Elite tempting new gamers

The Xbox 360 Elite is selling well, and market research is indicating a high proportion of those buying it are people who don't already own an original Xbox 360.

That's according to Neil Thompson, senior regional director for the UK and Ireland at Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, who spoke exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz.

"It's gone very, very, very well. Our data is saying so far that a lot of people buying it are new to the platform."

"It was interesting to us, because we thought that a lot of people who came to the platform early would have chosen the Elite, but a lot of the data we're getting out of store visits, etc, is showing it's new people, which is fantastic."

Thompson added that he wasn't sure what the overriding reason for that was, but felt it was vindication for Microsoft's plan to offer differing price points for its hardware.

"I don't know if that's because it's got great memory capacity and people are anticipating Marketplace and those sort of technologies, or whether they just like black. I don't know."

"But certainly here and what we've seen in the US there's a very strong trend to the Elite being a major proportion of the overall mix of consoles that we sell."

"What we're starting to find is the balance between the different levels of console that we have now, it is evening out somewhat - which I think is a great testament to the strategy that we had to begin with said that we need to offer to people at different points in their gaming experience, what they want from gaming and what they're prepared to invest in gaming."

In the second part of the exclusive interview, available tomorrow, Thompson also talks about the success of the Xbox 360 to-date, whether Microsoft will pursue a handheld gaming strategy, and if there's such a thing as too much hype for a videogame.

Part one is available here.