Now that things are settling down after the Thanksgiving holiday, video-game makers Sony and Nintendo are boasting about their Black Friday week sales -- all based on internally tracked numbers.
Nintendo is claiming sales of 1.5 million units of all three of its systems for the week -- 550,000 Wiis and "more than 1 million" DS and DSi systems. On the latter, I've got to think that the DS outsold its newer cousin, whose features don't justify the higher price.
Sony says it sold more than 440,000 PlayStation 3 units last week, with no specific numbers on its PSP. Considering that the PS3 sells for $100 more than the Wii and basic Xbox 360, that's a solid figure. A Black Friday plummet in the prices of Blu-ray discs, with many major titles selling for $6 to $10, surely helped the PS3, which remains the only system capable of playing the high-def format.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is playing coy. Exec Aaron Greenberg said in a tweet that the Xbox 360 had the "biggest sales week of the year," with twice the sales of the previous week, but divulged no numbers. Does that mean sales weren't spectacular compared with the PS3, or does it mean a big announcement later of boffo figures? Some pundits seem to think that the release of Modern Warfare 2 gave the 360 a boost to justify the latter explanation, but surely the huge game also helped the PS3, which also got a version of it.
Pictured above: Kara L., 27, and boyfriend Sean G., 34, of Los Angeles, encourage Sean's mom, Carole G., 65, of Austin, as she breaks a sweat with the Obstacle Course game on Wii Fit Plus during a Black Friday shopping excursion at Westfield Culver City in Culver City, Calif. (Nintendo)
