Microsoft Pledges 300 per cent 360 Production Boost

Reports from Singapore and China breaking overnight bring welcome news for retailers and more importantly, publishers, as Microsoft pledges to increase Xbox 360 manufacturing by as much as 300%

Retail claimed it was badly impacted by lack 360 hardware units, with publishing sources grumbling off the record to SPOnG that phase one games have been a loss-making disaster as they will age and become discounted before a userbase exists that is large enough to support more than a couple of games per genre. Of course, you could argue that publishers and retailers moan about everything and that the tight hardware numbers saw a Darwinian environment in which only the strong survived, better serving those who had managed to scoop a 360 during launch.

Perhaps the best news for pretty much everyone making their living from the Xbox 360 is that according to the Taipei Times, enhanced production routines are now in place, fail rates have nose-dived and the increased numbers should start adding up this week.

Microsoft also mentioned that Xbox Live users connecting through the 360 have now downloaded 10 million items from the Live Marketplace.