An hour or two after Sony Computer Entertainment Australia unveiled their sales statistics for 2011, Microsoft Australia have also unveiled their revenue growth stats for the 2011 calendar year. Following data provided from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (and other referenced sources such as the NPD Group Australia), Microsoft claim that they are the only platform to show growth in a contracted Australian market during the yearly period, along with more than a 5% platform revenue growth during the period. The console as such has seen five years of consecutive growth in the Australian market for both console unit and platform revenue growth.
David McLean, Director of Consumer Channels Group at Microsoft had this to say about these results:
It’s clear to see that the momentum in this industry is with Microsoft and the Xbox platform. We won at the telling Christmas period, we are standalone in our growth this year and looking at the past five years our consistency is unprecedented. We can attribute this to Xbox’s diversity – we have something truly unique with Kinect, a lineup of blockbuster titles and a complete entertainment offering with movies, music and television on Xbox LIVE.
Microsoft also saw its online subscriptions for XBox Live grow almost 40% in the 2011 calendar year, quite possibly due to not only their normal online gaming services, but the inclusion of new applications for Foxtel, Zune, SBS on Demand, Ninemsn, ABC iView, Youtube and more.
Mr McLean also added:
There is no question that the industry is evolving highlighted by today’s iGEA announcement, and we are seeing more people move online to consume content. The Xbox 360 has been able to evolve with our customers and the way that they like to interact with their games and other entertainment. Xbox 360 is the only console with Kinect and therefore the only way that people can use gesture and voice command to control their television experiences. Those things, combined with local content and blockbuster titles keep us relevant to consumers.
