Microsoft has been doing rather well in sales of its Xbox 360 console, so strong that supply is running low. Director of Programming Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) has come out and said that demand is high that Microsoft has literally “run out” of the consoles. With stock also being extremely tight in January and February, Major Nelson was quick to point out “that if they didn’t get first place in console sales from the NPD group with their results today, it would be due to strong sales, and not the opposite”.

According to what NPD is reporting, Microsoft Xbox 360 was the only console to see year-over-year growth through December at 42%. This makes the Xbox 360 the fastest-growing console for 2010. The records are showing a total of $6.2 billion was sold in 2010, this means that most of the money that was spent at retail outlets was spent on the Xbox 360, versus the other available consoles. For the month of  December, Microsoft sold 1.9 million consoles which marks the biggest month for the Xbox 360 yet. The highlight reel from NPD also points out the top 10 selling video games in December, 3 of them were launched on the Xbox 360 -Call of Duty: Black Ops (which was also a multi-platform release). Kinect Sports, and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (which was another multi-platform title). We’re still waiting to see numbers from Nintendo and Sony before we can see how the console race is going. Do you think that the success of the Xbox 360 could mostly be attributed to the Kinect or is there another factor that helped?

Highlight Reel

December 2010 NPD highlights include:

· Xbox 360 was the only console to show year-over-year growth at 42%, making it the fastest-growing console in 2010. (Source: NPD Group, December 2010)
· With $6.2 billion spent at retail, more money was spent on Xbox 360 than any current generation console in 2010. (Source: NPD Group, December 2010)
· December Xbox 360 console sales remained strong, with 1.9 million units sold, our biggest month ever in the history of Xbox 360. (Source: NPD Group, December 2010)
· During the month of December, three of the top ten console game titles were for Xbox 360 including: “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood,” and “Kinect Sports.” (Source: NPD Group, December 2010)

In order to keep up with holiday demand in December for Xbox 360 and Kinect, Microsoft pulled units from its January and February production. Despite this, Microsoft still experienced out of supply situations in late December, and it expects supply constraint to continue in January and February as it works with retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments to replenish the channel.

Stay tuned for more info on this topic, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and/or subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Authors: V_Geek

to know more click here