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360 Sells 400k Units, New Stock This Weekend
Next Generation is reporting an estimate of 400,000 units sold for the Xbox 360 in its first week on the retail shelves. Microsoft is planning on having more stock available as of this weekend. From the article: "It seems even the biggest retailers are in the dark. Speaking to USA Today, Circuit City's Jim Babb said, 'We knew demand would outstrip supply for some time. I have been told we'll get additional supplies, so I can only advise customers keep checking back with stores and on the website.' Microsoft is gearing up for its European launch this weekend, but many believe the shortages could be even worse over there. Retail supplies are said to be tiny, and many customers who have pre-ordered have been told that they may not receive their machines this side of the New Year."
So what about the reports of "Core" units still sitting on the shelves? Is there any truth to them?
to buy one for $1000? I missed out on all the ebay deals last weekend, and i feel like a moron.
Well if you go by the Slashdot poll you would think no one wants it.
/.'ers are lying moron sheep that follow the crowd just like everyone else.
It becomes obvious that the vast majority of
This is enough reason for me to not buy an XBOX360 EVER. In order to create a frenzy which in turn creates buzz and will most likely help sell even more of their consoles later on, they purposely make sure to not have enough supply for the demand in the beginning. This is just rude and evil.
Thousands would LOVE to buy a 360, but because of M$ greed, every place will be sold out for some time. They can do this and it works simply because there is no other next gen consoles competing with them at this time.
And the unfortunate, extremely desperate people who didn't get one before it sold out are having to pay triple the price on Ebay. Just lame Microsoft, LAME!
Where's Google's gaming console? At least I could trust they wouldn't dick around with their customers.
I remember a bunch of posts on earlier threads saying that new systems have never sold out before -- and this was a constant trick by the company to get fence-sitters to go for it.
I couldn't afford PS2/Gamecube or PS/N64 when they were released, but is this usual? I sure don't remember any system flat selling out on release, so does Xbox 360 set the standard now?
I don't get it. No one I know wants one of these things and yet they're running out of them? Something's not right here.
The thing that is not right here is that you have no friends, therefore you can't know anyone who wants one.
At least we're getting some... :) My online retailer sent my unit last night, so I'll have either tomorrow or saturday. My local electronics shops are both gearing for the launch of the console, and both say they will have a few units for sale tomorrow, so I'm wondering if I shouldn't pick up a second set as well.
Luckily I got mine on launch day, great system. I've owned pretty much every console from the NES forwards (including virtual boy) and I've never been this impressed.
Highly underrated release lineup. If you have one, buy Kameo.
If Bill Gates buys an Xbox360, he loses $553. 400+153=$553. Seeing as he will probably buy all those 400,000, that's $221200000. Thats a lot of cash, even for Bill Gates.
Purple, because ice cream has no bones.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/604/604548p1.html
The PSP's launch was considered a failure after selling 150% as many units as the XBox 360
McNealy believes Microsoft could have sold up to three times that amount, putting the company halfway to its three month target of 3 million units worldwide. "I think they would have been happy to have sold another million if they could have. They just didn't have them," he said.
It is easy to make a claim like this without having anything to base it on. I don't work in retail but I have heard that only about 5%-10% of preorders were 'lost' by the 360 shortage; one person I know was saying that their Microsoft rep gave him the impression that they were trying to be just shy of the preorder numbers to ensure a sell out (possibly a paranoid delusion, I don't know). This would imply that for every person who pre-ordered 2 would have walked in in the first week expecting to purchace a system (a highly unlikely situation).
Microsoft is gearing up for its European launch this weekend, but many believe the shortages could be even worse over there
What do you mean by "could be"?
Stores in the UK have been taking £20 deposits on consoles, with the £20 purchasing a "guarantee" that you'll get one tomorrow, 2nd December. Many of the stores have undercompensated for the shortages. I have been guaranteed one - but many people are complaining of calling the store they preordered from, only to be told that the store hasn't had ANY consoles in, no games for the system, no accessories and no promise of delivery.
Our local ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart now, fancy that) have a queue system in place. You preorder for £20 anytime since July. You turn up today at midday (12 hours before it goes on sale) and they may give you a ticket, depending on how many consoles they have in stock. If you paid and didn't get a ticket because you were too late, you can get a refund or wait as a reserve. People check the queue every hour, and if a ticketholder isn't in line for two of these hourly checks, their ticket is passed to a reserve.
In other words, the store is FORCING you to queue for 12 hours to get hold of a console that they guaranteed you'd receive on launch day when you preordered months ago.
Our local branch of GAME took 280 preorders. They have 32 premium systems and 10 core packs. They have ONE VGA cable. ONE Play N Charge kit. TWO extra wireless controllers. No wired controllers. No headsets. No Xbox Live subscription or points cards and they only have enough copies of PGR3 to satisfy the successful preorders.
And they're the biggest store that sells games for miles. I've called 14 stores within a 20 mile radius to reserve Kameo and Tiger Woods. Nobody has any left over after preorders. Luckily my PGR3 is safe, but if you just preordered the console and managed to get one - you might not have anything to play on it...now tell me, how hard is it to use an existing process and supply chain to duplicate standard DVD discs and get them to stores. I can buy King Kong for Xbox from any store I choose...most have a ton of copies of it...but I can't buy King Kong for Xbox 360 anywhere. Work that one out.
My Mind Is Rewired. Is Yours?
I don't get it. No one I know wants one of these things and yet they're running out of them? Something's not right here.
Yes - you're aparrently old enough to communicate with the outside world, but seemingly don't realize that you aren't the center of it.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Ok, I could see how MS would love the idea of 360's being "sold out" in every store, obviously... but don't you think they would rather sell more, cement a higher user base and take advantage of being the first next-gen console available, rather than simply knowing that 360's are in high demand? People on eBay are profiting more from this situation than MS.
With the news of faulty power supplies and other hardware issues, I really believe that they were rushing to get them out there, and they would have more available if they could. The whole "shortage on purpose" scenario just doesn't make sense to me, especially if it continues through Xmas season, which would be like a candy store limiting its supply right before Halloween, but then promising everyone that there would be more available in January. At least they would be sure to sell out all their candy, yippee!
Call me an MS fanboy if you must (I don't plan on buying a 360), I'm just trying to figure out why so many people really believe that this shortage was on purpose. Maybe I'm just naive and blind to the fact that MS would rather stab puppies and shoot chlidren than have happy consumers. Because they're evil.
A Banc of America analyst has found November 2005 game sales to be "surprisingly bad" in this report: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st ory=7345. I think it'll be interesting to see how the new consoles fare in the current economic climate. Iraq, layoffs, the impressive American response to the tsunami, and Katrina hurt personal incomes a LOT. The current administration's benefit-cutting (whatever your political inclinations) also reduces the wiggle room in consumers' pockets.
Plus, the new consoles have exponentially less to offer than the Xbox and the PS2. I don't want to ramble about it here, but you can find my specious argument at this KQED blog.
It's a bad time to be launching a console. On the other hand, people do want their circuses when they are surrounded by adversity and death.
Heh heh heh...
Call me an MS fanboy if you must (I don't plan on buying a 360), I'm just trying to figure out why so many people really believe that this shortage was on purpose. Maybe I'm just naive and blind to the fact that MS would rather stab puppies and shoot chlidren than have happy consumers. Because they're evil
Have you ever seen what kind of raving lunitic people become at Christmas time?
What would be a small annoyance at any other time of the year (the XBox 360 being sold out) soon becomes the biggest problem in their life. Jimmy needs his "Tickle Me Elmo" and Judy needs her "Cabbage Patch Doll", and if I don't get my husband Robert his "XBox 360" he'll feel ripped off after he spent $1000 on that ring for me.
Companies know that this type of frenzy can easily be manipulated to produce news stories and have people talking at the watercoolers; they then manipulate the situation to produce sales in the long run. People will hear how hard it was to get and conclude that it must be popular, since it is popular it must be good and I therfore must own one.
The true master work is to create the impression of a shortage while having plenty of stock (which I think Microsoft is trying to do); you start with a shortage, follow up a short while later with another shipment which almost meets demand (thus producing a new wave of panic), then you drown the market. "Billy just turned 15 and I don't know what to get him; oh look Walmart claims to have XBox 360s and they'll sell out soon I better buy one before I think about it or else I won't get one".
I think they're trying to walk the line between "sell as much as we can" and "get as much mindshare as possible". Selling out might get you some mindshare, but it won't increase your userbase. Increasing your userbase as much as possible won't build as much hype. And we have yet to see if the hype will help in the long run (especially, say, a year from now).
I've been to the following stores in the Philadelphia Metro area numerous times:
1. 2 K-Marts
2. Toys 'R' Us
3. Target
4. Best Buy
5. Wal-Mart
6. FYE
7. Electronics Boutique
8. Game Stop
No 360s. Best estimates were "maybe right before the holidays", "January", or my favorite "March!"
I just can't see retailers being happy about getting stuck with accessories and software they can't sell. Maybe, if the retailers threaten to return unsold stock, M$ would reconsider stocking consoles at a faster pace.
Right now, I get a nonchalant feeling off of the Remond devils.
Sure, Windows PCs dominate the market. But so do cheap toupees.
thank you, i am gonna giggle about that for a while....
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
Yes - you're aparrently old enough to communicate with the outside world, but seemingly don't realize that you aren't the center of it.
Who are you? You don't fit into my world view.