Is the Xbox Live Marketplace a blockbuster? “Yes,” say consumers.

The success eradiating from the Xbox Live Marketplace is growing due to the enormous popularity it gains from the movie download service it offers. Consumers can download full-length movies and TV shows in High Definition straight to their hard drives for a low price using the service. The usability of this service is causing a stir in the digital movie distribution industry causing former cinematic flops to become profitable. Movies such as Poseidon, which had a huge budget and didn’t earn back much money from the box office, are now raking in money through the Xbox Live movie marketplace. So far, it is proving to be more successful and profitable than some of its competitors such as Unbox (which is Amazon.com’s answer to digital movie distribution). The success of high-def movie downloads is proving to be another excellent reason for consumers to buy an Xbox 360 as opposed to a Sony PS3 or Nintendo Wii.

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1.8 Million Wii’s Sold This Holiday Season

Launching just in time for the holiday season, the Nintendo Wii sold a reported 1.8 million units of the unique console this holiday season. Although it did not beat out the Microsoft Xbox 360 which sold a reported 2 million units, it did cause a stir and the demand caused it to be “sold out” in nearly every store. The Sony Playstation 3 didn’t fair as well as Microsoft or Nintendo only selling a measly estimated 750,000 units. Primarily due to a lack of resources, Sony was prevented from making enough PS3′s to meet demands. The success of the Xbox 360 this holiday season may have been a result of the critically acclaimed and popular game Gears of War and the fact that its competitors, Sony and Nintendo, couldn’t provide enough consoles to meet demands causing disappointed shoppers to pick up another console that was in-stock and at a reasonable price (compared to the sold out PS3).

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Box News’ Next Generation Console Comparison

Yay! We have three new consoles; but wait - which one is the best? We have put together a breakdown of each system’s pros and cons which we will be posting in sections over the next week. The final piece will be our overall choice as the best console. The section we will start with will be the price.

Xbox 360: Two different price points $300 and $400, but with only one real choice. You either get the $400 one or you do not get the full package, meaning no hard drive and no wireless controllers. At $400, the Xbox360 is a fair price since you get a High Definition, next-gen console that comes in a nice, little package including component cables and headset. Despite these inclusions, $400 is still a large chunk of cash to play some games for anyone but the hardcore.

Playstation3: Just like Microsoft they too have two price points. This time, $500 and $600. The difference is that here, both are viable options as you only lose nonessential features when you buy the “cheaper” of the two. The fact still stands, however, that this is a lot of money for a video game console and will probably cause a lot of parents and many gamers to shy away.

Wii: Proving it is small in more than just size, the Wii comes in at the lowest price, $250 with a packaged game, Wii Sports. Compared to the other consoles, this price feels like pocket change and will probably convince a great many parents to decide to throw it into the shopping cart.

Next time, tune in for our comparison of consoles’ graphic capabilities.