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MS Worried About Meeting 360 Demand
GamesIndustry.biz has an article up right now indicating that, at least in the UK, Microsoft is worried about meeting demand for the 360 because they think so many people are going to want to buy the console. From the article: "We feel as a company we've done the groundwork to get to a point where we can do the global release; we feel we're going to deliver and have a great Xmas...Will we execute well so retail will have good volume? Yes. But I don't think we're going to meet demand as people are going to come into this platform in a big way."
I see all the comments so far are basically saying this is a deliberate part of Microsoft's hype campaign.
They're probably right.
However, there's one indication I've seen that Microsoft's predictions might not be so far off the mark. I play FFXI; a MMORPG with a high (I'd guess about 40%) proportion of Japanese players. I've had conversations with quite a few Japanese players who are actually pretty exicted about the 360. Given the original X-Box basically vanished without a trace in Japan, this could be a potential indicator that the 360 is destined for bigger things. At the very least, it seems that Microsoft's deliberate targeting of Japanese developers is at least going some way towards achieving its intended effect.
This is one of those /. discussions in which every post, excepting the first, can be justly modded Redundant. Since we all had the same exact same thought, what can we actually discuss?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Let's see... Sony underproduced the first run of the Playstation deliberately.
Then they underproduced the first run of the PS2 deliberately to claim it was "selling out."
Then they did the same with the PSP... as well as underproducing decent-sized Memory Stick DUO cards and then jacking the price up 200%.
I detect a subtle pattern here. Couldn't tell you what it is, though.
Let's look at the alternate option: MS is angling for their console to be the big thing. They're releasing it with NO competition, onto the busy holiday season, so there's definitely going to be competition for the units. Of course they want to have large numbers of preorders, because it's a marketing point.
Of course they want to get as many units out onto the street as they can. Only someone who actually has a unit is likely to be receiving and/or buying a game for it.
Yeah, it's a marketing spiel. But I'd rather they tell us right now, that they'll get as many as they can out the door and see what happens, rather than have them claim (like Sony did) that they had more than enough while secretly holding stock back in a warehouse just to create the illusion of scarcity.
They pulled the same hyperbolic BS when they released Halo 2, remember? "On November 9th, when Halo 2 is released, the biggest sick day in history may occur." Come on. For a mediocre FPS that you can't use a keyboard/mouse combo in? Yeah right. Gotta hate those marketers. Liars.
Pssst. Kid, wanna experience revolutionary HDTV gaming (TM)?