Slashdot Mirror
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."
Sounds like the beginning of a false demand being rumored to guarantee scarcity later on from frantic parents. What better way to create a sense of urgency than to start saying now, 5 months before launch, that the demand might not be met, and reinforce realtors to push the "Make sure you preorder to lock your availability in!", or "Don't disappoint little Johnny buy now because it might not be available for a long time." crap. It is just a vicious cycle being whipped up by M$. That way they can honk their horn about many preorders there are and blah blah blah...... I just shutter to think of the next XBox/MTV crossover event.
Its a marketing ploy , they are trying to drum up numbers by making it seem rare.
quite an old trick really
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Is that your intent? Thought so.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
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.
Think of the children!
while this is nothing more than hype, similar to that of when halo 2 was released (btw i went to best buy at 8 pm and got a special edition copy with out having to wait in line...)
the y still have one less person to worry about as i wont be buying one... i am personally waiting for the revolution from nintendo...as they are the only real gaming company left...
sony and MS are trying to sell gaming as a fad, the next hip thing...nintendo just wnats to push units to push games...look at the hype machines from all 3 companies...the two major players this year an undoubtly MS and sony...all they are touting is graphics capabilities...while nintendo realizes that they cant compete in that are so they dont...instead focousing on gameplay. when i play a game on any system, i want to enjoy my self. and frankly...i havent been enjoying all the BS hype from the 2 evil mega corps.
Hype? No way! The Xbox 360 is the most anticipated launch of a product in human history! I know it is. I read it in a trade rag. It was in an unbiased article sandwiched right between two huge glossy paged Microsoft ads. Could hype explain the massive groundswell of public interest this story has generated? Eight hours on Slashdot and almost 50 comments. Taco probably had to made arrangements with Akamai to handle the load. I'm almost afraid to hit the submit button because I don't want to be the straw that broke the camel's back, but if I don't hurry my post might get lost in the multitude so with fingers crossed here goes nothing!
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
I don't think the world launch is really that big of a problem for Microsoft here. Europe isn't as large of a gaming market as the US or Japan, so it's not a big factor. And with Japan, the only way MS will be short units is if the boat, carrying the one container of XBoxes, sinks. Even then, they could stick someone on a commercial flight with the two new Xboxes in carry-on luggage, for all of their loyal Japanesse customers.
This is 100% hype. They want people to buy an Xbox 360 before the PS3 hits, so that they can have an large install base before competition exists. This "article", and others like it for the PS3 and Revolution (what is it with going in circles this generation?) are just marketing tripe designed to get people excited about a system, when the real important part is the games. Yet, people will fall for it, and it will all happen again next generation. Sad really.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.