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Xbox 360 Still in Short Supply
Spad writes "The Register is reporting that the Xbox360 is likely to remain scarce well into the spring, citing component shortages and a lack of manufacturing capacity. In an interview with USA Today, Circuit City said that due to the shortages they won't be promoting the console, as there's no point throwing resources at a product it can't sell. Microsoft had hoped to ship 2.75m consoles in the first three months, but are currently well short of that mark, having shipped a mere 600,000 units since its launch two months ago." Supply issues continue to harm the system's sales, moving back the Australia launch of the console until late March. Update: 01/27 15:19 GMT by Z : Despite these setbacks, Next Generation reports that Microsoft expects to ship their goal by the end of their fiscal year.
The should have waited until they had enough units to sell before releasing. Now I might as well wait for Revolution or PS3.
I remember there being speculation that the reason you couldn't acquire an Xbox 360 was because Microsoft was purposefully halting production. Many people thought that perhaps Microsoft was up to business tricks and shorting themselves on the production of these devices in time for the holiday season.
The net effect, of course, to be able to create such a hype that everyone needs one regardless of how much it costs.
I don't think this effect occurred, however, as I don't seem to need one.
And so I waited in expectation for the flood gates to be released as wave after wave of consoles hit everywhere. And I waited. And waited.
Is it possible that they were seriously having a hard time producing the units before the holidays? Or is this just their marketing tactic biting them in the ass with retailers balking at the cruel fates Microsoft tried to assign them?
My work here is dung.
I think the retailers are quite mad that there are no units to sell. I heard on guy at EB, that do to the backlog, they wouldn't have any available units until April, and that was if you ordered in December. I doubt if the situation has gotten any better. I don't know that many people who really care to buy one. It's expensive, buggy, and doesn't really have that many good games available. If MS doesn't get their act together, then the Revo and PS3 are going to hit the shelves, and they've lost their chance at being first to market.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Wow, it's really too bad no other large companies had recent experience with IBM's chip production capabilities and could have illustrated to Microsoft that supply might be a problem.
Certainly nobody was disappointed that the PPC970 failed to reach 3GHz within the roadmap, or that supplies were short, or that power consumption and heat expelled was at the back of IBM's mind, and was so distressed by this that they, say, changed architecture for more reliably available, lower-wattage, cooler-running chips.
If only there had been someone in the tech market to warn Microsoft about the bed they were making...
In Japan, the Xbox 360 consoles is available for sale in abundance. Anyway it's one of those stupid marketing gimmick imo by restricting the production and creating the fucking "it's available in limited numbers only, so hurry" shit hype.
I am beginning to see some interesting parallels between the game industry now and the game industry back in 1983.
1. We are seeing more and more games that are rehashes of earlier titles... remember all the crap titles for the 2600?
2. The game industry has reached a point where people are going to college just to write games, and end up mediocre programmers. Much like the ones that got hired in 1983.
3. Do you see much heart go into the games today? Reminds me of Atari 2600 Pacman. The programmer was able to make it a great game but didn't have any spirit for the game. So, it sucked.
I predict an explosion of the game industry as we know it - and the Nintendo Revolution may be the one sole survivor (or pioneer, as it was back in 1985 with the NES.)
If you're still looking for a 360, you can always import one of the thousands that didn't sell in Japan. You'll get screwed on shipping, but hey, at least you'll have a way to play DOA4.
...poor planning or a crappy idea of creating demand.
How poorly do you make an expectation to sell over 2.5 million units in the first three weeks, to then only have sold 600,000 units in the first 3 months. Talk about setting a terrible expectation. If by April they are still having problems, they might as well hold off till next christmas.
I'm wondering though, could this also be a result of beta testing?
Or imagine the opposite: plenty of 360's that nobody wants... that's bad marketing!
If Microsoft was mass, stupidity would be gravity.
Microsoft looks like they are doing anything to avoid the embarrassment of 360s sitting unsold on store shelves.
Try out one of the 360 retail availability tools to see for yourself just how many stores have large amounts of unsold 360s.
And look on eBay at the 360 auctions with only handfuls of bids and both versions being sold for just above retail.
And finally for a console that has sold such a tiny number of units where are the people online screaming for 360s? They have all but disappeared.
Where are these millions of consumers who supposedly want to buy a 360?
I think when there are shortages, companies sometimes try to "spin" the fact into a positive, to make it look as though they are in control. Product shortages are almost always a negative for a business unless you can use the shortage to increase the price, which doesn't apply here.
Well I was wandering down a typical UK city high street, and Virgin has 360's and PSPs and DS units in stock (yes I actually went and looked at them). Admittedly the 360's were all core systems, but its the first time I've seen stocks in..
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
I can down to EBGames or Future Shop here in Canada and pick up the "ultimate" edition off the shelf.
I wouldn't say that is short supply.
Could it be that MS put too much emphasis on being first to market, or getting it released in time for the holiday season? It would appear that they didn't have all the bugs worked out(overheating power adapters), and now that they overestimated the manufacturing capability so they don't have enough units to put on shelves. If they had waited a bit longer and released it for holidays 2006 instead, maybe they could have included the HD-DVD drive as well. They could have lowered the price to undercut Sony and have plenty of units on the shelves and in warehouses.
Apple used to be kings of product supply shortages, to inflate demand by introducing artificial limitations on products. The only difference is that there was actual demand for Apple products, Apple was just ensuring the hype would last more then a few days when a new product was released.
Apple has finally realized that it isn't good to limit supply and instead are ensuring lots of stock available before they release a product. I think they found more backlash in announcing a product for sale, and having millions of unhappy customers waiting weeks or even months for it.
VW still insists on limiting supply of various models and model colours on their products, but I think that just gives snobby VW customers the excuse to say their special car is on order and will be available in a few months, as opposed to all those immediately available Corollas in the Toyota lot.
Anyways, its a marketing strategy (and it IS a marketing strategy) that usually doesn't pay off. It might convince a few diehards to rush out and buy the product expecting shortages, but in the end, its usually the best way to ensure that a failed product launch still SOUNDS like its because of more demand then available stock.
I still can't understand though why MS keeps saying they wanted to sell 2.something million units when there was never that many units in existence. It would be different if they had 2 million units sitting in a warehouse, but when they could only get 600,000 made, why even make that statement in the first place. This just smack of the fact that MS rushed the Xbox360 out the door to get a foothold in the next generation console war, but instead they stepped on a landmine!
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
... I can just write "hahaha" and not get modded a troll? Pretty please? What Sony and Nintendo need to learn from this, is that they need to stockpile the crap out of their console before it hits market. Sony for example should be pumping out PS3's right now, that way when it hits market they can actually sell 3 million immediately. This is a huge blunder for Microsoft - they've blown their head start pretty badly... and not Dreamcast blown - Saturn blown.
"I can down to EBGames or Future Shop here in Canada and pick up the "ultimate" edition off the shelf."
Put it on ebay, I know dozens of people I work with still waiting.
Speak up if you have yet to get your hands on a 360 here.
I've followed and read a lot of console forums and if there really are huge numbers of gamers who can't get their hands on a 360 they sure are quiet about it. You would think if there really is this massive pent up demand for 360s people would be talking about it all over the place.
The console gaming world seems to be almost entirely focused on the Revolution and PS3 now. Interest in the 360 appears to dropped down to almost zero.
I've just checked ebay and there seem to be lots of consoles for sale there... Many don't seem to be selling. Perhaps you can inform your dozens of waiting people...
Worse than the supply of the hardware, I'm starting to see more complaints popping up about the lack of new titles, and how a lot of people are now focusing their attention on the Live Arcade games than store-bought.
Looking ahead, there doesn't seem to be a deluge of games coming out for the platform anytime soon. Well, at least games in the STORE.
I've talked to a few folks I know who managed to get a 360, all of them are kind of embarassed to own a machine as expensive as that and then use it to play the Arcade titles more than the next-gen stuff. They don't say the other games are BAD by any means, just that they've played them through and are waiting for new ones like Oblivion and such.
Sounds, at least to me, that the entire platform's launch has been a stalled mess, and that it will continue to be so for many months to come. I'm still planning on getting one, but I think I'll hold off until there's a larger library of things to play.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Even though I have a discount for the price of my current Xbox for the new one (one reason to get a decent warranty), I'm waiting until later this year to make the move. I'm not a wild fan of Xbox, and I do not see any major reason to upgrade. The real games I like (HL2, etc.) are still available on the Xbox. The 2 just seems like additional capability for the future, but not the present. Any one else waiting?
...tizzyd
If gamers a mad at MS for x360 shortages in US, in japan the reality is very different. The few people that are bought X360 consoles did not buy anygames(0.91 games per console sold http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141161.html). One could imagine a ploy of the japanese to increase MS games renenue loss since each 360 sold hurts more than 100 bucks in MS pockets.
Too bad I don't want to buy one. My local walmart has had a couple premium 360 boxes sitting on the shelf for at least two days. Of course, I don't know which is more sad... that the town I live near is so small and poor that people can't afford 360 boxes, or that the town is so small and boring that there's nothing better to do than shop at walmart every day.
Anywho... I suppose the lesson learned from this is that if you really want to get the hot hardware, try looking in places where it won't sell as fast. If I remember correctly, the walmart strategy is to put a store in every town of 10,000+ people. So, if you live in a city, check the map for nearby towns that are just big enough to have a big-box retailer, but also more isolated and/or poor.
It worked for me when I bought a nintendo DS on launch day. By the time I decided to get one, most everywhere was sold out, but I found a K-mart in a smallish town that was a good 20-30 minutes from anything of interest (including the highway) and sure enough, they still had plenty to sell.
Not sold, they said shipped. They shipped 600,000.
Futureshop, BestBuy, CircuitCity, JoeSnackBar, have the 360 (lot of them) on store !
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
This article states 600k units shipped. This article (from a previous story) states 1.5 million shipped worldwide. Now the 600k figure could just be domestic but I would except a higher ratio of domestic units to exports.
Back in E3 05 I described the general strategies heading into the next generation for Sony, MS and Nintendo. I thought that if Microsoft had a strong launch with several good titles, they could gain a lead that they might be able to hold onto this generation. On the other hand, I thought that if Nintendo and Sony could generate enough hype surrounding their systems, consumers might be reluctant to shell out a lot of money on the 360 too soon.
Well, here we are and I think it is obvious what has happened. The 360 has had a poor launch by any stretch of the imagination. Sure retailers in the US are sold out, but that isn't hard to pull off with so few in supply. Japan on the other hand, has tons of 360s available, so I think MS attempt at a simultaneous worldwide launch has made the shortage in the US that much more embarassing. Now, add in the fact that there are no really strong launch titles and MS totally failed to pull off their strategy.
Nintendo and Sony though have been nearly perfect in building hype for their platforms. By slowly letting out details about their innovative hardware designs Nintendo has by far built the most interest in their system. However, that won't last unless they start showing some gameplay footage. No one but Nintendo fan boys will be completely sold on Revolution until they see it in action.
Sony has also done a good job of building hype, though not as much as Nintendo. Sony has periodically released some gameplay footage and cinematic clips they claim are real time. Of course, after the emotion engine fiasco people are skeptical. But, it has kept them interested.
I think that the fact that the 360 launch has been so poorly executed has probably led to more people wanting to wait to learn more about PS3 and Revo. If the supply had been adequate, and the games had been excellant, people would be going to the 360 in droves. Core systems on Ebay are selling for barely more that $20 above retail, and Premiums not more that $50 - $100 above retail. If the demand was still so much higher than the supply those units would still be selling for the markup you saw the week of the launch. I think that Sony and Nintendo probably could have released absolutely no more information about their products, tried to generate no hype at all to counter the 360 launch, and they would have been fine. That is how bad I think things have gone for the 360. The longer the supply shortage goes on, and the longer the 360 goes without any decent games, the better position Nintendo and Sony will be in when they launch.
I swear PowerPoint is going to be the downfall of higher education in western society.
not here in Richmond, VA
over the last 2 weeks I've been in the CompUSA and a couple of BestBuys and they all had units sitting on the shelf. possibly some of the smaller shops like EB may be experiencing a shortage, but not the big retailers.
now, I cant say if they were the base units or the all-included ones as I'm not much of a gamer
the history of the world
Microsoft sold 1.5 million consoles by the end of 2005. 900,000 in North America, 500,000 in Europe, and 100,000 in Japan. These figures were announced with their FY06Q2 results.
Remembering back on some of Apple's product launches, I seem to recall Apple being terrible at reading the market and overproducing undesirable models while having chronic shortages of the nicer ones. Over and over again.
Nowadays, they've streamlined (i.e. reduced) the number of varying models and have improved, if you call it improvement, at least to the point where they have shortages of every model as opposed to oversupply of anything. They still seem to have trouble keeping up with demand, so perhaps you're right it is a marketing gimmick at this point.
I think we're just seeing another example of Microsoft's incredible hubris. Aside from software (Windows OS and Office), Microsoft has pretty much gotten their asses kicked in every other market they've tried to enter. WebTV email console, UltimateTV DVR, ActiMates talking toys, MSN internet service, MSNBC cable news, search engines, MS smartphones, online music services, and even PocketPC has limped along for years before becoming modestly useful (and mostly because Palm was completly incompetent and self-destructive). The Xbox console division has reportedly lost $4 billion, and chronic shortages of a machine which costs them more to build than they sell isn't helping them (no machines means no game sales to make up the loss).
IMHO the Xbox shortage is due to poor yields and supplier troubles, which they probably didn't fully investigate before spouting off numbers to the press. MS isn't really a hardware manufacturer, they subcontract to electronics builders (Flextronics and Wistron) in an "oversight" position, and they can't cope when their suppliers are late or short on shipments. Widely reported Xbox360 problems are probably causing them tons of PR grief and costing more time to thouroughly test each unit before it leaves the factory, and that likely easts in the yields as well. All speculation, but if anything this all means you can't trust MS's "predictions" and as you said they are quickly losing their rushed lead in pushing this thing out the door.
{ - Generic Guy - }
Sounds great. By the time it launches here, there may actually be games worth having on the console.
And then I'll wait a year or more for it to drop in price. I'll probably end up buying a second-hand one for Halo-3.
Maybe.
Still haven't finished Halo-2 and my X-Box hasn't been powered on in nearly nine months.