Xbox 360 sales breaks records

The Xbox 360 posted record week-one console sales in Australia, according to industry analysts GfK.

The analyst group stated that 30,421 Xbox 360 consoles had been sold in Australia during the four days between its Thursday March 23 launch and Sunday March 26.

The results came from GfK’s tracking of data from major gaming retail stores across the country.

GfK senior games analyst, Daniel Morse, said 95 percent of the stores directly gave GfK their sales data, with the remainder generated from an estimation of console sales from smaller gaming stores that didn’t have direct dealings with GfK.

According to Morse this is the highest recorded launch sales figure for consoles in Australia; against the Nintendo GameCube (9,190 in May 2002), the original Xbox (6,672 in March 2002) and Sony PlayStation 2 (3,366 in November 2000). It also betters sales for the best selling handheld, Sony’s PSP (27,055 in September 2005).

“The Xbox 360 is a new generation of gaming console as there’s enhanced features, improved graphics, online and multimedia features,” Morse said.

He also believed the Xbox 360 had set the new benchmark for a console launch in Australia. GfK also estimates strong software sales, with a games attach rate of 2.6 games per console.

Harvey Norman computer and communications GM, Rutland Smith, confirmed there had been strong demand for the Xbox 360 platform.

"We have sold several thousand X360s and we're continuing to see high demand for the product and most consumers were buying additional peripherals as well," he said.