Halo effect not enough to prevent Xbox 360 sales decline

While the gaming industry grew exponentially last year with sales hitting record levels, not all were winners. The Wii not only overtook the Xbox 360 for the year, but the 360 also dipped a bit in Q4 from 2006. Not even the might Master Chief helped much, but enough to keep pace with Nintendo. Still, not all is bad. Many of the consoles bought by Halo 3 customers were purchased in the prior quarter

From the article: "Even though Microsoft’s best selling game came out right before the holiday quarter, sales of the Xbox 360 console dipped slightly year-over-year.

Microsoft said it had shipped 4.3 million consoles during the final calendar quarter of 2007, down 2.3% from the year previous. Halo 3 was released about a week before the quarter began.

Not all is necessarily bad in Xbox land, however. For the second quarter in a row, the division posted $357 million in profits, beating the quarter previous totals of $165 million. This continues the reversal of a trend where the gaming division had been losing money for over a half-decade."