres. It got so hot, we had to put and icepack on it or it would lock up. lol..
I'm actually really surprised considering the modibility of both machines. The original xbox owns re: this area. There will always be a place in my entertainment center for it!
Congratulations!
It's all that return business. I don't know anyone that's managed to get away with buying only a single 360 on account of how frequently they RROD.
How do you do Veraxus? My name is Kali4. It's nice to meet you. Oh, by the way; I only bought one (1) Xbox 360. Yes, it got the RROD. It was replaced for free.
@ Veraxus. My Xbox was RROD and was replaced for free as well. They even threw in two months of Xbox Live for compensation. I'll never complain about all I've got back from the Xbox and Live experience. It was a value when it was twice the price. Congrats Xbox team...
Hello Veraxus. I have only bought only one Xbox 360. It is 3 years old now. Still running just fine thank you.
Why hello there my xbox did not RROD is simply go bricked by the fall update last year, Costco gave me a new one for free that had an HDMI port on the back and gave me back my old HDD. I recently bought a 37" 1080P monitor for my PC it happened to have an HDMI port. Left 4 Dead is the most fun 3 friends can have right now.
I bet I helped a bit. I just bought one yesterday. ;)
im surprised it took this long. Almost everyone I know has a 360
[ot]Love your avatar, man! ;)[/ot]
Ye, It is a nice variation on the CS3 icon. What does Vs stand for exactly? My initial thought was visual studio.
@Skyride
my wildest of the wildest guesses would be "vdogg89".
Hey, does the 360 have any big upcoming exclusives next year? I'm not sure If I should buy it this late into race. Gears of War 2 almost made me buy it, but I was held back by LBP.
http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=2009+Xbox+360+exclusives
Why not? At this point they're practically giving them away.
I hear PS3 is getting close to selling as many units as PS2 did also.
i find that hard to believe... sony still sells a lot of PS2's.
isnt it still a top5 console in sales?
im pretty sure guitar hero and rock bad are the only thing selling ps2 now sense there not available for xbox original. and not every one can poney up for the pro system who the fuck would buy an arcade? ill take backward compatibility any day.
@ matthew,
that's highly improbable as the PS2 is probably* still outselling the PS3, making catch-up exponentially difficult.
@john,
Rock Band and GH are probably good reasons, but it's also that PS2 is so damn cheap. it's probably selling like hotcakes in developing countries where people can't afford or justify the purchase of a PS3.
I wish all my friends weren't poor asses. Only one of them have a 360.
M$ may be the big evil corporation in a lot of ways, but I gotta give 'em big props on this one. The 360 is hands-down the best console ever made, and an extremely good value. Sure the RROD issue was inexcusable, but they took care of it at a huge expense to themselves. And they are doing things to continue the goodwill, such as releasing NXE, and that was WELL above the call. NXE rocks, and it's almost like having a new console, for free. Avatars, parties, Netflix streaming... nicely done! And the available games... amazing!
I feel well taken care of by Microsoft on this purchase.
When you are the underdog in a business...you need to go above and beyond the veterans to prove your self.
@Nomi Or pump yourself up by selling alot of cheap consoles that don't appeal to anyone who buys games. Theres a reason most Xbox users have a pile of 360 games and a random amount of points they've spent on arcade titles and why Wii Sports is still the most played Wii title and often the only one owned. Basically if nintendo didn't overclock the Gamecube to basically remove development costs and ensure they were making a profit on the hardware they'd be in Sony's boat without Blu-Ray sales. Most 'casual' gamers don't even know that other Wii games exist. Wii boxing anyone?
What is XBOX360?
no comment
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=xbox+360&form=QBRE
Microsoft really has done well in this segment. They remain solidly in the top 10 of console sales. They remain among the top 50% in customer satisfaction and I think most outside observers would consider them one of the top 10,000 companies in innovation! Congratulations Microsoft! You deserve it!
i agree. i'm def a satisfied customer, whose gladly willing to pay $50/yr (see: relatively nothing) for XBL and deal with RROD's. yes, i've only had 1 RROD in the past two years, and MS turned it around in no time. otherwise, the "experience" (no pun intended) is amazing.
I think it's good that the pun wasn't intended, because if it were you didn't succeed ;)
This is good news, didn't Microsoft say that if the 360 wasn't successful (as in made them money) they were getting out of the console race.
25 million doesn't win you a console race. Outselling a console that lost you a few billion dollars doesn't mean much as well.
Microsoft can't pat itself on the back until the Xbox brand turns an overall profit. Something it is still far from doing. The RRoD debacle put Microsoft in the hole for the entire 360 lifecycle. Microsoft will need the 720 or 1080 or XBOX built like a tank to put the division in the black.
At this point in the original Xbox's life it was being called a failure and the 360 was getting ready to launch. If Microsoft hopes to give the 360 the kind of life it needs to even come close to the PS2 they need to hold off the next XBOX for at least 4 more years.
Im sorry, but it wasn't hard to outsell the original xbox, that much is very true. But, congrats Micosoft, you have discovered something we like to call profit! Yippee!
I bought my 360 completely on impulse. I walked into a game shop, watched a video of G.R.A.W, and was immediately £330 out of pocket - the explosions :bowdown:
For the record I didn't get the RRoD until August 2008 - 2 years and 5 months after buying it.
I bought my 360 around the same time, still no RROD yet, but it is loud as hell
Wonder how many of those "sales" where the
same people re-purchasing a new box to replace
a defective one. I've bought 2 so far, and now the
Second one is red ringed already after six months.
Just saying those numbers aren't telling the real
Truth.
"Microsoft has won a race with itself"—Hilarious!
"We knew that some day your company would be a success."—Actually, Microsoft is a successful company and has been for the past 20-something years. They just make really crashy, sorry, crappy OS.
25 million less 30% failure replacements, yes I own one and luv it. But there are lies, damn lies and statistical production counts. If I wasn't a 360 fan, it would have been higher than 30%.
360 will never outsell the ps2 ever because the only people who play 360 are Americans....They have the majority of there sales from the US and get no love around the world...If you like shooting people all damn day 360 is a great system for you if you like other types of games you wont find any good ones on 360 so your either a shooter or the 360 is a waste for you...ONly time i boot my 360 up is for GEARS OF WAR 2 other than that it stays off and ps3 gets the love in my house...Let alone they rip us off for this xbox live BS...i already pay for highspeed what a rip off
Very disappointing.....This is why they stop the oringinal xbox. >:( they should have kept on going if they ever ported halo 3 on the xbox 1 which is possible.Xbox handle halflife 2 like a charm so it could handle many 360 games but they deny.All of us should buy a xbox 1 and try to bring back the glory days even though i have a ps3 and a 360 the xbox 1 in my opinion is the best console. This console was out for 4 years and it started to end lets bring it back