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The 360 Is Too Cheap?
The always interesting GamerDad site is running a 'LongShot' column wondering if perhaps the 360 wasn't expensive enough? From the article: "The beginning of a console generation has typically been for those with deep pockets or an unhealthy hardcore jones for videogames. These people are willing to smack down big bucks for the latest technology. The price of 360 was too low to keep the launch confined to that group and it was a big mistake in my opinion. With a higher price tag, Microsoft would have made more money, made sure sellouts wouldn't have lasted for months after Christmas and still sold through all the units they had to sell before the holiday. The demand for a new system was far higher than most people anticipated, especially given the early demise of the original Xbox, a system that will probably be gone from store shelves by February 2007."
I think that this has got to be the most commonly uttered silly thing in these threads, and that is a high bar to set. At first, it had the hint of plausibility; positing that the first week or so of shortages would generate hype, especially for the Christmas season. When the Christmas season came and went with almost no product on the shelves, that pretty much shot down this argument. Face it, Microsoft wants to sell as many boxes as possible because each box sold makes it harder for their competitors to come in later and sell another box. There is absolutely no way that Microsoft would have wanted to miss all of those potential sales in 4Q 2006. It just doesn't make sense to miss the biggest quarter of the year, when your competitors don't have a product in the market, just to generate some ephemeral hype. The much more sensible explanation is that they just had problems somewhere in the supply line.