According to a letter Microsoft sent to analysts, they sold 468,000 units of their XBox console in November. That number represents a doubling in console sales compared to October. The above figure does not include any units sold in November at Wal-Mart. The sharp rise in XBox sales, claim analysts, is proof that Microsoft's aggressive policy with a variety of new bundle deals, is paying off. Although impressive, the rise does not present any current threat to Sony which, in a display of superiority, told analysts, rather nonchalantly, that it had sold 1 million PS2's in the first couple of holiday shopping weeks.
More XBox's sold however, means more owners and this has resulted in a rise in software sales, Microsoft's profit making hope. In total 2.4 million games were sold in November, the second highest figure ever achieved by the console. The best selling title, for the same period, was Ubi Soft's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, selling 224,000 copies in just two weeks. Five other Xbox titles sold in excess of 100,000 copies in November.
Rivals Sony's champion title is SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals, an online game which has sold half a million copies in three months. In europe the new PS2 hit is the controversial The Getaway.
Microsoft's other great hope, the XBox Live starter kit, was also reported to be selling well with 136,000 units having been sold so far. Sony however, are way ahead on sales in this field of the market as well. They announced that they expect to have sold 400,000 online adaptors for the Playstation 2 console, by the end of this year, although they did not break that figure down into broadband, dial-up sales.
Sony also announced that total U.S. sales, software and hardware, have exceeded USD 6 billion so far this year.
Nintendo have not yet reported their holiday sales figures.