Black Friday sees a massive spike in Xbox 360 sales

By: Musa Afridi

  |   November 28th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

United States: Over 750,000 consoles were sold during the festive week, which makes one wonder whether there is anyone in the US who does not yet own the console.

The Holiday Season is a crucial period for the Interactive Entertainment Industry with deals and bundles being offered left, right and centre and sales usually picking up and being higher than usual. It is also the same time that some of the older titles see a surge in sales as well.

However, Microsoft continued its dominance in the United States on the hardware front as the Xbox 360 managed to add another quarter-of-a-million units worth of sales to already impressive tally. According the latest figures more than 750,000 units were sold during the six-day period which included the Black Friday deals.

In essence, the massive number of Xbox 360s were sold between the six days beginning on the 18^th of November and ending on the 23^rd of the same month. It was during this time that the Black Friday sales offers were also available and it seems that consumers could not resist.

Another factor that attributed to the sales of the console was the release of one of the console’s most famed and followed series. Bungie had created the Halo universe including three core titles, a prequel and an expansion, before moving on to other IPs.

Microsoft was not willing to let the IP go though and decided to keep it for a later day. It turns out that later was actually sooner as the publisher signed 343 Industries to continue the series for another three games as well. The studio’s first task was Halo 4 and the game has been well-received from every corner for living up to the standards set by their predecessors.

343’s Halo deal will continue up until the release of Halo 6 and the studio also confirmed, well before the game’s release, that they had an overall story arc already in place and that the trilogy would prove to be (the old cliché) epic.

Whatever the case, it seems that releasing a Halo game can do no wrong and interest in the series has not waned as Halo 4 managed to break a number of the series’ records in the process. One can expect the game to sell well and warrant another game in the series if not an entire trilogy.

For those who do not know, the game sees Master Chief, the series’ protagonist, take on an ancient race of aliens known as the Prometheans. While the new enemy may not be as iconic as the Flood or Covenant, they still manage to get the job done.

One can expect Halo 4 to boost sales of the console as well, be it the Xbox 360 or the 720.