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Hardware Shortages Weaken Holiday Sales
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that GTA: San Andreas was the tops in December sales, but overall 2004 sales were somewhat down because of PS2 and Xbox hardware shortages. From the article: "That leaves the industry on negative growth of one per cent for the calendar year, and even considering software alone, December still saw negative growth of five per cent and brought the calendar year growth figure down to seven per cent."
buy a GameCube, with RE4.
Bullocks. There were plenty of Athlon 64's and Radeon x800s available.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Shortage is trying to find a Nvidia Geforce 6600GT AGP in any store. There are plenty of ps2 and xboxes to go around in comparison.
It looks like this article is only referring to console sales. What about the PC industry? One would think that it's sales increased, what with the release of WoW, EQ2, HL2, and Doom 3. Those are just the major one off the top of my head. I'm sure there are lots more.
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This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
People were too busy with all their November purchases (Halo2, HL2, and GTA:SA)... or maybe their pockets were just too empty.
to buy a new Xbox this Christmas just for Halo 2 but everywhere I went it was sold out, even used. I wasn't able to get one until January.
This holiday break one my friends had a temp position working at Gamestop. From the stories he told me it sounded like it was hell(stand around sort boxes, shitty pay, people that don't know what they're looking for, management that treated them like shit and treated their own employees more like potential theives than their customers). Anyway, his big annoyance at the job was there was a little number of PSTwo's(or whatever you call the newer slim version of the PS2) and people kept asking them if they had any in stock. Every few minutes they get a call from someone asking if they had them in stock. And despite my friend trying give friendly advice(go order online, suggesting other stores) people still got upset as if the store was suppose to have an unlimited number of PS2's.
It got to the point where people calling for PS2's became a joke itself. He even started calling(and getting his friends to call too) the store asking questions not unlike what the real customers asked:
"Gamestop. Dude Speaking"
"Do you have any PS2's?"
"No we do not."
"Well, could you just make me one before I come in?"
"No, we do not make the PS2's, only sell them."
"You're sure you don't have any PS2's in the back?"
"Gamestop. Dude Speaking"
(big southern drawl) "You have any of 'em Zeeee-boxes?"
"Um, you mean X-Box, sir?"
"NO, NO, *Zeeee*-Box. Like Zebra"
"Gamestop. Dude Speaking"
(irate father voice)"Are you guys taking preorders for the PSP2?"
"You mean PSP, sir?"
"No it's a PS....shut up! I'm trying to asking the man about it!"
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
Jeezus. One day i read that the games industry saw another year of growth, then I hear no, it's shrinking... WHICH IS IT?!!
There is still a shortage.
I tried, last Friday (2 1/2 weeks after the holidays) to try an buy an XBox. Everywhere I checked, not only did they not have any in, they hadn't had any for almost a month, and had no clue when they were going to get more.
I ended up looking around online, and finally found a place that had XBox + DVD player bundles for sale. That was all I could find. Though to be honest, I didn't go to the level of checking eBay or looking at random little web shops.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
i still cant get a ds online or in stores.
the onyl ones ive come across are bundled with useless accessories and 5 games.
how can they supply the upcoming Aus/NZ launch if they still cant supply N.A.?
this sig has been discontinued.
I got an XBox for Christmas, apparently one of the last ones they had. Unfortunately it died 3 days after opening it! After calling countless stores repleatedly for 3 weeks, I finally got one of the two XBoxen in stock at Circuit City last Thursday.
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
Also, a New York Times article (mirror) says PC games are not included in the current numbers. They will be available "in the next few days."
I've seen reports that the PStwo shortages were either almost only at EB Games, or were otherwise just shortages at individual brick-and-mortar stores, not widespread shortages. A lot of folks seem to think it's just a phony shortage to create hype around the PStwo.
"From the stories he told me it sounded like it was hell(stand around sort boxes, shitty pay, people that don't know what they're looking for, management that treated them like shit and treated their own employees more like potential theives than their customers). "
Holy shit, retail sales jobs suck, even if you're selling videogames? In fact, due to low margins and high competition, it actually sucks even more than usual retail jobs because you have to meet sales goals? No way!
Sorting boxes is shipping. You do that in a small store. People not knowing what they want, that's retail. You don't need to pass a test to shop (unfortunately). Shitty pay? Yea, the only money goes to the company first, SM second, and ASM third. Everything else is minimal overhead...
As for the shitty management and thieving, well, management is management. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. The thieving is called loss-prevention, because a 40$ controller walking out the door needs to have about 400$ of other controllers sold to make up the loss (usually): when a controller is stolen, you lose not just the profit, but also the cost of it. Of course they check their Christmas temps out, most of them rob the stores blind!
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Why do sales aways have to be better than last year?
Yes its nice if it is, but sometime you just peak out and cant do any better, or maybe its a baner year.
When these copanys complain about sales, saying they are down for X amount of time they are going off of last year or projections. Then when some overhyped game does not do as well they blame it on priates or shortages and dont look at the real causes.