Microsoft: 360 will sell 1 million in Australia by Christmas
Sony price cut won't affect 360 plans, says group boss, since MS is no longer in third place
The Xbox 360 will sell one million units in Australia by the year's end, group manager Jeremy Hinton has predicted, and the goal will be reached without reducing the console's current AUD 299 price point.
"We've just hit 700,000 consoles sold in Australia, and we're now finding that it's the fastest growing console down under," Hinton told Gamespot.
"We expect to hit a million Xbox 360 consoles sold across Australia and New Zealand by the end of the year. We're confident we can reach this goal with the console's current price point and the new experiences we're bringing through Xbox Live, such as Movies on Demand, Facebook and Twitter."
Speaking about Microsoft's response to Sony's recent worldwide price drops of its PlayStation 3 hardware, Hinton said he felt the 360 would still be the more appealing to Australian consumers.
"It's only going to help them, although I don't know that anyone was surprised by the announcement given the months of rumours before it," he said.
"But its a long way until Christmas and I think the Australian consumer will still see the AUD 299 price point of Xbox 360 as the more compelling offer.
"We always have things planned," he added. "In the past we might have been in third place and we might have been thinking about what Sony's doing, but now things are different.
"We've had our Christmas plans set for a long time and they won't change simply because Sony's plans do."