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According to Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, Xbox 360 sales saw a serious increase thanks to the post-Thanksgiving shopping madness known as Black Friday. While Greenberg doesn't disclose specific numbers, he notes in a recent tweet that Black Friday granted the Xbox 360 its "biggest sales week of the year," with Microsoft selling over twice as many units than the previous week. That certainly sounds like a lot, though the average weekly sales in October -- based on NPD figures -- were slightly above 60,000 units.

Assuming November's weekly average was similar, Microsoft certainly didn't come close to topping Sony's impressive Black Friday total of 440,000 PS3 consoles. And let's not forget Nintendo's Black Friday success: 550,000 Wii consoles and DS / DSi sales in excess of one million units. Rest assured we will break down the exact November numbers once the NPDs shake out later this month.

[Via Gamasutra]

Microsoft today announced that it has sold in excess of 10 million Xbox 360 consoles throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company then touts Aaron Greenberg's favorite chestnut, noting that the Xbox 360 is the only console that has managed to achieve sales growth in 2009. The press release quotes Martin Olausson of Strategy Analytics, who states his belief that Xbox Live is "12 to 18 months" ahead of PSN in regard to delivering "content beyond traditional games."

Microsoft also cites an internal study, which found that 60 percent of Xbox 360 consoles are now housed in a "family living room." Furthermore, the study found that women now account for 35 percent of Xbox owners, and that 64 percent of Xbox owners are over the age of 25.

If that's true, we're guessing that the majority of Xbox Live headset owners make up the remaining 36 percent.

"Xbox comes from a gaming heritage, and is expanding into a broader entertainment brand," Microsoft's Robbie Bach told us earlier today at its first Open House event in New York. Powering Xbox's expansion into "broader entertainment" is the upcoming Dashboard update, scheduled for beta release later this month. Four services included in the update will expand the 360's social networking and multimedia capabilities: Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune Marketplace.

While each individual service may not offer the same value that Netflix did when it debuted with the NXE last year, it's hard to ignore the breadth of added functionality offered by this new Dashboard refresh. Yes, it's true that the Xbox isn't the most ideal platform to tweet from. And yes, it's unlikely that you'll spend hours sitting in front of your TV listening to online radio. However, each service adds new reason to stay connected to the Xbox ... and adds more purported "value" to that Xbox Live Gold membership.

After 19 years of working for gaming/computing software juggernaut Microsoft, Shane Kim will step down at the end of this year, according to a report from Gamasutra. His duties as vice president of strategy and business development for the company's Interactive Entertainment Business sector will be filled by Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, and Dennis Durkin, chief financial officer for the IEB division.

When asked for his reasons for stepping down, Kim replied, "Well, the JoBro (ed: Jonas Brothers) are about to go on tour again, and, well, you know. You only live once, and that one life should be spent seeing as many JoBro (ed: Jonas Brothers) concerts as humanly possible."

Okay, he didn't really say that. However, a Microsoft representative reportedly told Gamasutra that Kim "expressed a desire to spend more time with family, so that's why he's making his retirement." More details about the two-decade Microsoft veteran's departure should be coming in a press release soon. We wish Mr. Kim the best of luck with his newly acquired free time.

If there's one thing we'd fault the original Xbox with, it would have to be its size. Well, that and its gigantic, clunky launch controllers. And maybe we'd have put a bitching spoiler on the thing and some undercarriage neon lights. Okay, those are a few things, but we digress. This mod from Xbox-Scene forum member Bandit5317 is nothing short of a tiny technological wonder. We wouldn't mind fragging fools in Halo 2 with that thing, that's for sure!

Head past the break for some comparison pics.

[Via Engadget]

Despite the fact that every console saw month-to-month losses in July, Microsoft has issued its own take on the somewhat depressing NPD numbers, claiming that the Xbox 360 is "the only console to show growth this year" and "the industry's sole bright spot in 2009". Readers will recall that Aaron Greeberg made similar statements last month, after which it was revealed that the Xbox 360 sales had grown by 21 percent since last June.

Microsoft now reports that number is down to 17 percent growth over the first seven months in 2009, as compared to the same period last year. Granted, the number isn't quite as remarkable, but given that the Xbox 360 is the only console to achieve any growth at all -- as long as you don't count those pesky handhelds -- it's impressive nonetheless.

Microsoft also touts that the Xbox 360 is the number one platform for third-party titles. The company claims that third-party game sales totaled $101 million in July, which "maintains the streak of leading third-party games sales for every month of 2009." See, little red arrows aren't all bad.

Speaking to G4 late last week, a "high-level Microsoft source" said that the real reason Microsoft hasn't upped the friends list limit on 360 thus far has more to do with people still playing Halo 2 on Xbox than limitations of its current console. Reportedly, the source says that Microsoft is still undecided on when to finally pull the plug and add a feature gamers have been requesting for a long time now.

The company has made it clear in the past that it would like to implement the feature, even going so far as to explain to us at CES 2009 that "original Xbox games were coded to be limited to 100 friends and that limit was brought into the current generation." According to G4's source, the shuttering of Halo 2's online could come after Halo 3: ODST drops this September, giving Microsoft two Halo titles to offer on the Xbox 360. The source also contends that the real decision to keep Halo 2 online is in the hands of gamers. What say you, gamers?!


[Via Shacknews]

During the Gearsiverse panel at Comic-Con, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski and Ron Fergusson revealed that there will be Gears of War-themed armor of both the COG and Locust variety coming to XBL Avatars soon. One rule that Microsoft imposes on Avatar clothing and models is that they "can't look inhuman," according to Bleszinski. So they pieced together a workaround set of Locust armor that you can check out beyond the break.

Look for these new Avatar upgrades to be available when the next Xbox Live dashboard update becomes available soon. Meanwhile, we're going to scurry out to our preview builds to see if they're already available. Be sure and peep the Locust image, just around the corner.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division -- the gaming and Zune portion of the company -- has announced profits for the fiscal year that ended on June 30. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's 66 percent less profit than last year ($169 million, down from $497 million). In this economy, though, some profit can still seem like a total win.

Revenue from Xbox 360 and PC sales dropped in the fourth quarter by 12 percent, to $110 million, due mostly to reduced Xbox 360 hardware sales and, of course, the fact that the systems cost less and brought in less revenue per console than in 2008. Shipments declined in this period from 1.3 million in 2008 to 1.2 million units. Overall, however, shipments increased from 8.7 million to 11.2 million units. Go figure.

Microsoft has just announced that the upcoming Xbox Dashboard update will be hitting Xbox Live on August 11. The update is set to include many new features, including Games on Demand, improved Netflix performance (along with Movie Parties), Avatar Awardables, Avatar Marketplace, the ability to rate games, new Friends list sorting options and more. The announcement also mentions that previously announced Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm support is slated to arrive this fall.

Also, don't forget that Microsoft is currently accepting entrants for an upcoming preview, allowing many gamers a chance to check out the update before it's available to the general public. If you don't make it, rest assured that Joystiq will be taking the update for a spin and will be posting plenty of coverage.

Would you like to be one of the movers and shakers to get the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update before all the filthy, "regular" people? If so, you'll be happy to know that Major Nelson has just announced an Xbox Live Update preview program. Microsoft ran a similar program prior to the NXE, which allowed lots of gamers everywhere the chance to see all the fabulous updates early.

The new update includes plenty of cool new features, including Games on Demand Movie Parties for Netflix and Avatar Awardables, so we know you want in. To register, simply head over to Microsoft Connect, sign in with the Live ID connected to your Gamertag and then fill out the "Xbox LIVE Update Preview Sign Up" survey. The program is open to both Silver and Gold Xbox Live members, though Major Nelson notes that preference will be given to Gold members. If you make it into the program -- MS is accepting "multiple thousands" of participants -- you should be contacted in about a week.

Good luck!

The Left 4 Dead 2 announcement at the Microsoft press conference gobsmacked us this morning (didn't they just release Left 4 Dead like last November? What is this, Madden?), but apparently the sneaky folks at Rock Paper Shotgun weren't surprised: they've already seen the game in action. We're hoping to see it this week ourselves, but until then, here's a few juicy zombie tidbits to hold you over: the game takes place in the Southern United States, and the five campaigns will take you on a Southern odyssey from Savannah to New Orleans. There are four new characters also: a rough high school coach who's used to taking charge, a female cable news reporter, a rustic Southern mechanic type, and a Sawyer-style con man. The characters keep the snappy dialogue, and the campaigns will tell an overarching story as you move through them.

Remember back in March when an ESRB listing hinted at a possible Xbox Live/PSN release for FPS progenitor Wolfenstein 3D? Yeah, that's totally happening. A splash page for the game has appeared on Xbox.com, which is just a hair short of full confirmation, but it still seems like a pretty safe bet.

We're not sure if it'll have some extra graphical polish, but if something in that above image doesn't trigger something deep and primal within you, you're in need of more assistance than we can provide.

[Via GamerBytes]

[Update 2: The results are in, check them all out right here.]

Considering the Red Ring of Death (to put it kindly) debacle, we're going to be extremely careful with what we say here. We're starting to see and receive numerous reports from readers, friends and in forums like this of Xbox 360s becoming the victims of an error labeled by the console as "E74." We've received only a few of these reports (two in '07; one in '08) prior to the recent barrage of complaints. When contacted, a Microsoft rep told Joystiq she wasn't familiar with the problem (the company is currently looking into it), so here's what we've been able to piece together by ourselves:

The E74 error seems to be related to video problems. It's occasionally caused by a faulty AV cord, but more often than not, the solder on the ANA/HANA (in HDMI models) scaling chip has come loose. In fact, many have reported creating a temporary fix by wrapping pennies in electrical tape and weighing the ANA/HANA down. (For the record, we're not suggesting you do that.) Before the error, the system usually starts showing graphical problems like lines across the screen or snow. It's accompanied by one red light in the lower right-hand quadrant.

So, we've got a poll right after the break where you can weigh in with your own experience. Also, if you've got more details, we'd love it if you would email us here.

[Update 1: Our friends at Negative Gamer just sent this interesting Google Trends result our way. As you can see, E74 was basically a non-issue until August of 2008. Interesting ...]

On March 2, Microsoft will no longer offer repair support to users of the original Xbox console. Owners who (somehow) still have an Xbox console under warranty from Microsoft will be able to participate in an upgrade offer to an Xbox 360 -- terms of which are not detailed online. Microsoft recently ended support for the big black box in Japan. Pour out a portion of that Forty folks, the Xbox is no longer supported by Microsoft. Sure, most will tell you Microsoft stopped supporting the original beast on November 22, 2005, but those people would be ... no, they'd be completely right.

[Thanks, Mustapha]