360 Sells 400k Units, New Stock This Weekend

Next Generation is reporting an estimate of 400,000 units sold for the Xbox 360 in its first week on the retail shelves. Microsoft is planning on having more stock available as of this weekend. From the article: "It seems even the biggest retailers are in the dark. Speaking to USA Today, Circuit City's Jim Babb said, 'We knew demand would outstrip supply for some time. I have been told we'll get additional supplies, so I can only advise customers keep checking back with stores and on the website.' Microsoft is gearing up for its European launch this weekend, but many believe the shortages could be even worse over there. Retail supplies are said to be tiny, and many customers who have pre-ordered have been told that they may not receive their machines this side of the New Year."

Re:Still confused on the sell-out history

[-kertrats-]

No other company has artificially restricted supply so ridiculously low as Microsoft, either.

Re:Poll?

[KDR_11k]

There's roughly 280 million people in the US, there are less than one million users on Slashdot. Even if no Slashdot user bought it that number would be quite attainable.

Re:Compare and Contrast

[Anonymous Coward]

I should have been clearer; when I said gave him the impression I literally meant that, I didn't mean that he told him or even implied anything.

Basically, how he tells it is that every time he asked the Microsoft Rep how many XBox 360s they would get the Microsoft rep would answer "well, how many pre-orders do you have?" At first he thought that Microsoft was going to try to match all of the pre-orders they made to that point in time, but after he was told that his store (and every store in the area that he knew about) was 1 to 3 units shy of the pre-orders he became a bit paranoid. He felt that it was odd that whenever there was a shortage of a product before they were always dramatically short (that is they can fill 1/2 of their pre-orders or something) but to come so close to pre-order numbers and be just shy was unusual.

Certainly, there are hundreds of possible explanations; Microsoft could have been trying to make sure they were close to pre-order numbers or else they would delay the launch. All I know for sure is that he thought it was a very large coincidence.

Do you *really* think the shortage is on purpose?

[kaptron]

Ok, I could see how MS would love the idea of 360's being "sold out" in every store, obviously... but don't you think they would rather sell more, cement a higher user base and take advantage of being the first next-gen console available, rather than simply knowing that 360's are in high demand? People on eBay are profiting more from this situation than MS.

With the news of faulty power supplies and other hardware issues, I really believe that they were rushing to get them out there, and they would have more available if they could. The whole "shortage on purpose" scenario just doesn't make sense to me, especially if it continues through Xmas season, which would be like a candy store limiting its supply right before Halloween, but then promising everyone that there would be more available in January. At least they would be sure to sell out all their candy, yippee!

Call me an MS fanboy if you must (I don't plan on buying a 360), I'm just trying to figure out why so many people really believe that this shortage was on purpose. Maybe I'm just naive and blind to the fact that MS would rather stab puppies and shoot chlidren than have happy consumers. Because they're evil.

Re:Will the new consoles fail?

[shoptroll]

That and the fact that the price of games and the systems (aside from what Nintendo is saying about the Revolution) themselves are higher than they were the last time, and they're gonna see less of their target audience (teens and college students) with their "disposable income" not being able to allow them to buy the amount of stuff they're expecting them to buy. I see game prices going up, but I don't see a raise in the future for my college workstudy job.