Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Abandons 360 Sale Target
Next Generation is reporting that Microsoft has, reluctantly, admitted they won't hit their 90 day sales target for the Xbox 360. From the article: "In a report in today's Financial Times, the company shifted its attention to the longer-term target outlined at CES last week. The firm now says it will hit sales of 4 million to 5.5 million by the end of its financial year, in June. Analysts believe sales of the console had hit around 1.3 million by the end of the Holiday sales period. But as January moves along, retailers have yet to see evidence of shortages easing."
Basic economics: meet increased demand with reasonably-priced supply at the right time and you get dough. Otherwise...
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Really I picked up my console on launch day, no line up, no wait. It was a core console, which I still see around from time to time. The hardest part was getting games for the system. If your not picky, core consoles are around, you'll just pay more in the end.
but rather all the companies hired to make the pieces. Thats the problem when you auction out each individual piece of a console to the lowest bidder - one of them missing their mark pushes everything back.
Good news for them is the PS3 launch is looking further and further out, possibly 2007.
If we don't technically produce enough units to meet our sales goals, we can't possibly hit our targets. My cynical side can't see an easy to turn this into another way to massage a manufactured shortage to continue to pump demand, but I suppose it's possible. Part of me does wonder if there are a lot of units tied up in bundled packages that aren't selling, though.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
If anyone still seriously thinks the Xbox 360 "shortage" is all planned by Microsoft.
The Xbox 360 launch has definatley been a bit of a screw up for them. If only for not getting enough systems into shops. Microsoft's plan was to launch early and try and get a lead on the PS3, but they just can't seem to actually get enough units out...
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
I don't know what you mean about bundles. I mean you can get a great deal right now on a 360. Hell, if you buy that system with the extra third wireless controller, you *save*! By my calculations you Toys R Us saves you exactly erm...$0. That's not the point though, you can have your XBox360 now!! Limited time only!
-- I have fans? Wow.
FTA: "He added. 'That's just the way of the beast, particularly when you are ramping up factories from ground zero all the way up to full capacity.'" (Peter Moore)
Ground zero?
Well, I guess building XBoxes at the site of nuclear detonations might have something to do with their supply chain getting all messed up.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
As other people have said before me, this should effectively kill the "planned shortage" theory, trying to generate some sort of grassroots demand such as Google did with Gmail, or something. I haven't been into any Best Buys or Wal-marts so I can't speak to the availability of bundled systems but I doubt there are any sitting on the shelves. Maybe someone else can describe their experience finding systems?
If their production can't even meet their sales goals, what it means is they screwed up on the production side of it. Clearly they decided that production capacity was expensive and they should try to maintain a slow trickle so they don't end up with extra costs from unused capacity later on. But they didn't give what little capacity they had any time to build up a stock for the initial release.
The last resort of those who say the shortage was an intentional effort to create demand is that all the 360s are tied up in bundled packages. I haven't spent a lot of time in Best Buy or Wal-mart, so I can't speak to what stock I've seen. I only know that Costco and Sears don't have any 360s, but I didn't expect them to have any. And Gamestop and EB Games didn't have any either from what I could tell, butt I didn't ever ask them if they kept them in back. I'm not in the market until Oblivion comes out so I haven't been paying close attention. Can anyone provide their experiences with finding systems and finding bundles? What are they bundling with the 360?
Now that I think of it, does anyone know where there's a list of games available for the 360 and what else is coming out when, as well as release dates have been pinned down? I'd like to know if there's anything else worth buying for the 360 by the time Oblivion is out. (I hope to God they bundle Oblivion with the full system when it comes out.)
Actually, the PS2 sold 510,000 units on the first DAY in America. Even the Dreamcast sold more than 200,000 on the first day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_2#Sales_R ecord
thats 1.3 million SHIPPED worldwide, and from Japan sales records we know that they haven't sold all of those...
The 360 is selling less units than the original xbox did. And at that time, the xbox had the gamecube launch right next to it. Todays there is no "next-gen" competition --- MSFT is squandering any advantage to launching early. Peter Moore most certanly does not deserve any credit.
The most ironical part? Lower XBox sales mean higher profits at end of financial year for Microsoft.
It will take quite a while till the games start paying back the loss generated by each unit sold. Probably 2 financial years till XBox360 investments break even, maybe 4 for any real profit. Currently the more XBoxes are sold, the more Microsoft loses, at least short-term. Bigger sales = bigger losses.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
DUH!
when you can only sell 400k in the first day and have to spend two weeks getting your supplies back, you think it's still possible to sell 3 million?
pfft.
Insert Sig Here
The only bad thing about it is that the PS3 is getting nearer. As the campaign for it ramps up some people not yet lucky enough to get a 360 might decide to wait to see what the PS3 will be like.
This about lack of production capacity, not lack of demand. The moment 360 consoles start to be easily available in stores then we can start judging on how good the launch has been. It is kinda odd that MS is having so much trouble with production but then MS not getting production right is nothing new. It is a new business for them after all. Sony has assembled hardware all its live. If Sony is going to get it wrong as well then it will be news.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So they managed to sell more PS2 than they actually produced on the first day of the release? That's amazing! No wonder Microsoft is doing so poorly, they're only selling things that actually exist.
Sony shipped/"sold" that many to the retailers. With room for someone rounding somewhere, its confusing but not inconsistent. But considering how quickly the retailer sold out, that really is that misleading.
Anm
Don't be a moron. That article was on the day of release in NA and they were reporting what Sony told them - that they wouldn't be shipping 1m consoles as previously targeted - only 500,000. Of course if you think that means they shipped 500,000 and not 500,001 or 499,999 consoles you have bigger problems. Now after the fact, reports showed they shipped and sold around 510,000 - but probably not 510,000. It might have been 509,999 or 510,001 or even 506,000 or 514,000.
Point is when dealing with a really big number usually someone decides to round that number off to make it easy to quote and remember. Now the last time 'the computer dweeb nex' posted this shit (on Friday) it was 200k in 3 months, but now it's 200k in six months. So if the 510k sold in 24 hours is wrong and it's only 500k, he's still a troll and a moron to boot. So both the PS2 and 360 sold out their entire stock in NA at release, 332k for the 360 and 510k for the PS2. Of course the difference in Japan was a bit more pronounced - 980k for the PS2, 42k for the 360 (around 110k for the original xbox, iirc.) Does this mean the 360 sucks? No. These are just sales statistics and have nothing to do with how good a machine is.
eBay listings for the 360, if they are any indication, seem to show that folks aren't willing anymore to pay much, if any, of a premium beyond the suggested retail price anymore. Which is pretty shocking, when you consider that retail outlets do seem to be completely sold out... wouldn't you expect these things to be selling for more on eBay if the demand was really there?
Microsoft has been targeting 4.5 to 5.5 million units by the end of their fiscal year since the console was launched. Hell, you can find articles with those numbers in it before their launch; this one was published Nov 8th:
* http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9968123/from/RL.5/
This article combines a bunch of random quotes out of context, and strings them together with some out of context source information in an attempt to make it look like company officials are acknowleging missing theirs sales targets.
This doesn't mean that the sales targets have been hit or missed, just that the article is a piece of made up trash.
I gotta love how you use the Wikipedia to back up your statistics claims while claiming that someone else is "making up statistics". There's a good reason your fifth grade teacher won't let you site the Wikipedia, there's no way to back up the statistics claimed there.
In fact, there are two VERY important "categories" that article is in, if you bother to read the WHOLE thing: "Accuracy disputes" and "Articles lacking sources".
And, after Googling for a good half-hour and finding NOTHING, I can't help but think that YOUR statistics are about as valid as nex's, although it is fairly difficult to link to nothing for proof.
The chances of the 360 living to see 2007 are rapidly approaching zero.
Right now there are very nast meetings going on up in Redmond with the 360 team dealing with why the project shouldn't be cut as soon as possible.
No matter how much it pains the hardcore Xbox fans, the Dreamcast comparisons are probably going to be right on to the very end for the doomed 360.
And, after Googling for a good half-hour and finding NOTHING, I can't help but think that YOUR statistics are about as valid as nex's, although it is fairly difficult to link to nothing for proof.
Not very good at googling are we? Here's a couple sources for ps2 numbers that back the 500/510k numbers besides Wikipedia. Also from NPD directly a story that cites $168m PS2 sales for the first weekend, which is in line with the numbers in the IGN story which say $149m PS2 sales first day. Here's a quick hit that mentions around a million in first weekend sales in Japan, which matches up with the 980k Japan weekend number, which already has a cited source article on Wikipedia you can check out.
A source for 360 sales numbers, for good measure, both Japan (2) and US. Although the US numbers after restating by NPD were a slightly lower 326k, rather than the 332k I mentioned that were in the initial report. Thanks for playing.
By the way, this post took me longer to fomat and type than to google up these links, I'm sure I could find more than just these few if I used a good half-hour for just googling. I'd ask my fifth grade teacher, but after 20-some-odd years, I wonder if he's still even alive?
There's a good reason your fifth grade teacher won't let you site [sic] the Wikipedia, there's no way to back up the statistics claimed there.
My fifth grade teacher certainly would not let me site Wikipedia, even if he would let me cite it. (My fifth grade teacher taught all subjects except gym, including english.)
Wow. 10 minutes after your original little rant and you find a typo and have to call it out.
Maybe you should seek out your fifth grade teacher, ask them about "letting things go" given that you're apparently stalking nex.
It'll limp along until Halo 3 is released. Then, millions of young men will line-up, bring it home, and masturbate furiously to this one-note wonder..