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1 Million 360s a Month By Year's End
GameDailyBiz reports that Microsoft plans to have one million 360's produced a month by the end of the year. From the article: "As has been previously reported Xbox 360 production and availability has already been significantly increased in recent weeks. In the period through Microsoft's fiscal year ending in June, the company expects to pump out 2 to 3 times the number of units it did previously. With Sony's PlayStation 3 launching this November across the globe, Microsoft still has a window of opportunity during which it can extend its lead in the next-gen race considerably."
I could have sworn I read somewhere that the PS3 was delayed until 2007. Am I remembering incorrectly?
firestream.net
It's an XBOX Manufacturing station...
The quote in the abstract is quote misleading. Mr. Lin from the Wistron company said it; Wistron makes some of the 360's for Microsoft.
In WWII, the Japanese designed the "zero-sen". It was light, fast, and could outmaneuver anything in the American air fleet. Unfortunately, it was also built from the ground up each time. No two zeros were the same, so no parts were generally interchangeable.
On the other hand, American fighter planes were pretty much cookie-cutter designs. If a flap needed replacement, it could be replaced with scrap from another plane. The lifetime of each plane increased significantly because it was simple to cannibalize other broken/damaged planes to repair operational ones.
When you decide to build from commodity parts, you're deciding to sacrifice performance for development speed. Maybe the XBox 360 won't be as good as the PS3, but it will certainly be more available and cheaper than it.
Just ramping up production won't mean more people buying them. Maybe some none sports/FPS games would help things out. Or a game that you can't buy for $10 less on the older generation (might not be as pretty, but it's $10 less and is just as fun). Lower system price would be nice too, as only the early adopters (most of which have their 360 already) are willing to pay $400+ for a system with little original content.
Read my blog posts on usability.
At one million per month, it sounds like they're going from terrible undersupply to terrible oversupply.
{ - Generic Guy - }
is where are these 1million a month going to go? B/c they certainly aren't hitting US stores. I have yet to see an Xbox360 in the wild that isn't a display console. So, 1 million a month... are they going to be shipped to poor African countries to compete with the $100 laptops that Microsoft talks bad about?
Ooo Ooo! I know! Japanese shelves so they can take up the shelf space that keeps getting vacated by the DS Lite handhelds that keep selling out! Or maybe they plan to stamp out the PS3 by hording all of the shelf space formerly held by Sony consoles! Brilliant! Stamp out the competition by preventing them from hitting the shelves!
But... what about island displays? Like in a grocery store where things are just stacked up in the middle of the floor? ACCESSORIES! Stack 'em high, stack 'em everywhere! Flood the market with over priced, slightly demanded accessories! Yes! Microsoft will secure their lead for sure!
Increasing the rate of production is all well and good, but how big is the installed base for 360 right now, and how big do they expect it to be by the time PS3 comes out?
I'm especially curious about non-US markets here. Has the 360 been selling ANY units in Japan? Last I heard, the answer was no; what happens if we have the 360 as the runaway winner of this console generation here in the States, but the PS3 or Revolution annihilates it in Japan? It would be kind of a weird dichotomy...
I have a roommate who went back to WoW a week after plunking down more than $600 for a 360 and 3 games. Maybe Mr. Lin was talking about 1 million units total.
There is no more shortage, and there hasn't been for some time. I see Xbox360s for sale at standard retail price, both the "value" edition and the full one, all over. Anyone who wants one can just go pick one up.
I wonder how many people who don't already have an Xbox360 are actually going to buy one in the near future. Microsoft likes to spin this as though they're producing more units to cover the huge demand and reduce shortages, but said shortages are now nothing more than an illusion. I honestly believe that most everyone who wants one already has one or can't really afford one.
It's funny how, despite all this, I still think that Sony is in a worse position than Microsoft in this round of the console "wars."
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
"I'm especially curious about non-US markets here. Has the 360 been selling ANY units in Japan? Last I heard, the answer was no; what happens if we have the 360 as the runaway winner of this console generation here in the States, but the PS3 or Revolution annihilates it in Japan? It would be kind of a weird dichotomy..."
Microsoft didn't even run one commercial or print ad for the 360 in Japan prior to launch. That is a good indicator of what MS thinks of the Japanese market.
MS would be perfectly happy of dominating the States (which it might the way the PS3 is going) and losing in Japan.
Friend of mine had to stand in a line of over 40 people for 8 hours a month after launch to get a console and they are still very rare to find on shelves. The demand for this product is unreal.
Surely, overproduction will drive down prices! We'll all own numerous xbox 360s, because they'll be so cheap. They'll be everywhere.
This is what my high school economics teacher told me about! Fuckin' awesome!
God Bless America, and God Bless Microsoft!
While I do agree that this is hype from MS, and if they produce 1mil/month, they are going to need alot of warehouse space...
The shortage still exists in localities. In my area, the only the only 2 places that carry them (walmart and shopko) are barely getting them. Shopko hasnt had any in months, and walmart gets maybe 5-10 a month, and they sell w/in a day or 2 of receiving them.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 EFXG1G/sr=8-2/qid=1145548065/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-0162 339-5039018?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance ...and in the UK...
2 A/qid=1145547963/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/026-7513276-18 86055
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007SV7
From this Boston.com article:
Back in September The Register described MS's problems with Japan the previous time around:
They clearly wanted to gain ground in Japan. Based on the huge advantage in release dates you'd think they'd have some traction. Right now their sales are last in that market -- behind the GameCube.
Meanwhile I can walk to the nearest GameCube here in Minneapolis and find 360s stacked up on the shelf selling at list price. Huge demand: no. Not here anyway. Some mild interest -- it's the newest thing -- but the kids playing Call of Duty down at Target can't afford to buy the dang thing.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
" 1 Million 360s a Month By Year's End"
Hmmm... A normal month only has 7200 360s in it, hows that going to work?
I know two people who just bought Xbox 360s, and I'm getting one next month. The constrained supply was a huge factor in our decisions to get them now.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
A whopping 40 people, and the wait was still 8 hours? I'm curious how that indicates unreal demand more than it indicates a horrible supply problem.
There is no difference between demand quantity that exceeds supply quantity and supply quantity that falls short of demand quantity: QD > QS iff QS < QD.
A horrible supply problem such as shipping thousands of units to retailers where there is no demand rather than to retailers where there is demand would certainly explain the conflicting anecdotes of some posters claiming that units are just collecting dust on the shelves while other posters claim that no one can find them in stock.
...of those million units will be defective? Over the last two weeks, four of my co-workers bought XBOX360s. Three of them needed to be returned.
April: 1
May: 2
June: 3
July: 4
August: 5
September: 7 (kickin' into overdrive)
October: 10
Nover: 12
December: 1,000,000
Good plan.
Has the 360 been selling ANY units in Japan?
Nope, that's why they can pump out a million a month for the US.
The PS2 sold just shy of a million on opening weekend . Just in Japan. And 10,000,000 in 13 months.
I think we already see how the dominance in this generation is going to play out (unless Sony prices themselves out of the market); Nintendo's not claiming it (by design) and Microsoft can't reach it (by ineptitude)
However, they're still important... having 3 competing consoles last generation was the best thing for customers everywhere; just remember the pre-E3 price wars. Competition keeps companies on their toes.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I wish the games would now pick up - both in terms of quantity & quality. I'm starting to buy XBox Live games now due to the lack of enough good stuff available. There were what, 13 games at launch, and only around 20 now, almost 6 months later? What happened to all of the lead time the developers had?
There's still a shortage in many areas, and a good supply in others. Hopefully we'll see that sorting itself out over the next few weeks. Having your product actually on the shelves can only help sales!
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
We've got tons of 360's... All the samsclub's have a large number of the $399 bundles.
Hmmm... Pie...
I think it really depends on where you live. Where I live in "Microsoft country" (the greater Seattle area), Xbox 360s are still very much hard to find. It's gotten a lot better, no doubt, but I still don't see them just sitting on shelves. Everyone I know who REALLY wanted a 360 has one, but some of the folks I know who are more casually interested in the console are still waiting till they can just pick it up at their local electronics/game store.
I've heard the same shortages from friends around Austin and the Northern Virginia area. But I have heard people claim, in more rural areas, that yes, 360s are much more readily available.
-- jchenx
But if you're going to add XBox + XBox 360 to make a comparison, should you not also add PSP + PS/2 and Game Boy + DS + Game Cube to compare it to?
I still maintain that the most interesting numbers won't come out until early next year.
Thats in the USA, but here in New Zealand you can walk into any shop & find them piled up.
The funny thing was that some people were suckered into pre-ordering 'to avoid shortages'... which didn't happen.
Oh, and despite not getting the XBox360 here until late March, they still having sorted out the teething problems... lots of overheating/DVD scratching boxes have turned up.
Sales might increase with Halo 3 but all the Xbox fan boys have one if they want one & nobody else is much interested. Maybe this generation was too quick.
I'd take this "news" with a day-long immersion in the Dead Sea, but as reported on a Spanish news site's forum and attributed to "Adam McLoryan" of Microsoft:
The 360 will see a ~$100 price drop come October.
(In response to PS3 online), Xbox Live's price will be reduced, possibly made entirely free thanks to sponsorship and promotion.
(In response to NDS's online play), a new for-kids version of Xbox Live will be created, with a kid-centric dashboard.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
So are all these boxes v1.0 units?
Has MS made any production/version changes yet?
brrrrrrrrrprrrrrrf