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Current-Gen Price Drop and 360 Shortage
Gamespot is running an article reporting that Activision's Robert Kotick believes that current generation games will drop in price due to the arrival of next-gen consoles. From the article: "Unfortunately for current-generation holdouts, Kotick also said that publishers will quickly shift their development efforts away from today's consoles, which has been the case in the past, when the introduction of the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube games saw PlayStation and Nintendo 64 development plummet." Meanwhile, the retail chain EBGames has announced that it has presold it's allotment of 360 consoles. From the article: "We are currently sold out of our popular Xbox 360 bundles ... Check back frequently for more opportunities to pre-order an Xbox 360."
"Xbox 360
SOLD OUT!
We are currently sold out of our popular Xbox 360 bundles. Check back frequently for more opportunities to pre-order an Xbox 360, Microsoft's next-gen gaming system that ships November 21."
Oddly enough, it doesn't actually say that EB itself is sold out of pre orders, or that there won't be any more available. From the recommendation to "check back frequently," it sounds like they might just be holding some back in order to try to enduce panic buying. Then they'll release the rest of their stock. Or maybe the brick-and-mortar parts of the chain are hogging all of the available presales, to be sure that they can sell some in every territory. This is all speculation, of course.
Annoyingly enough, you have to pre-order anything you want at EB: They never get more than one or two per store. It's like they have no idea what a demand curve looks like. That's why I stopped shopping there. I lost a lot of faith in EB when the copy of Zelda that I had "pre-ordered" mysteriously didn't show up with their first batch of games, but every other store in the mall still had plenty.
The ______ Agenda
Avoid one scam; falling for another.
Well, until it becomes a collector's item.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
It's not that they can't predict demand, and certainly they can get more as demand rises. The issue for EB and Gamestop (though I've found my local version of the latter to be well-stocked on the rare occasions I want a game on the release date) is that their business model precludes overstocking new games and relying on the $5/unit profit margin there. Those stores are trying to stock as few new games as they can - just barely enough, especially in the first month of release, to hopefully satisfy "early" customers - and then buy back the games from customers at $5-20 a pop to sell used for $25-45.
It's a pretty simple equation if you look at a single game. The customer comes in, spends $50 on the game, then comes back in a month or two later and sells the game back to the store for, say, $20. They then turn the game back around by putting it back on the shelf for $45 ($5 off new prices, and a $5 discount in a market where nearly everyone sells at MSRP is a good deal). So, instead of making just $5 on that game, they've managed to make $10. And that profit goes up even higher if the person selling back the game was willing to take less money ($10-15 for a recent game, $5-10 for something older) or if that copy can be recycled yet again when the second customer tires of it.
Short version? Selling new games isn't a very good deal unless you're into other business. That other business for EB, Gamestop and other used game resellers is selling used games.
While all the early "I must have it the hour it comes out" adopters are killing each other and paying far to much to possess a console that wont have that many 'must have' games in the first six months, I'll be keeping myself happy buying all the discounted games and second hand games (sold for pittance by the aforsaid early adopters to fund X360 purchase) that I've not had the funds/time to play over the last 12 months. Maybe later on I'll buy a 360 but for now I've still got a whole back library of quality Xbox and PS2 titles that I havn't played yet.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
Somehow Zonk manages to throw in a real news item with a completely unsubstantiated blurb at the end, every time.
The fact of the matter is the POPULAR bundles which were initially alotted (at a fairly low number due to the actual uncertainty of how many each store will receive) are all spoken for. The ultra-insane bundles are still available at $1k+ This has NOTHING to do with any real shortages. Of an arbitrary low estimate of how many units EB will receive, the most common bundles have all been reserved. Wow, really?
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Actually MS announced earlier this year that the Xbox 1 would be supported with new titles through 2007.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000770039609/
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200504/038.asp