Microsoft targets 25 million more Xbox 360 sales, 'huge announcement' planned for E3
178Microsoft believes it can sell 25 million more Xbox 360s despite announcing the console's successor, the Xbox One, earlier this week. The Xbox 360 launched back in 2005, and has sold an estimated 77.2 million to date. Growth has slowed significantly in recent months (despite the console outselling the PS3 in the US for over two years straight), and it only sold 1.3 million last quarter. Speaking to the UK's Official Xbox Magazine, Interactive Entertainment Business Senior VP Yusuf Mehdi said that Microsoft is aiming to sell the additional consoles over the next five years.
How will Microsoft reinvigorate its aging console?
To achieve that lofty goal, Microsoft will have to ensure a sales average of 1.25 million per quarter for half a decade. How does it plan to do that? Mehdi notes that a large number of those sales will "probably come from replacements," but Microsoft is also planning a "huge announcement" related to the Xbox 360 for E3 to reinvigorate the aging console. We recently confirmed that a dashboard refresh is coming to the console in the next few months. Although we haven't heard any details other than to expect a "visual refresh," it's likely that Microsoft will update the interface look more like the new Xbox One UI, just as it did for older smartphones when transitioning from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8. It's also possible that Microsoft could be planning on refreshing its console, or reworking the subsidized pricing strategy it introduced last year.
In addition to discussing plans for the 360, Medhi also revealed grand ambitions for the next-generation One. He believes an increased focus on entertainment and TV could help it sell hundreds of millions of Xbox Ones. Medhi says if "you can go broader than a game console," then you can go from 300 million total console sales this generation to "potentially upwards of a billion" next. "That's how we're thinking of the Xbox opportunity as we go forward."
