It appears that Microsoft has, at least for now, won over at least some of the fans who were not happy with the company"s previous DRM plans for the Xbox One game console. Microsoft famously did a 180 on those plans in June, and now the company is claiming that pre-order sales for the Xbox One are in fact outpacing those for the Xbox 360.
In a post today on his Twitter feed, Microsoft"s Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb stated:
Just found out #XboxOne preorders are trending ahead of Xbox 360 preorders during the same time period + sold out at most U.S. retailers.
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) July 18, 2013
Hyrb"s claims seem to be backed up by another source. VG247.com reports that, in an conference call today, Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot claimed that pre-orders for both the Xbox One and Sony"s PlayStation 4 are coming in at "two times" the amounts for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.
Microsoft has yet to give any specific information on the number of pre-orders it has received for the Xbox One. Back in November 2005, the launch month for the Xbox 360, the NPD Group announced that in the US, Microsoft sold 326,000 units of the console.
Source: Major Nelson on Twitter