Microsoft Claims Black Friday Victory Over PS3

Microsoft says sales of the Xbox 360 have resulted in the company’s biggest U.S. Black Friday ever, beating the PlayStation 3 three-to-one. Analysts recently suggested that the Wii was the most popular platform over the key sales weekend, with the Xbox 360 hardware bundles and software title such as Wii Fit, Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World at War also selling strongly. Microsoft now claims that sales for the Black Friday weekend are up 25 percent on the previous year - when the company claimed a two-to-one victory over the PlayStation 3. No specific sales figures were given for this year, but 2007’s results were put at 310,000 hardware units. According to Microsoft, the best-selling first party software titles were Gears of War 2, Fable II and Lips - maintaining an attach rate for the Xbox 360 of 8 games per console. Although Black Friday is conceptually not a part of European retail tradition, Microsoft also says that sales of the Xbox 360 have surged worldwide since the September price drop. The company says hardware sales have nearly doubled year over year in Europe, and that the Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 "week over week". "We entered into the Black Friday sales period with cautious optimism, knowing that dollar for dollar, Xbox 360 offers more social entertainment value than any other console on the market," says Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment business.