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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.
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.
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.