By Eli Green
May 15, 2008 - 18:15
The U.S. install base of Xbox 360 console contributes to global sales of over 19 million units. According to the press release, that sales number of over 19 million units sold worldwide is “more than any other current-generation console”, which is somewhat humorous when you take into consideration the 24.45 million Wii units sold worldwide. Apparently Wii doesn't count for Microsoft, as confirmed by Shacknews earlier today, which received this clarification to the original press release statement, "Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any current gen. high definition gaming console, Wii excluded.”
Either way, the announcement is a bit of a boon for Microsoft, especially since the company's own publishing house, Microsoft Game Studios, recently announced another major lineup of blockbuster titles scheduled for release later this year, including Epic Games' Gears of War 2 and Silicon Knights' Too Human . Of course, this announcement was only enhanced by the company reaching another milestone – 12 million members on Xbox Live, admittedly thanks to the popularity of Take-Two Interactive's recently released Grand Theft Auto IV , which beat Microsoft's own Halo 3 for the opening day and first week sales records.
Say what you will about whatever problems the console has had in the past (and still has from time to time), it still has some of the best games available on the market today, and it leads with the industry's highest software attach rate over any of the other consoles this generation. GTA IV added yet another game to the list of platinum selling titles – selling over one million units – which, according to the press release, brings the number of platinum titles to more than 16, thus doubling the number of platinum selling titles on Wii and a “16:2 lead over the Playstation 3 in game titles topping one million sales.”
According to our numbers though, there are actually approximately 26 platinum selling Xbox 360 titles, approximately 20 platinum selling Wii titles, excluding Wii Sports , since it comes with the console, and a total of five platinum selling Playstation 3 titles. Whatever Microsoft's numbers are based on, they are clearly not considering worldwide sales.