Microsoft confident this feat puts the console in a strong position to win the generation battle.
Microsoft has announced that its Xbox 360 console has become the fist console of the current generation to reach 10 million unit sales in the US. Reuters reports that the Wii is closing in fast though, already totaling 8.8 million units as of March 31, 2008. Data from research firm NPD puts PS3 sales in the US at 4.1 million units.
"This year will be the largest in the history of the video game industry, with Xbox 360 leading the charge in the U.S. and abroad," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry."
Rather embarrassingly Microsoft also announced that its worldwide sales of over 19 million sales are "more than any other current-generation console", despite the fact Wii sales currently stand at over 24.5 million units. After being questioned by Kotaku, the platform holder admitted it had made an error. According to an MS rep the company's press release had meant to say that the Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any "current gen high definition gaming console".
BrokenDesign wrote at 07:30 on 24 May 2008
My favorite part about this article is how MS says this is such a big deal that will contribute to them winning. Evidentely they're grasping for straws, considering they had a year head start on the competition and the Wii is rapidly closing in on them. Hell, the Wii would've surpassed them by now if it weren't for the fact it's been incredibly hard to find for a great long while.