Microsoft: Xbox 360 To Hit 1 Million In Australia By Year-End

Microsoft expects Xbox 360 hardware unit sales to cross the seven-figure mark by the end of 2009, as the company talked about how the tables have turned against rival Sony during this console generation. “We’ve just hit 700,000 consoles sold in Australia, and we’re now finding that it’s the fastest growing console down under,” said Xbox Australia marketing manager Jeremy Hinton in a GameSpot report. At the end of March 2009, Microsoft said it shipped 30.2 million Xbox 360 hardware units worldwide since the console's launch in 2005. Xbox 360 trails the Wii, which has sold 50.2 million worldwide, and leads the PlayStation 3, which has sold 24.6 million. Xbox 360 beat both the Wii and PS3 to market. Hinton's forecast comes about a week after Sony announced a price cut and a hardware redesign for the PS3. Sony's console launched in Australia in the first half of 2007 for AUD$999.95. The revised PS3 will sell for AUD$499.95. “It’s only going to help them [Sony], although I don’t know that anyone was surprised by the announcement given the months of rumors before it," Hinton said. "But it’s a long way until Christmas and I think the Australian consumer will still see the $AU299 price point of Xbox 360 as the more compelling offer." "We [Microsoft] always have things planned. In the past we might have been in third place and we might have been thinking about what Sony’s doing, but now things are different. We’ve had our Christmas plans set for a long time and they won’t change simply because Sony’s plans do."