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Xbox Shortages Continue, Console Meeting Goals
Eurogamer reports that Microsoft is finally beginning to get some more 360 consoles into the retail channel. From the article: "Xbox does not announce details of shipments, but I can tell you that we're on track to meet our 90 day forecast of 2.75 to 3.0 million units ..." Despite that level of success, Microsoft is still disappointed with production levels and sales.
it smell bullshit.. microsoft disappoints about production level.. afterall they are one whom push it to november 2005 instead of spring 2006.
I really liked the last paragraph of that article: '"Asked whether he thought there was any truth to rumours that the shortages are deliberate, Sony's Phil Harrison told gi.biz, "I don't believe that for a second. I think that it's clear that they're making every unit that they can - whether that is enough for demand or they can't make enough is a question you'll have to put to Microsoft. It's definitely not done on purpose, I can assure you of that."' It's great how we take people's words instead of hard facts. In my opinion, Microsoft clearly planned for a shortage and could have easily avoided or at the very least mitigated the shortage by releasing the console a few weeks later but still in time for the Christmas release. It's so obviously clear that they were trying to use the scarcity factor to make the 360 seem more desirable to dimwitted customers; it makes me wonder why people even bother to ask the question.
Xbox does not announce details of shipments
If they were exceeding the numbers that they would be announcing updates every week. Sony's PS2 numbers we're all over the place the weekend after, the week after, the month after - because it was a blowout of a launch.
failure. Especially when the sales couldn't reach that of the Xbox 1 in the same period.
I've been to the malls and such every day this week, and a couple last week (but I'm definetly out before 9 a.m.) I've seen XBox360s everywhere. I went to Toy's R Us this morning for nephew gifts, and lo and behold, there were about 6 of each SKU on the shelf, just sitting there. I've seen them in Kay Bee, EB and god knows where else, I stopped noticing.
I don't want one right now, but I can't understand why I keep hearing about the shortage continuing. I could easily buy 20 right now if I had the cash.
-- I have fans? Wow.
Shortages like this almost always happen for any popular new console release. Even if Microsoft could have met demand, there are some good practical reasons not to.
1. Product defects: You don't want to get too many consoles out into the channel only to bring them back if some real show stoppers are discovered in the wild. Once you're sure everything is okay, you can make minor tweaks for the subsequent production runs using what the first run taught you.
2. No Dust Please: Too many consoles would mean some sitting on shelves gathering dust and people beginning to mumble about waiting for the first price drop. To the space conscious retailer, oversupply is probably worse than shortages.
3. Games Make Money: Each console is sold at a loss. You make your money from game royalties. Right now the number of available games is not very high and there really aren't any must have system sellers to speak of. (The Dead or Alive 4 delay killed the Japanese launch.) A console shortage minimizes money lost while game publishers catch up and hopefully produce the killer games that sell systems. *Cough*Halo 3*Cough*
Of course, I could be wrong about all of this, but in the end it does seem that something in short supply becomes all the more desirable, as long as it doesn't suck too badly.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
The solution is to ship the consoles from Japan to the US.
Because of slow start for xbox in Japan and massive discounts
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
It's possible that Microsoft didn't expect quite as much of a demand as they have seen, but didn't want to admit it. If you look at the game lineup for the 360, it's ok, but not amazing. There arn't any real "must have" games for it in my opinion. The compatability with the original Xbox titles isn't perfect, and it will take a while before all of the really great game titles will run properly on the 360.
So, with this in mind, it's possible that Microsoft expected high demand for the holidays, but not quite as much as they found from the initial launch. No Microsoft exec would EVER say that they didn't expect their newest product to sell out on launch, but they might have thought it going into the launch.
Production issues due to the power supply overheat problem may also play a role in the limited amounts of 360 consoles we have seen until recently.
In the UK, it seems that whether or not you can get a 360 is more or less a post-code (zip code, for our cousins across the Atlantic) lottery, particularly with the Premium Pack. I got my own Premium Pack from Argos of all places - a fully little catalogue store that most gamers will know as the place where their parents buy rubbish furniture and the chavs buy their imitation-gold rings. Not that Argos ever actually admitted to having them in stock - but after hearing a rumour that they had some about a week after launch (when Dixons had failed to honour my August pre-order), I phoned up to check.
Initially, I got the brush-off from their customer-service person - a generic "sorry, none in stock, don't know when we'll get any" answer. However, when I asked very, very nicely if she could just check with my local depot (all Argos orders are ultimately handled by local depots), she came back to say that they actually had a couple of them in stock. Of course, I ordered one and promptly dropped a line to a lot of friends who'd also been trying to get them. The results were interesting. Central and South London had loads of units available, as did Newcastle. North London, Manchester and Edinburgh didn't seem to have any. Now, I'd have put this down to the perculiarities of a single retailer, if this picture hadn't been replicated by most other chains since then.
Provided you get in before lunch time, you can generally pick up a 360 Premium from central London most days - it seems that a lot of shops have been getting small, but near-daily shipments since about the 10th. The same, I'm told, goes in a lot of the other locations where you could find the stores in the shops early. I've even seen Cores sitting on shelves neglected, as the initial panic-buying subsides and people realise what a bad deal the Core really is (I could have had a Core on launch day, but even then, I wasn't *that* desperate). However, I don't actually know anybody in Manchester (where I know a good half dozen people who are looking) who've managed to find even a Core for sale on the shelves.
All highly bizarre. I honestly don't think it's deliberate - there's a lot of ill-will towards Microsoft building up in some of the regions and once Christmas has passed and people find themselves in the financial-hell that is January, I wouldn't be surprised if a few people gave up looking.
For what it's worth, the system itself is more than worth the money. I've never seen so many vested interests in the gaming journalism and outright-fanboydom community positively willing a system to fail. In the longer term, I think they're going to be disappointed.
it just comes-down to straight-up incompetence?
Let me get this clarified..
one of the biggest, most powerful corporations on the planet - with approximately four years to plan this event - is having production/distribution problems?
Yup, incompetence. Case solved.
Perhaps Mr Gates would be better off donating the money he'd lose on this generation to charity.
TheN, he could leave the iNdustry to a real game coNsole compaNy.
Seeing as Sony have bought the main stand for CES2006 which starts on January 5th, so it's pretty blatant that they are going to be releasing details on the PS3. If I was microsoft I'd be trying as hard as I could to get 360's on shelves before then, because as soon as people know when that console is coming (if it is anytime soon) microsoft will immeadiately start losing customers, people will either say "i'll wait for the ps3" or "i'll wait and see which is better"
Business Voyeur
I think that if Microsoft is in any way dissappointed with it's sales figues for the 360 then they are crazy. It is no doubt one of the hottest selling items for sale in the world and noone can keep enough of them on the shelves. Last look on ebay for the Xbox 360 they were going for as much as $900 dollars for the stripped down version. I had to pre order mine for my daughter and sure am glad I did since I went to three stores yesterday looking for another for myself and they were all sold out!
Maybe... but if Microsoft says they expect to sell 3 million hardware units in 90 days, then they should at least produce 3 million hardware units in about 60 days... They somehow seem to expect selling more units than they can make.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
"...bad press everywhere including mainstream media"
Are you kidding me? Both on Launch day and last Sunday when Best Buys recieved another huge shipment every single channel was running a positive story on the Xbox. Pretty much every BB in my state had all 70 or so 360's claimed about 15 hours prior to opening.
I don't know if the shortage was deliberate, but it worked. The buzz around this system is completely unparalleled. People were waiting in line for 20 hours a month after launch date just to get one. That is unbelievable.
FTS:"Despite that level of success, Microsoft is still disappointed with production levels and sales."
If you meet your goals, but are disappointed with your sales... that means your goals are too low.
Goals should be set at a level where you aren't diappointed with your results when you attain them.
Of course, from a PR perspective, you've got to set goals that you can't miss -- otherwise you're a goat to the public. Your future sales, as well as your market cap, will reflect poor performance.
What MS should be saying, is that they are meeting their expectations, but sales are falling short of their real targets (their goals).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Well, you're right, long live Nokia's N-Gage [qd]!
Its also possible that monkeys could fly straight outta my arse...but not likely... gerbils maybe, but that's another story.
The real reason is due to super low CPU yields. They had to fly their initial U.S. shipment in on a Boeing because of how far the low yields put them behind the 8-ball.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea