Xbox Gaming in South Africa

After struggling to make any significant inroads into the Japanese gaming market, Microsoft has finally made an impact with the launch of the newly redesigned Xbox 360 'Slim' racking up an impressive 15,000 sales in its first week, according to Gi.biz. Combined with sales of the now 'classic' SKU, Microsoft's console shifted 17,370 units, a major jump when compared to the lowly figure of around 3,000 for the previous week.

Besides the obvious allure of the new, slimmer console, the release of Monster Hunter Frontier Online will likely have boosted sales as well, with Capcom's title securing the top position on the software sales chart in the region.

It should go without saying that these figures will have Redmond suits smiling, and that smile is bound to grow with the news that consumers spent $156 million on games alone during May, thanks in no small part to admirable sales of Red Dead Redemption and UFC 2010, both of which sold more on the Xbox 360 than the Playstation 3. The latest figures also show the attach rate per Xbox 360 has grown to 8.9 games per console.

Overall May proved to be a prosperous month for Microsoft, with a total of $254 million spent on hardware, software and peripherals, and retail feedback so far on the demand for the 'Slim' SKU has apparently been "unprecedented". Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to see the new Xbox 360 locally, but so far Microsoft SA has been tight lipped on any details.