No.2 spot for Xbox

With uncanny timing, Microsoft chose Nintendo's day of doom to announce its latest sales figures for the Xbox, which reveal the console was "firmly entrenched" in the No.2 spot in both the US and Europe during the festive period.

In Europe, the machine managed a 19 per cent market share during November 2002, according to GFK/ChartTrack data, while in its US heartland, the machine grabbed a 24 per cent market share of "next generation" [when can we stop calling it that? - Ed] consoles, according to NPD Funworld TRSTS figures for December 2002, with year on year growth of 48 per cent.

December 2002 was the best selling month for Xbox in the US, both in terms of software and hardware sales, outstripping the previous best month by 43 per cent - although annoyingly Microsoft neglected to include any figures in its jubilant press release. The attach rate was almost 4.8 games sold per machine - the best rate for any console at the same stage in its lifespan.

Xbox Live appears to be doing nicely in the States too, with the Starter Kit outselling the PS2 network adaptor by 70 per cent in its first two months on sale.

But chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach offered an amusingly contradictory quote: "Xbox is the next-generation video game system of choice and the clear No.2 across the United States, Canada and throughout Europe." So the PS2 isn't a next-generation video game system then?

Meanwhile, in software terms, Microsoft launched an offensive on the GameCube, keen to point out that Ubi Soft's Splinter Cell outsold Nintendo's Metroid Prime by 19 per cent in the first two months on sale. Third party publishers have had better results in the US, with 56 per cent more units sold on Xbox than on GameCube. Interestingly, multiplatform titles are also performing better on the Xbox: of the top 20 multi-platform titles, the Xbox versions are attaching on an average of 70 percent more than those for PlayStation 2.

On a territory by territory basis, Microsoft was also more than happy to continue to have a giggle at Nintendo's expense: in the UK during December 2002, Xbox outsold GameCube by 100 percent in the United Kingdom, while the system has passed the million-console mark in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

In Japan, however, Microsoft cleared its throat and muttered something about the reaction to Xbox Live being "enthusiastic", with gamers "excited" to play that two year old Dreamcast game Phantasy Star Online on the Xbox Live service. Riiiight.

In a whistle stop tour around the rest of the world, Canada reported a 32 per cent market share of the next-generation console market in November, while Australia reported a 35 per cent share in December, with GameCube's share down to a disasterous five cent.