Xbox 360 to outsell Wii in US
Microsoft to take lead on trailing 12 month basis; Marvel Vs Capcom 3 sold 790k, Bulletstorm 279k in February
The Xbox 360 is about to outsell Nintendo's Wii on a trailing twelve month (TTM) basis in the US, according to industry analyst Doug Creutz.
Research firm Cowan & Company believes that for the first time since the very beginning of the current console cycle, the 360 will have outsold the Wii for the 12 months from March 2010 to March 2011.
"This illustrates the significant shift that has gone on over the last year in the console space," Creutz told investors.
"The Wii was outselling the 360 and PlayStation 3 combined on a TTM basis as recently as January 2010, and was outselling the 360 alone by 2:1 on a TTM basis in December 2009 and 1.5:1 in October 2010.
"Over the last three years, TTM total US Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii hardware unit sales have remained relatively consistent in the 17-19 million unit range (18.2 million as of February), so this does represent a share shift as opposed to just a decline for the Wii."
Last night Microsoft championed its highest console sales in a non-holiday month, with 535,000 units sold during February.
"We believe the significant shift in hardware sales towards HD consoles is a positive ongoing development for the US publishers, who earn the majority of their sales on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3," added Creutz.
He also revealed US sales figures for a pair of new releases. Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds sold 790,000 units compared to estimates of 420,000, making it the second best-selling game of the month.
Epic and People Can Fly's Bullet storm - brand new IP with an impressive Metacritc score of 84 per cent - sold a "disappointing" 279,000 units, according to Creutz.