We’re now well into the new generation of consoles and it’s time to reflect on the launches. The Xbox One launched on the 22nd of November and has become the most successful console launch in Australian history. With 65,917 sold in just the first 3 days on sale, this , doubles the previous market record of the Nintendo Wii’s with 32,900 units.
These numbers come to us from leading market services company NPD Group. Jeremy Hinton, Microsoft Australia Business Group Lead Interactive Entertainment, said the company has seen unprecedented demand for the Xbox One locally.
“Xbox One is the only all-in-one games and entertainment system and we’re excited to see that Australians have embraced the new generation.
“We attribute a key part of our success to listening to the Australian community. This led to the inclusion of the Bathurst track in Forza Motorsport 5, entering the Xbox One Racing Team as a wildcard in the 2013 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, through to the launch of local entertainment apps Network Ten’s TenPLAY, SBS On Demand, Quickflix and local music, TV and movies within our Xbox apps, right through to TV and voice control support from day one.
“The great news is that this is just the beginning and the best games just keep coming with Titanfall, Peggle 2, Kinect Sports: Rivals, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, D4, Below, Project Spark and many more exclusive titles coming over the next few months,” said Jeremy.
To meet consumer demand, new Xbox One consoles will continue to be shipped to retailers before Christmas. We’re yet to hear final numbers from Sony Australia, but given supply shortages for the PS4, it looks like Xbox has won this round in the lead up to the end of 2013. This industry is a marathon, not a sprint, with the life of the consoles expected to be 7-10 years.
We do know that internationally Sony sold more than 1 million PS4s in the first 24hours of launching. There was a 2 week delay between the US and Australian launches of the PS4.
