Older consoles trump new

While the Xbox 360 may have won in terms of new console sales, it turns out that the overall victors of the holiday season were generally older game systems, launched years earlier, says the research firm NPD Group. Counting December US sales, the Nintendo DS -- first launched in 2004 -- took the top spot, selling 1.6 million units. Embarassing to Sony may be the 1.4 million sales of the Playstation 2, a console that is almost seven years old, and was supposed to have been replaced by the Playstation 3. In keeping with the earlier NPD report, only 490,700 PS3s were sold. Even the Nintendo Wii was beaten by the 2005 PSP (953,200), and its own Game Boy Advance (850,700), launched in 2001. No explanation for the results is given, but it may be that the cost of the new consoles is too prohibitive for the general public.

By Electronista Staff