The NPD Group has released some brand new figures that has caused the gaming nation to turn upside down on itself, becoming ravenous wolves in a sheep pen of numbers representing plastic boxes from companies that are surfing on a fiscal wave made up of billions of dollars. In short: the numbers have dropped, and someone (or many people) will be salty.
Let's begin.
Microsoft was quick to draw a response to the figures going public from the NPD, like a sheriff with a thumb on the hammer of a six-shooter before a criminal even casts a shadow in front of the midday sun.
Microsoft dropped some responses so fast that it makes the tween growth-spurt going from pencil-necked geeks to hairy apes over the course of a summer season look like a progressively slow endeavor, almost about as slow as the current cabinet administration coming up with some way to help stave off the extinction of middle class.
Anyway, the Micro 'S' put out some number-facts for all those interested, stating on their official Xbox newswire that...
“We’re also happy to share today that more than 5 million Xbox One consoles have been sold-in to retailers since our launch. The new generation is off to a strong start, with global Xbox One sales outpacing Xbox 360 by more than 60 percent at the same point in time, a true testament to your love of console gaming.”
Yeah let's repeat that once more so it sinks in real tight and thick like caulk in the throat of a wooden hole... “5 million Xbox One consoles have been sold-in to retailers since our launch”.
This is spinful word-play for total units shipped, and not units sold-through from retailers. They pulled a similar stunt earlier this year with the 3.9 million units shipped and the 3 million units sold. In this case, they only have just over 4 million units sold, even though they've shipped 5 million stock keeping units to retailers within the appropriate regions.
It's funny, because if you notice there is some artful marketing word-sculpting that Microsoft is using in opposition to Sony's announcement yesterday, in which they made it known that they have sold-through 7 million PlayStation 4 SKUs.
Microsoft is showing you how to fight a good fight from the frontlines while losing.
It's not all marketing-spin and dialectical manipulation, though. Microsoft did have some impressive feats to share that didn't include asseverate talking points from third-place... also known as second-place's arse.
The post notes that...
“Xbox One continues selling at a strong pace with 311,000 units sold in the U.S. in the month of March, surpassing Xbox 360 sales by more than 60 percent at the same point in time.“”Xbox One continues to see impressive software sales with an average of 2.9 games sold per console.With Xbox One and Xbox 360 combined, the Xbox platform sold the most games across all console platforms with 4.1 million games sold.”
Well if anyone ever said that third place can't be successful, they've never looked at the Wii U's arse... because they'll see a struggling but determined Xbox One back there.
Then again, with a turnaround of Phil Spencer in the driver's seat, some big games aimed to debut at E3 this year and the Xbox One's “banana surprise” set to help better optimize games, maybe... just maybe, Microsoft will have the most successful third-place run compared to any previous generation before this one.
(Main image courtesy of Decal Girl)
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