Mattrick: Xbox 360 Will Be World's Top-Selling Console In 2011

Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, home of Xbox, made a bold prediction at the company’s E3 media briefing on Monday in Los Angeles. "Combine all that we offer with great partners and a growing audience, and Xbox is poised to register another record year,” said Mattrick. “This year, Xbox 360 will go from being the number one selling console in North America to the number one selling console globally." That means the company – which recently reported 55 million in global Xbox 360 sales – expects to outsell both rivals Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 during the year. Sony recently said it expects to sell 15 million PS3s during the company's fiscal year, ending March 2012. Microsoft has been eager to tout Xbox 360’s growth, an unusual trend considering the console’s age – it launched back in 2005, before the Wii and PS3. The recent launch of the gesture- and voice-sensing Kinect helped boost sales, along with a redesign and new entertainment features for the console. Mattrick made a similarly bold statement at E3 2008, when he claimed Xbox 360 would outsell PS3 during this console generation.