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XBox (Games)

Moore Refutes 360 Launch Rumours 50

Posted by Zonk from the untruth dept.
Via Gamasutra, commentary from Peter Moore in the Seattle-PI about the furiously swirling Xbox 360 shortage rumours. From the article: "Is Microsoft purposefully holding back on shipments, trying to create an artificial appearance of extraordinary demand? Xbox executive Peter Moore says no -- pointing instead to the unprecedented scope of the launch. Microsoft, seeking to solidify its place in the living room and challenge Sony's dominant PlayStation franchise, is breaking from tradition by releasing its new machine in North America, Europe and Japan in rapid succession, over a span of three weeks."
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Moore Refutes 360 Launch Rumours More

Moore Refutes 360 Launch Rumours

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  • So they're just incompetent? (Score:4, Funny)

    by nevergleam ( 900375 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @04:16PM (#14066249)
    Peter Moore admits it. The shortage is not a result of a malicious (but effective) marketing strategy by Microsoft. Xbox 360s are in shortage because the company can't get their act enough together to fill their pre-orders.
    • You don't understand! It's not that we made way too few! It's that we could have sold way too many more than we made! It's not a supply shortage!!! It's a demand over-run!!! Uh... These aren't the droids your looking for! We can go about our business! Move along! Uh... Hmmm... Damn, how does Steve Jobs guy get that hand-waving thing to work?"
    • I hate to be the one to defend Microsoft, but your comment makes no sense.

      First of all they aren't Microsoft's preorders - individual stores do pre-orders - and they usually start accepting preorders before they even know how many of a particular item they'll actually get.

      Second, Microsoft could only make a finite number of Xbox360's between when they finalized the hardware and the launch date. They finalized the hardware something like 6 months ago. They could have moved the launch date up and had fewer
      • But making sense is the last of a person's priorities when they are trying to make first post!
      • Please mod the parent up.

        Too many people are blaming this on Microsoft when it's places like EB Games and Gamestop that are part of the problem. I asked one of my friends who works at the Gamestop where I reserved (and paid for) my Xbox 360 and he said he had well over 100 reservations and that they're expecting about 20 on launch day. I'm not even the first shipment. The same problem is happening with my of my old coworkers who works at another Gamestop.

        Seems to me that places that do preorders witho
    • Let us not forget, people, this isn't just a problem with Microsoft - before we get onto the old "Microsoft sucks" bandwagon.

      Two weeks ago, you couldn't buy a PSP in the UK, since Sony not only couldn't cover the preorders for the unit, but then couldn't supply enough units to retail in the six weeks following the launch.

      But, is this the real reason - they just could not make enough PSPs?

      No. It isn't. Why? Because they then announced and released the "Giga Pack", which contains all the original PSP "Va
  • By doing a world wide launch they are creating a shortage. They knew they were going to do a world wide and should have produced enough units. So yes, they created a shortage.

    • Re:Wait... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jarlsberg ( 643324 )
      They had a time frame to consider too. They could have started with the US and with time released the machine in Japan and Europe, and then to the rest of the world - you know, like Sony does, except they start in Japan and then release their stuff in a "timely" fashion to the rest of the world. Instead, they do a simultaneous release on three continents, and while that will necessarily make it hard to deliver enough units, it does at least show commitment to the users. It's a pretty smart move, I think, an
      • This just in! A span of three weeks is now simultaneous!

        What would Einstein say...
      • It's a pretty smart move, I think, and doesn't leave a lot of people (like an entire continent) feel left out.

        I wish more companies would take the simultaneous release route for books, movies, and games, and every other product that is typically and annoyingly released one continent/country/whatever at a time. If we truly are going to achieve a globalized economy then companies have to take the attitude of the entire world as one giant market: sell products for the same price everywhere, make them availab
        • The PC games market seems to be pretty close to that, big releases are usually mere days apart (that can be explained with shipping delays) and completely localized (except for games where that causes a delay, then you can buy the english version now or the localized one later), as opposed to english voices for all versions (with subtitles) and months of delays as is common in the console games market. Very little regional lockout, prices that are pretty similar in Europe and the US, etc. I just wish more p
    • You talk as if there is no limitation on how many consoles they can churn out in a given time frame. It is entirely possible that they have slapped together as many of the damn things as they possibly could since they finalized hardware, and that they could not physically make enough by launch to satisfy 3 continents.

      It's not like they can push a button and make 50 million units appear in a warehouse...
  • I don't have time to look for it right now, but wasn't there a story a few weeks ago about Microsoft scaling back production of the 360? And then the following week, the supposed "shortages" started being reported on?

  • Maybe the one I played in EB wasn't hooked up correctly, but the 360 didn't look or feel like anything special to me. Playing the demo made me want to play Kameo, but it didn't look any better than a regular XBox game to me.

  • inventory (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @04:32PM (#14066430) Journal
    The question (FTFA): "Is Microsoft purposefully holding back on shipments, trying to create an artificial appearance of extraordinary demand?"

    The answer: No.

    The other question: "Is Microsoft purposefully holding back on production, trying to create an artificial appearance of extraordinary demand?"

    The answer: Maybe.

    There's no way MS would hold on to extra inventory, it's too traceable, and also not a good idea financially. Instead, claim production insufficiencies -- you still getting reduced supply at release, without tying up cash in inventory, while having a believable justification.
    • I would think the faster MS can produce the 360, the better for them. If you have 4 million 360s out in the wild, that is more potential customers for games, Live subscriptions, etc.

      If they are slowing production to create a frenzy, it seems very silly to me. If folks have to spend $400 more on EBay than they would at Wal-Mart, that's $400 potentially less dollars going to MS.
    • The other other question: "Did Microsoft decide to do a worldwide launch partially because that would mean that they couldn't possibly meet demand?"

      The other other answer: Maybe.
    • Something similar happened with the Sony PSP.

      Sony put manufacturing focus onto the slimline PS2 initally and deliberatly underproduced PSPs.

  • Stop the FUD! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @04:36PM (#14066487) Journal
    FFS, now it's not just /.ers, but also bloggers/columnists who are giving inflated prices for the XBox:

    "The Xbox 360 Core System, without a hard drive, will cost $300, while the full-fledged Xbox 360, with hard drive, will cost $400."

    Damn it, just stop!

    Everyone should know by now that the prices will be $299 and $399, respectively.

  • see sig
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I'm going to believe the guy that's inside the conspiricy?
  • is another slashdot article about the damned 360.
  • Although, as someone in the UK, I think a near simulataneous launch across Europe, Japan and North America is great, I can definatley see it causing a load of problems in the "getting enough machines ready in time" factor, compared to the usual technique of spreading the releases out by months between areas. I really don't think it's any holding back on their part, the reported undersupply seems way to bad to be any planned shortage, I really do believe they may just not have enough consoles ready. of cours
  • This summer a couple of my coworkers and I won free XBoxes from my company through a technical awards program. This was a new program so we didn't actually receive them but knew they were coming sometime in the future. After a couple weeks we learned that we could get them then, or wait and get XBox 360s when they were released. Naturally ( two of us already had XBox ) we decided to wait.

    A couple of months or so ago we started hearing stories about the expected shortage of 360s and mentioned to managem

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