Xbox sales outperform world trend but PS2 remains king

By ADAM BENNETT

Sony's PS2 video game console continues to easily outsell Microsoft's rival Xbox system in New Zealand despite the market here being one of Xbox's top territories world-wide.

Since its New Zealand launch nine months ago Xbox has sold more than 35,000 units and has achieved a 34 per cent share of the video game console market, the company said last week in a statement.

"Xbox New Zealand has been at or near the top of market share performers, out of any of the worldwide territories," Microsoft said.

Meanwhile a Sony New Zealand spokesman said while PS2 had shipped 145,000 units here, "We can confidently say we're at 139-140,000 units installed."

On a global basis the PS2 has sold about 54 million units compared to Xbox's 9.4 million.

The console market has largely become a two-horse race for share, with Nintendo's GameCube has proved to be an underperformer, lagging behind the Xbox and PS2 in most markets.

Microsoft said last week its share of the US and European markets was increasing.

The majority of Xboxs sold to date, 6.2 million units, are in North America, with 2.2 million in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 1 million in the Asia-Pacific region, which is primarily the Japanese market. The Xbox, by Microsoft's own admission, has struggled in Japan.

Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service, which now has about 500,000 subscribers in the US, has yet to begin in New Zealand. A Microsoft spokesman told NZPA last week the service was likely to be launched within six to 12 months.

Sony, which shipped 440,000 of its PlayStation One consoles to in New Zealand, equivalent to a console in one in three homes, believes it will sell 300-350,000 PS2 units here over the life of the product.

- NZPA