Global Xbox 360 Sales Take A Dip

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Microsoft has announced that global Xbox 360 have taken a bit of a dip year-over-year, but oddly enough, Xbox 360 revenue is up. Of course, it’s pretty obvious that we’re approaching the end of the console generation, so the fact that Xbox 360 sales are down shouldn’t surprise anyone, but if you’d like to see some hard numbers, hit the jump.

According to Microsoft, they’ve only shipped 2.3 million 360s over the past three months, whereas they shipped 2.8 million units during the same three month period last year. Why the dip? Well, obviously their install base has grown in the past year, so there are fewer consumers out there who need an Xbox 360.

Another factor to consider is the influence of Kinect. After Kinect’s launch, Microsoft experienced a huge boost in Xbox 360 sales, so it stands to reason that people were buying Xbox 360 at this time last year in anticipation for Kinect. Once again, the Kinect has been on the market for nearly a year now, so it only makes sense that demand has decreased somewhat.

Just because Xbox 360 sales are down overall, however, that doesn’t mean that revenue is down. Microsoft is actually reporting a seven percent increase in Xbox 360 revenue, which is growth that they attribute to increased Xbox Live sales. Xbox Live users have been complaining that there’s more and more Xbox Live Arcade games prices at 1200 MSP as opposed to 800 MSP these days, so I’m pretty sure the increase in Xbox Live Arcade prices has something to do with this increased revenue Microsoft is reporting.

What do you make of these figures? Are Microsoft’s sales slowing because there’s no new peripheral this year, or are people just losing interest in buying an Xbox 360 because we’re heading toward the end of this generation? Do you think that the PlayStation 3 will finally top the Xbox 360 in terms of sales by the time this generation is over? Head down to the comments section and sound off!