Microsoft reports record Xbox One sales

Microsoft reports record Xbox One sales

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft said it's selling every Xbox One player it can make, after introducing the new game console on Nov. 22.

Sales are setting records, the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker said Tuesday in a statement, without being more specific. Users have
already spent more than 50 million hours on games and entertainment, Microsoft said.

"Demand is far exceeding supply in the 13 countries we've launched and we are sold out at retailers around the world," Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of strategy and marketing for Xbox, said in the statement.

Microsoft may not want to issue a lower number than the 2.1 million units that Sony Corp. reported it had sold as of Dec. 1 for the PlayStation 4, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. The software maker limited its Xbox introduction to 13 countries, from 21 initially planned, to make sure larger markets had sufficient supplies, and reported first-day sales of more than 1 million.

A spokesman for Microsoft with Edelman public relations declined to comment Tuesday beyond the statement.

Sony, which introduced the PlayStation 4 starting Nov. 15, said Tuesday its tally included about 700,000 units purchased by consumers in Europe and Australasian markets after the player went on sale in those regions Nov. 29.

Each company probably has factory capacity to make 1 million consoles a month, said Pachter. About 55 percent of the 4.5 million PlayStation 4s produced by the end of January will go to North American retailers, he estimated.

Stock for Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has gained 43 percent this year.

_ With assistance from Dina Bass in Seattle.

Microsoft reports, record Xbox One sales, record Xbox One

SOURCE : http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-xbox04-20131204,0,607088.story