Comments on: Half A Million Xbox 360s Sold In Australia By Xmas, Says Microsoft

By: Glenn Sweeney

Glenn Sweeney — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:38:35 +0000

I always thought the 360 would have a hard time against the ps3 in aus and europe but they are doing suprisingly well. As the poster above said it has the best games library and best online.. and its cheap.

By: Kirk Broadhurst

Kirk Broadhurst — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:08:59 +0000

"most popular high definition next-gen platform" clearly means PS3 and Xbox360. The Wii is not a high definition platform. The next-generation is a reference to the extra grunt that the PS3/Xbox360 have over the Wii.

It's funny that pre-Wii, Nintendo declared that they were not competing with Sony/MS and that they were going after a different market. They clearly pursued that goal, but now commentators persist in comparing sales figures.

Personally, I'm quite surprised at how successful the Xbox360 has been. I put it down to holding the centre ground - the Wii is focused toward casual play and has very few games for serious gamers, and the PS3 has very poor software at this stage. Add to this that Xbox Live is incomparably superior to other online offerings and the choice is easy, even given the hardware failings.

By: David Wildgoose

David Wildgoose — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:12:39 +0000

@B = Fail
This is true. The GFK figures track retail sales, so those 360s that have died and subsequently been repaired/replaced still only count as one sale. Same goes for any PS3s and Wiis – although clearly there have been far fewer repairs/replacements for those consoles. Having said that, I do know some 360 owners have bought new consoles to replace their previous, now dead 360s, in order to take advantage of the newer hardware, which would count as an extra sale.

By: B = Fail

B = Fail — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:55:53 +0000

B, why do spread the lie that "you have to have purchased a replcement"?

Are you such an imbecile that you are unaware of a thing called warranty?

I've still got my launch Xbox360, 3 years old no issues. Of my group of 8 mates 2 have had RRoD. Replaced FOR FREE no issues.

Of course being in Australia Microsoft will have to repeair every RRoD console, no matter how old it is, for free for the life of the product. Check out Australian Consumer law if you don't beleive me.

Of course someone will have to take them to court when they (inevitably) deny someone there fix, but if you check through precedence in such matters, it looks like Microsoft would have to pay.

By: B

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:52:04 +0000

I don't think M$ can claim any victory with this, as each end user will more than likely had to have purchased at least two consoles due to the high failure rate.
It's probably the worst console in the history of consoles for failures & reliability. I've been through two & gave up.
Halve that number & you will probably get a better idea of actual end users.