January 26, 2007 | posted by Michael Baxter in IABN |

Yesterday seemed to be the day for video games consoles to hit the headlines.

The Xbox was the star of the show when Microsoft announced its latest results yesterday.

The software giant revealed a drop in quarterly profits, with net profits for the quarter ending 31 December falling to $2.63bn - from $3.65bn a year earlier.

Delays in Vista, with the company being forced to provide vouchers to recent purchasers of XP for free Vista upgrades, hit the bottom line.

But the Xbox sold in droves. According to NPD, in the US, 1.1 million Xbox 360s were bought in December, and the company hopes to shift 12 million units by 30 June, the end of the company’s fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii, which really seems to have taken both the public and the media’s imagination, is proving a big hit already.

The product with the innovative game controller was launched at the end of November, and already 4 million units have been sold worldwide.
In part thanks to the Wii, but with the handheld DS console also doing its bit, profits at Nintendo for the last nine months soared to 131.9bn yen ($1.09bn; £556m), that’s up 43% from the same period a year ago.
But meanwhile Sony still struggles.
The latest news on the Sony PlayStation 3 was also revealed yesterday. The machine will be winging its way into UK and other European stores on March 23. But the top of the range 60 gigabyte version only will be available. And that will retail for £425.