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Christmas Xbox sales set to dwarf Wii appeal

by Sarah Griffiths on 10 December 2010, 16:40

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nintendo (TYO:7974)

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Wii wavers

The demand for Microsoft's Kinect ‘controller' will boost sales of the Xbox console in the frantic Christmas shopping period, at the expense of its rivals, according to forecasts.

Game group told The Guardian that Kinect systems have been flying off the shelves of its Gamestation and Game stores since its launch just last month, while Tesco has also said Kinect will be a ‘top-seller' this holiday season.

However, while people go crazy for hands-free motion sensitive gaming, Nintendo's Wii will no doubt lose out on the sales front, as Xbox's other main rival, the PlayStation controller has a new Move controller to flaunt.

While the chief exec of the Game Group, Ian Shepherd, did not confirm whether Kinect has aided Xbox in overtaking the Wii in terms of sales, some analysts believe this is certainly the case in the US, the newspaper reported.

In fact, according to The FT, analysts at Wedbush Morgan Securities said sales of Xbox consoles have soared by almost a third on last year, with 1m expected to be sold in November alone. Meanwhile, they reportedly predicted that Wii sales will peak at 975,000 in the same month, a decline in sales of almost a quarter in the same space of time.

Despite the launch of its motion-sensitive controller, the analyst firm reportedly expects sales of Sony's PS3 to slide 8 percent to 650,000 too.

Wedbush reportedly said: "We expect strong demand for the Xbox 360 due to the successful debut for Kinect, and believe that Kinect console bundles sold especially well."

Microsoft has recently announced it has shifted over 2.5 million Kinect systems across the globe in the first month it hit the shelves and it reckons it will sell 5 million units before Christmas. In compassion, Sony has reportedly sold 4.1m Move controllers since its launch in autumn.

In related news, Tesco has confirmed it will not sell Xbox consoles advertised for £33.24 to crafty consumers who snapped up the bargain on its website, Digital Spy reported.

Tesco reportedly blamed the error on its website on suppliers and told Digital Spy that the problem also affected other retailers' sites.

While trading standards reportedly told the website that consumers should be able to pay the price stated by the firm, which in an ideal world should absorb the loss, a Tesco press officer said the store simply can't do that.

A Tesco spokesperson told Digital Spy: "Whilst we are committed to keeping prices as low as possible this deal was literally too good to be true. It was an error by our supplier for which we sincerely apologise and unfortunately the orders cannot be processed."



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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While trading standards reportedly told the website that consumers should be able to pay the price stated by the firm, which in an ideal world should absorb the loss, a Tesco press officer said the store simply can't do that.

IIRC, a similar thing happened a few years ago with Amazon or some other online retailer, and the principle was that for a sale to be agreed at a price, the goods have to be offered by the company and accepted by the consumer for a sale to be agreed. And the end result of that dispute was that the goods had not been offered to the consumer at that price, it was merely a listing of what is available and their prices - so the consumer has to offer to buy them and the retailer has to agree to sell them.

This contrasts with this statement from Trading Standards.
miniyazz
IIRC, a similar thing happened a few years ago with Amazon or some other online retailer, and the principle was that for a sale to be agreed at a price, the goods have to be offered by the company and accepted by the consumer for a sale to be agreed. And the end result of that dispute was that the goods had not been offered to the consumer at that price, it was merely a listing of what is available and their prices - so the consumer has to offer to buy them and the retailer has to agree to sell them.

This contrasts with this statement from Trading Standards.

When i did Law @ college one of the cases you first (I) look at is based around the same principle/issue you just mentioned.
You mean an ‘invitation to treat’.
AFAIK a retailer is never under obligation to sell, and they don't have to provide any reason.

I guess the lines get a bit blurred with online purchasing as some automated systems will take payment immediately (I've had this issue before a couple of times when money's been taken out of my bank account and the etailer has then been unable to supply the goods).
It does seem to be interesting how both consoles will go with this.

To me move is just a wii remote for the PS3 where as Kinect is something new, personally I haven't bought either yet but I would guess many ‘casual’ gamers probably see it the same as me.