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Pachter: Discounted 360s, Not Slims, Behind June’s Sales Spike
Remember last week's reveal of the June NPD sales numbers, where Microsoft enjoyed its second-best hardware sales since the Xbox 360 launched? If you thought that sales surge was from the introduction of Microsoft's redesigned hardware, the Xbox 360 S, you're at least partially correct. Apparently, the boost wasn't from consumers updgrading to the new hardware, but was largely the result of shoppers snatching up discounted versions of the older hardware as retailers scrambled to clear shelf space.
According to analyst Michael Pachter, citing NPD figures, less than half of the Xbox 360s sold in June were the newly designed SKUs. The 360 S did account for 40 percent of June sales, but the bulk of consumers opted for older, cheaper hardware. The Arcade version of the system pulled in 35 percent of Xbox 360 sales for the month, no doubt buoyed by various incentives that stores piled on to entice consumers. The rest of the June Xbox 360 sales were from Elite and Premium versions of the hardware.
"It is clear that the sales spike for the 360 was largely temporary, as clearance items accounted for around 60 per cent of total sales, and it is not clear that software attached heavily to these purchase," Pachter told investors, as reported by Games Industry. We'll have about a month to wait before we see if he's right.
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