MICROSOFT'S Xbox price cut at $249 has appeared to pay off, with the company claiming its first ever weekly sales overreaching its rival Sony PlayStation 2.

2 weeks ago Xbox took 50 per cent of the "next generation" console market, 15 per cent ahead of PlayStation2. Nintendo's GameCube accounted for 7 per cent of sales. The Xbox win has been a long time coming, with the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles fighting a pitched battle for more than two years.

Approximately 500,000 Xbox consoles have been sold in Australia, Microsoft said. However, with more than one million sold PlayStation 2's sold locally, Microsoft has conceded that it will probably never match the PlayStation 2's large lead in overall console numbers.