An NPD Group analyst said Friday that Microsoft had sold only 600,000 units of its Xbox 360 gaming consoles in the U.S. since their debut November 22, 2005. If accurate, the pace of Xbox 360 sales would put Microsoft well behind pace for its stated goals of selling 3 million systems withing 90 days of launch, and 4.5 to 5.5 million Xbox 360 systems by mid-2006.
Overall, Xbox 360 systems were in short supply over the end-of-year holiday season, frustrating some customers and leading analysts and retailers to predict sales below Microsoft’s expectations. For its part, Microsoft says it is working hard to meet demand for the systems, and that a third manufacturing facility will be coming online in February, 2006, increasing supply of the systems.
Meanwhile, while Xbox 360 systems are hard to find in Europe and the U.S., Japan seems to have a surfeit of systems, where sales of the systems have been described as “modest” to “disappointing,” with only an estimated 30 to 40 percent of available Xbox 360 systems selling during the December launch, and Media Create Co. claiming the Xbox 360 garnered just 2.1 percent of Japanese hardware sales during the first week of 2006.
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