Xbox 360 sales up 32 per cent following UK price cut
First weekend at new price boosts hardware sales as PlayStation 3 hardware drops eight per cent
GFK Chart-Track has told GamesIndustry.biz that sales of Xbox 360 hardware rose 32 per cent over the weekend of Microsoft's latest price reduction.
In comparison, sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 were down eight per cent on the previous weekend.
Last night, Microsoft announced that sales of the Xbox 360 have hit six million units across Europe. Microsoft's latest aggressive hardware pricing now puts the Arcade Xbox 360 unit at GBP 129.99 in the UK, making it the cheapest of the current generation home consoles.
The Premium console retails for GBP 169.99 and the Xbox Elite, complete with 120GB hard-drive, sells for GBP 229.99.
"[360] sales are up 32 per cent and PlayStation 3 sales are down eight per cent," confirmed Chart-Track's Chris Poole.
It was a better week for software sales too, as the effect of Morrisons drastic games promotion – where the supermarket sold chart titles for half price – wears off and revenues begin to climb in the run up to Christmas.
"We've had quite a big release with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed but we're on the back of the Morrison's promotion so we've had a drop in units but a rise in value," offered Poole.
LucasArts' title shot into the charts at number one, and although it was released on six formats, the Xbox 360 accounted for 48 per cent of sales.