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."

Comments

The marketing machine keeps hype alive!

[brs165]

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.

Thats not a story

[FidelCatsro]

Its a marketing ploy , they are trying to drum up numbers by making it seem rare.
quite an old trick really

I understand, Microsoft

[AtariAmarok]

I understand your message. The Xbox 360 will be so rare that I have no hope of getting one. Might as well forget about it, and get a "Revolution" instead.

Is that your intent? Thought so.

As opposed to Sony?

[Moryath]

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.

Re:umm...

[craXORjack]

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!