Get your video game industry analyst hate retardant suits on, because following the recent white hot sales data (trying to sex up sales data here, folks) that show games sales are way up, that info is also getting mixed reactions from analysts. Yeah, yeah, what do they know, right?

But there is some interesting stuff in here, believe it or not. Wedbush Morgan Securities game industry honcho Michael Pachter says that the 57% drop in Xbox sales (ouch) indicates that "the console has been all but abandoned in favor of the next generation Xbox 360." No real surprise there, as not even Microsoft themselves have any software titles scheduled for the old black box.

But what is a little more surprising is that "the Xbox 360's installed base is still smaller than the original Xbox's equivalent after the same number of months of sell-through. Xbox 360 sales are even more lackluster if you consider that the original was an unproven product that was trying to sell-in against the hugely popular PS2." That's according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel, who also notes that the 360 is selling at a much slower rate than the PS2 was during the same time frame.

Should Microsoft close up shop and throw up the white... err, "chill" flag? Doubtful, as Pachter spins 360 sales as pretty positive, with sales exceeding WMS expectations. Are we clear? The only response I want to see in the comments is obviously "CRYSTAL!" Michael McWhertor

WMS: 360 Going Strong; Original Xbox 'Abandoned' [GameDaily.biz]