Microsoft Xbox 360 bypasses 70 million sales milestone

Xbox 360
Microsoft has sold 70 million Xbox 360s

While the world waits for Microsoft to announce its Xbox 720 console, the Redmond company is busy celebrating the fact its current console has just bypassed the 70 million sales mark.

Microsoft announced the milestone as part of its first quarter earnings report, admitting that it sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in the reporting period, a decrease of 600,000 units on the same time last year.

As a point of comparison, the most recent sales figures from Sony from March claim 63 million Playstation 3 consoles sold, while Nintendo had sold over 96 million Wii consoles in June this year.

Despite the dip in hardware sales, the Xbox division still managed to post a total revenue of $US1.95 billion (£1.2billion) for the quarter, which was only a one per cent drop on the same time last year.

This could be thanks to a 15 per cent increase in Xbox Live subscriptions over the three month period, with 40 million users now connected to the online service.

Time for an update?

With current generation console sales dropping, and Nintendo's next-generation Wii U set to hit store shelves before Christmas, many pundits believe that these latest sales figures are a good indication that Microsoft will be releasing its next console in 2013.

There's plenty of evidence to support this line of thinking, from job postings to leaked documents.

Regardless of the rumours, with developments like Xbox Music and Smart Glass launching in the last few months of this year, it's clear that Microsoft plans on keeping the current Xbox kicking along for as long as it can.

Having spent the past decade editing some of Australia's leading technology publications, Nick's passion for the latest gadgetry is matched only by his love of watching Australia beat England in the rugby.