Xbox Scores at the Register
Selling at its highest rate yet in the UK.
Launched three years ago in North America, Xbox has gone from strength to strength. According to new information from the company, the Xbox is selling at its highest rate yet in the UK. During last week, Xbox enjoyed a 53% market share, up from 49% the week before. The reasons for this current high market share are manifold, not all of them due to Microsoft's own doing.
This holiday sees the release of several big games for the Xbox, including Fable and Halo 2, and the company's Xbox Live service continues to attract users, the service having recently passed 1m subscribers.
But Sony has also had a part in this. Sony recently announced that it will be shipping a redesigned, sleek PlayStation 2 in early November, which no doubt gave pause to would-be PlayStation 2 buyers.
This, combined with rumoured lower stock of current-model PlayStation 2 hardware, means that Microsoft's gain is at least partly due to Sony's loss.
At present, the installed base for Xbox stands at 15.5m units worldwide, with Microsoft aiming for 20m shipped by year's end.
The company is equally as confident about Xbox Live. The groundbreaking service, which allows game makers to concentrate on online play while leaving infrastructure concerns to Microsoft, now has more than 1m subscribers worldwide, with 1.5m subscribers predicted by June 2005.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games