Microsoft claim impressive Xbox 360 growth stateside
360 only system to achieve growth over last year?
US gaming sales may be struggling amid the economic downturn, but Microsoft believe the Xbox 360 is bucking a general downward trend, claiming that the console is the only system to have achieved sales growth in the last year.
Apparently sales of the 360, which this month receives a price cut, are up some 17 percent in the first nine months of the year - over the same period in 2008.
Sales of the console hit 215,000 units in August, according to the latest NPD figures from North America, with a reduced price and a new-look Netflix service credited with driving enthusiasm for the box.
Xbox Live, meanwhile, now boasts over 20 million users worldwide, and the console's fortunes stand in contrast with those of the Nintendo Wii - analyst Michael Pachter seeing sales of Nintendo's device down 50 percent on 2008.
More business chicanery soon.
