Microsoft Sold 800,000 Xbox Consoles on Black Friday
Microsoft announced a rather astounding Black Friday sales result for its aging Xbox 360 game console.
The company said it sold more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday, more than 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours, and more than 750,000 Kinect devices.
Granted Microsoft refreshed the Xbox 360 with the Kinect sensor in 2010, but this is an essentially seven-year old console that is still outselling its newer competition. Nintendo sold only about 400,000 units in the United States during its debut week, which was considered a sell-out.
What makes Microsoft's Xbox 360 numbers even more impressive is the fact that the console appears to hold up well in comparison to previous years. According to NPD, Microsoft sold 1.37 million consoles in November 2010; 819,500 in November 2009; 836,000 in November 2008 and 770,000 in November 2007. There was no shipment estimate for November 2011.

Why because they bought a console for probably $120 that will last a few years and didn't wait to buy a $600 console next year that will probably be buggy and not have a lot of optimized games like ANY new console does when it launches?
Not everyone is willing to wait to be able to play Halo 4 or use the console as a media player (which it does very well). Let's not forget its capabilities as a streaming (netflix) or Downloaded Content player (new movies).
Not everyone wants to shell out $100 for something that only plays videos, they might want the enhanced functionality of a game console, even if it is long in the tooth with a newer box right around the corner.
Not everyone is willing to wait to be able to play Halo 4 or use the console as a media player (which it does very well). Let's not forget its capabilities as a streaming (netflix) or Downloaded Content player (new movies).
Not everyone wants to shell out $100 for something that only plays videos, they might want the enhanced functionality of a game console, even if it is long in the tooth with a newer box right around the corner.
Why because they bought a console for probably $120 that will last a few years and didn't wait to buy a $600 console next year that will probably be buggy and not have a lot of optimized games like ANY new console does when it launches?
$60 a month for live for Netflix + most online apps, PS3 does win in that respect for Netflix atleast, plus has the advantage of a Bluray player
Now I have a new 7 year of library of exclusive games to discover.
There's a reason they call it "The American Way".
I got one just because I work at a used game store, and never owned a 360. Now when I get the time I'll be able to pretty much get every game for at buy prices of under $5-10 for exclusive titles. Like the other guy said people that don't have one yet have a HUGE library of good rated games to pick up for DIRT cheap. Just because it's 7 years old doesn't mean it doesn't have any games still worth playing.
Graphics isn't everything to me. Loads of good games that dont come out for my PC to play.
And im sure the people that got one this cheap arn't gonna buy the "720 for $500" for many years till it gets cheap and a good library of games to choose from. Afterall whats the point? If you care about graphics enough just stay with a PC, it already has beyound 1080P visuals, and is faster than the 720.
Hell I still have an Atari, Xbox, Ps1, 2, nintendo 64, NES, SEGA genesis, SEGA CD, Virtual boy, Gamecube, all daisy chained to my spare tv in the guest room for good fun old times. why you ask? because graphics dont make a game.
I'm American and I'm not in debt; other Americans may be and the government is as a whole, but I'm not and I can do whatever the hell I want to with my money even if I was in debt (although that would undoubtedly be stupid and hurt my hypothetical situation further like our government is doing).
Not necessarily. Making $20K a year in say Long Island, New York probably isn't going to be enough to buy even an Xbox 360 without some clever budgeting.
i cant understand why people hate on the Wii U saying the next gen console is under powered to be next gen. nintendo didnt release it next gen so i am assuming its current gen. they released it 5 years after the other not there fault sony and xbox kept theres for twice as much. The portable console market is going to die this generation i believe the cell phone industry is geetting hardware capable devices that are cheapier on contracts. gamings future looks rough with microsofts windows 8 driven 720 with different tiers of hardware and sonys desire to steer away from used games killing alot of players ability to afford games, and nintendo coming out a bit early with a poor launch of 3rd party games , and lack of playable demos . all in all the downfall will be on our shoulders we expect to get too much and we give in too little. we need to accept what we got to use next gen will be a joke IMO. and its only going downhill
I believe their government has trillions in debt, not the consumers who bought xboxes...
I think he was talking about M$.
We 'Murricans' are generally not in that much debt. It was a different situation 3-5 years ago before everything was shot to hell, but we (as a people) have generally been de-leveriging ourselves over the past few years.
Our gov't is another matter entirely. They are under this odd impression that we can inflate our currancy at a rate which is slow enough to not hurt people, but fast enough to make our liabilities a smaller percentage of GDP. They are doing an OK job at it so far, but they are playing with fire and it is only a matter of time before it falls apart.
They've just been inflating the bubbles. When they burst, they'll probably do so all the worse as a result, albeit at later times. I'd rather they just fixed the problem at the sources since not doing so will undoubtedly mean repeats of this, perhaps even worse than the current economic problems are and will be in the next few years.
my thoughts exactly ... i didnt get a xbox 360 till 2008 that's 3 years after it launched in 2005 why pay 600 bucks for a console that is bound to ahve bugs , when you can wait 3-4 years and get it with most the kinks worked out