Well the numbers are in for black Friday and looks like the gang over at Microsoft have good reason to celebrate the holidays this year. Turns out that the new cheaper leaner 360 Arcade unit was a big seller and helped them move 25% more xbox’s than the same time frame last year. It also helped the 360 out sell the PS3 at a pace of 3 to 1. This a nice resurgence of the number for the 360 to finish off the year strong and pretty much guarantee that the 360 and the PS3 will finish out the year in pretty much a dead heat for sales numbers. I realize that there will probably be a difference of a few hundred thousand one way or the other, the Wii beats them both combined so don’t work yourself into tizzy now fan boys 
Now that they year is coming to an end and we see that the 360 is finishing the year strong all attention will begin to be focused on the upcoming year of 2009. This looks to be one of the most pivotal years for the gaming industry in general as global economies continues to slide.
There really are two ways of thinking when it comes to effect a down economy will have on the video gaming sales as a whole. Either people will start to pull back on their purchases and stick to either playing what they have or renting new games. Or because they are trying to save money people will start buying more stay at home entertainment which of course is a big win for video games. History would seem to side with second option as people seem to spend what little extra money they have on at home entertainment.
Yes indeed some big questions for 360 next year. The only big games on the radar right now for the 360 are the Halo Wars and Alan Wake games after that there does not seem to be a whole lot of system sellers like Halo3 or Gears of War 2. Granted those two games I mentioned have the potential but they are not the guaranteed juggernauts of the last two years. Then you have the impending PS3 price cut rumor that seems to be building steam towards an early 2009 announcement. What do you think are some of the challenges facing not only the xbox 360 next year but the video gaming industry as a whole?
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Carpe Diem!
