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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.
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.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
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.)
... 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'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...
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.
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.
I am not sure why this has to be discussed every time the cost of consoles comes up, but MS (and Sony and any other company selling a product at a loss) does not lose more money when they sell their product off the shelves.
Lets assume the console costs MS $400 and they are selling it for $300, a loss of $100. Now, that is a sunk cost to them. If the console stays on the shelf unsold, MS is out $400, but when one is sold (at $300), they are only out $100.
So, there is no ploy by the Japanese to hurt MS's bottome line by buying Xbox360's b/c everyone sold reduces their loss by $200. This is highschool economics material... common sense even.
-SquirrelMaster out
The 600,000 unit was made up by a research company.
As you said, MS shipped 1.5 million units. 900k of those were in the US for the fiscal quarter ending Dec 31st. So as of DECEMBER, 900k were sold in the US. As of now... I'd guess a million or so.