UPDATED 13:38 EDT / NOVEMBER 30 2011

NEWS

Microsoft Boasts Biggest Sales Week in Xbox History, 1 Million Consoles Sold

The Xbox 360 has been out for almost seven years—that’s also how old Blizzard’s colossal MMO World of Warcraft is—and it’s still going extremely strong. According to the Official Microsoft Blog, last week closed the biggest sales week in Xbox 360 history: more than 960,000 units sold during the week of Black Friday.

Sales highlights from that week include,

  • Xbox 360 sold more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. alone, with more than 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours;
  • More than 750,000 Kinect for Xbox 360 sensors were sold in the U.S.–standalone and bundled.

We’ve all seen how explosively popular the Kinect has been in the past. The addition of 750k more units shipped will only further bolster its already extreme penetration of the middle-class market in the United States.

But that’s not the only surprise this high pitched sales week has for us.

“In addition to games, on Dec. 6th, the next generation of TV entertainment will begin with the availability of a new Xbox 360 experience,” writes Jeff Meisner, Editor of The Official Microsoft Blog, “and the launch of the first group of custom entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE. By the end of the year, nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Comcast and HBO GO, will be available on Xbox LIVE.”

For a while now, Microsoft has been working to position their Xbox console as a living room entertainment giant. Already, the Xbox LIVE network pipes streaming video, connects the living room cloud up to mobile gaming and entertainment, and essentially acts as an all-in-one entertainment center and set-top-box. We’ve even seen Microsoft partnering with Verizon and Comcast to bring further entertainment through their consoles.

Alongside the Kinect, the Xbox console is slowly becoming the dominant entertainment center for living rooms everywhere. Not only is it a go-to-device for video games; but as Microsoft continues to add content from HBO, Comcast, and other TV entertainment providers it will be set to overtake the market that other set-top-boxes want to enter into because it’s already in place to do so.

No need for a family with an Xbox to purchase a new device to round out their living room entertainment.

This is probably what Microsoft is counting on.


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