Microsoft is celebrating a wildly successful early sales streak for the Xbox One X which, as you might have heard from Microsoft a few dozen times during Gamescom so far, is the world's most powerful video game console. Microsoft opened up pre-orders for the special "Project Scorpio Edition" Xbox One X this past Sunday, and the pre-sale inventory was snatched up in about half an hour.

This was apparently a surprise, though we're sure there's more than a bit of PR spin here. Speaking with YouTuber Rocket Beans at Gamescom (via WCCF Tech), Microsoft's Head of Xbox Marketing Aaron Greenberg (who's a cool dude) had the following to say:

"We sold out at Amazon I think in twenty-five minutes. We expected our total inventory to last about a week and it sold out in less than a day, so… We don’t share the amount of inventory, but the Project Scorpio Edition was for those core fans, the people that used to line up in front of the stores.

"We knew they would be digitally pre-ordering that and we wanted to make a special edition just for them. It’s nice to see the response. In particular, in Germany the fans ordered at an accelerated rate, maybe the fastest in the world, so it was great to see the support from our fans here."

So we know it's doing well, but could it possibly topple the PS4 Pro?

Another interesting fact is that, according to Amazon, the Xbox One X is already outselling the PS4 Pro for this year. The angle here, the thing that makes it interesting, is that the PS4 Pro has been on sale all year long. So technically the Xbox One X has moved more units on Amazon in a few days when compared to eight months of PS4 Pro sales.

Xbox One X pre orders seem to be doing well on Amazon. Already ahead of PS4 Pro on Amazon US for 2017 YTD. pic.twitter.com/qarehlgvNS

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 23, 2017

This is a pretty astonishing feat, but one that we have to take with a grain of salt. It's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. We're looking at a console that has been out since the end of 2016 compared to a brand new console that has a huge, concentrated marketing push behind it. We also have to keep in mind that pre-orders don't convert 100% to sales.

Some people pre-order compulsively in order to secure the ability to make a decision. You can't decide whether or not to buy an Xbox One X if they're all sold out. With a pre-order you can take your time to decide if it's really right for you. If not, you can just cancel the pre-order, and several people will.

Or maybe they won't! Will the Xbox One X be the big holiday item this year? Did you pre-order your own?

Posted: Aug 25, 2017 9:03 am
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://comicbook.com/gaming/2017/08/24/xbox-one-x-sells-out-pacing-ahead-of-ps4-pro