This last weekend the XBOX 360 saw a 32% increase in sales in the United Kingdom thanks to Microsoft’s latest price drop. Meanwhile, the Playstation 3 saw a 8% decrease in sales during the same period. This is what UK retail monitor, GfK Chart-Track, reported.

The Nintendo Wii sales also went up, but by a measly 3%, when compared to the XBOX 360. Microsoft’s second price cut seems to have spurred the second surge of XBOX 360 sales world wide. Earlier this week, XBOX 360 units in Europe broke 6 million. Japan has also seen a boost in XBOX 360 sales, where the console is constantly being reported as sold out.

According to Famistu publisher, the XBOX 360 has outsold the Wii and Playstation 3 for the week of September 8 through September 14. XBOX sold an astounding 28,681 during that week, compared to around 840 the previous week. The Wii came in second and got 27,057 units out, while the Playstation 3 came in last and sold 8,050 units.

This surge in sales is most likely caused by the September 11th XBOX 360 price drop in Japan.

This rumor comes to us from the VGChartz forums. According to the source, Microsoft will be releasing the “New XBOX Experience” they talked so much at last years E3. This release will result in Microsoft completely revamping their service–a virtual re-release of their XBOX 360 console. According to the source, Microsoft is also on running a giant marketing campaign–buying up 5 hours of prime-time scheduling on G4TV supposedly.

Rumors Include:

• Live streaming Sirius Radio, for a fee of course.
• A new paid, or possibly free, music service
• A new channel called “Lib”–No more information about lib is known at this time
• GTAIV: Episode One Preview, Free Halo 3 Map Pack, Mass Effect Expansion Pack, and Portal: Still Alive, all in the Marketplace
• 6 Original XBOX Games available on the service, Halo (1) being a free teaser for certain members who meet set requirements

These alleged claims in this rumor will start on September 25 at 7PM Eastern time.

Apparently Hot Topic is selling off the Halo 3 Limited Edition XBOX 360 Consoles for around $199, we presume, in order to get this product with lackluster sales out of their warehouses. Didn’t know Hot Topic sold video games? We didn’t either.

The Halo 3 Limited Edition comes with a 20gb HDD, a headset, and a play and charge kit whereas Microsoft’s Arcade system only comes with a bare bones console. Unfortunately, it looks like Hot Topic is already sold out, I wouldn’t expect them to get more in stock, especially at that price.

Halo 3 Limited Edition at Hot Topic

After the recent price cuts on the XBOX 360 console, it seems Microsoft is starting to cut the prices on some of the accessories. Today, Microsoft cut the price of the 120GB HDD for the XBOX 360 by $30, putting it at $149.

This price change is already effective at large vendors like Amazon and EBGames.

Rock The Vote has partnered with Microsoft to allow XBOX Live users to register to vote right from their couch (because walking to your PC would be way too hard) Starting August 25, the same day as the DNC, users will have the ability to register, participate in political polls, and have access to exclusive forums all from their XBOX 360.
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After last weeks shocking news that the XBOX 360 outsold the PS3 in Japan, today we learn that the XBOX 360 is completely sold out in Japan.

Today Microsoft Japan issued this statement:

To all customers

We truly thank you for all your patronage in the past.

Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply. This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners.

Here at Microsoft, we are moving forward quickly with console production, and plan to ship the standard Xbox 360 model out this September. Furthermore, we will sequentially be shipping out the Elite and the Arcade models. We ask that you please patiently wait until the console is shipped.

We truly thank you for your patronage hereafter.

Microsoft
Home and Entertainment HQ

In what appears to be the end of the world, the XBOX 360 has outsold the native PS3 this week. Tales of Vesperia seems pushing the console up to 24,000 consoles per week.. leading the PS3 at 9,000 consoles by around 14,000.
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