360 Rumors Addressed, Distribution Explained

[bapenguin]

I guess the XBox 360 team is getting quite a bit of heat from this launch. The situation is a bit different than it was 4 years ago for the XBox. The internet is bigger than ever, and more and more people like to "voice their opinion. Major Nelson (http://www.majornelson.com/), tries to lay down exactly how the replenishment strategy works, shoots down the recall rumor and shows off his awesome looking XBox 360. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/majornelson/sets/1481898/)

There are a couple reports of retailers saying they won’t have units for weeks or months (or worse.) Generally speaking, this is not true. We are shipping units constantly. I mentioned in my blogcast this weekend how the distribution team has secured air freight space and are flying units into the distribution channels on a regular basis. Some retailers have a backorder wait list, and might not have units that will be on shelf for some time, and some retailers might allocate more units to one store over another, but all stores that have placed orders are getting replenishments regularly. I have checked and have confirmed that units are on the ground and on their way to retailers this week. Those will go from our warehouses to retailer warehouses…what happens after that is up to the retailers.
It must be frustrating to hear so much negativity regarding the shortage and whatnot. When people get frustrated they start to make up stuff, flame people, get angry. The internet is an easy way for people to vent to the most people in the shortest amount of time. Hopefully, 3 months from now everyone that wants a 360 will have one and these daily rumors will be moot.

[Vandenh]

The Major also has a link (http://xbox.clambert.org/) to another website that tries to locate available 360s. Pretty good for people who are still looking for one.
We'll try to help! Below is a list of many online retailers selling the Xbox 360. Our servers are querying each retailer every few minutes, and reporting back the latest inventory status here. While we're unable to determine local inventory in your area, we can give you an idea of what's available online. It seems that as of now, only the auction sites have stock available.

[bean19]

Vandeh - That link told me everyone is sold out besides ebay and Overstock. Whee!

I'm glad to hear that they are replenishing suppliers this week. I'm guessing that what is going on is that the retailers are then supplying the stores closest to their distribution centers first. Why pay for shipping when you can sell out of a product without paying it.

Besides, the central problem is that they simply didn't have enough units ready at release. In a previous story, it was revealed that they only had 300-400K units ready to sale. I thought they would have at least a million and would try to provide another million before Christmas. *shrugs*

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

*** failed with the launch. Get over it. Rumors or not everythings not liek it should be.

[phantomhitman]

Until I see the replenishments I will see this as a failure also. I have not heard one single report from anywhere stating they got a second shipment in. I am hoping I can wlak into BB, Target, or Walmart sometime in the next week and trip over one, because no one is saying when or where they are at now.

[EvilBob46]

Has Microsoft made any effort to explain exactly why so many Xbox 360's are malfunctioning? Is it a defect power supply or what?

It pisses me off when people say that the rumors of broken Xbox 360's are "blown out of proportion." Two of the people I know who bought Xbox 360's (in Western Nebraska) got broken units. And it certainly isn't overheating or something. It's freaking 30 degrees outside (F) for crying out loud. And I usually don't know many people who are into consoles and what not around here period, so the two failures I know off are very significant.

[Vandenh]

>I thought they would have at least a million and would try to provide another million before Christmas. *shrugs*

Yeah next time make those 10 year old Chinese children work 24/7!!!!

[KhitomerRouge]

I'll believe it when I see it. I might think that Microsoft screwed the pooch on this one, but that alone won't stop me from getting one, although it'll definitely be after the holiday season. If they announce 1.1 version with better cooling and/or less scratchy DVD-ROM, all the better. It appears that the glitches stem mainly from poor consumer thinking (i.e. putting a hot-running PC in tight spaces, standing them vertically in high-traffic areas), but this is America. We're a country full of idiots who complain, fight and sometimes kill for consumer electronics, and sue at the drop of a hat. At least half of us are stupid enough to ask those who fuck us in the ass to be our leaders. A Japanese company might be forgiven for overestimating American intelligence, but an American company should know better, even one as bug-prone as Microsoft.

[tdurdan1]

Hey guys,

I work for Gamestop and wanted to shead some light on this subject. While Microsoft is replenishing retailers, its not by much. Next week our company is receiving (X amount) of systems. While I cannot give out this number, I can say that they are going to only 500 of top selling Gamestop stores. Games stop currently has over 3000 stores. And each of these 500 stores are only getting a few finger counts of systems. (Theres your answer). So while Microsoft is now trying to point the finger at retailers, Mr. Gates you still are in some heat!

Thanks,
Durdan

[MosBen]

I don't know anything about how many 360s are *actually* malfunctioning, but the fact that you know two people that did get malfunctioning units doesn't really prove anything. Individual examples are not statistics. I mean, it sucks for your friends, but their bad luck does not make the problem systemic.

[MosBen]

Does anyone have counts of how many consoles were sold in other launches (PS2, Xbox 1, GC, etc.)? In my mind I figured that if they could break a million before Christmas they'd be in good shape, but is that low?

[MosBen]

Just read Major Nelson's post, and he says they're still on track to ship around 3 million in the first 90 day, which should put them at a bit over a million by Christmas.

[bone_matrix]

Has Microsoft made any effort to explain exactly why so many Xbox 360's are malfunctioning? Is it a defect power supply or what?

It pisses me off when people say that the rumors of broken Xbox 360's are "blown out of proportion." Two of the people I know who bought Xbox 360's (in Western Nebraska) got broken units. And it certainly isn't overheating or something. It's freaking 30 degrees outside (F) for crying out loud. And I usually don't know many people who are into consoles and what not around here period, so the two failures I know off are very significant.


Unless they are playing the system outside, that doesn't mean jack squat. Could you enlighten us as to how the system messed up, and/or what kind of error lights they got? I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska and own one, haven't had any problems. I know 2 other people with them also. One bought a premium (I have a core) and another won one from Mt. dew. So, from my end, the rumors are blown out of proportion.

[bean19]

Hey guys,

I work for Gamestop and wanted to shead some light on this subject. While Microsoft is replenishing retailers, its not by much. Next week our company is receiving (X amount) of systems. While I cannot give out this number, I can say that they are going to only 500 of top selling Gamestop stores. Games stop currently has over 3000 stores. And each of these 500 stores are only getting a few finger counts of systems. (Theres your answer). So while Microsoft is now trying to point the finger at retailers, Mr. Gates you still are in some heat!

Thanks,
Durdan

So Gamestop, a chain of 3000 stores is getting between 1500 and 2000 units. Target and Circuit City in my area got a similar number of units. Target has 2010 stores, so let's assume they also get 0.75 units/each and say that this is another ~1500 units shipped. Circuit City has 600 stores, so that's 450 units shipped. (3,950 units total thus far)

Wal-Mart and Best Buy got about twice as many units as those above, so let's say they get 1.5 units/store. Best Buy has 1800 stores, so that's 2700 units. While Wal-Mart has 3600 stores in the US and thus gets 5400 units. (12,050 units).

Of course, these figures assume that every retailer is getting a similar ratio of units compared to what they received on release. Also, I'm using intertron numbers for the number of stores, and providing a possibly false figure in assuming that larger retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy will continue to get the lion's share of units. Also, I'm not including Fry's, Comp USA or other electronics chains of which I'm not aware because I don't know what their allotment numbers were to estimate how many replinishment units they might receive. So maybe add on 8000 units for all other stores just to be generous (that gives them a collective allotment of nearly Best Buy and Wal-Mart put together).

That's only approximately 20,050 units/week, and half of those are probably the Core units.

Oh yeah. Wow. Maybe Gamestop is just getting screwed royally by Microsoft. Let's hope so, because at 20K units/week. The X360 will not even get to 500K units in the U.S. before Christmas if the allotment does not increase.

[Sparky]

I work for another specialty retail chain that has around 2500 stores and we are getting a whopping 450 units in the next shipment. Microsoft is also not accepting any returns from retailers with defective systems until after their 90-day 'warranty' period expires. Gamestop is not the only retailer getting screwed, I would suggest that the 20K figure is a worldwide figure or perhaps factoring in all of the defective replacemenst they are shipping back to consumers.

Good times, makes the PS2 launch look like the Nintendo DS launch.

[BleedTheFreak]

>I thought they would have at least a million and would try to provide another million before Christmas. *shrugs*

Yeah next time make those 10 year old Chinese children work 24/7!!!!

Can you imagine those kid's resumes when they get older? "So when I was only ten years old, I was building X Box 360 units, that was my first real job, but the pay sucked."

[Vandenh]

Amazing how many people work for retailers. From these posts I would think between 10-15% of our readers work for retailers. Kinda strange that some of them have peon status.

Based on this it looks like about 3-4 million work for a game retailer in the US. Statistics! Great!

[agentgray]

It must be frustrating to hear so much negativity regarding the shortage and whatnot. When people get frustrated they start to make up stuff, flame people, get angry. The internet is an easy way for people to vent to the most people in the shortest amount of time. Hopefully, 3 months from now everyone that wants a 360 will have one and these daily rumors will be moot.
(This is no attack on bap, but Microsoft) Why couldn't it have been that now everyone who wanted a 360 could get one?

[51|RandoM]

Amazing how many people work for retailers. From these posts I would think between 10-15% of our readers work for retailers. Kinda strange that some of them have peon status.

Based on this it looks like about 3-4 million work for a game retailer in the US. Statistics! Great!

I remember some statistic somewhere that showed that about 80% of Americans worked for one retailer or another at some point in life. Now that I think about it, it wasn't retailers in general, it was McDonalds!

Retail is one of the few employment options available to kids who can only work part-time during school. Should only be expected that they are a pretty big part of the gamer crowd. :-)

[51|RandoM]

(This is no attack on bap, but Microsoft) Why couldn't it have been that now everyone who wanted a 360 could get one?

Quite simply, you can't wave a magic wand and produce a million consoles.

Can't do it, don't know why people don't understand this.

Microsoft had two choices.

Choice #1 - Ship what they have now, making the Thanksgiving/Black Friday window, while also insuring a maximum leadtime over the competition to garner the nextgen market share

Choice #2 - Wait till they have a million+ stock on hand, and then ship product, definitely missing thanksgiving/black friday, and quite possibly missing christmas, reducing time advantage over competition.

If you can convince anybody in this business, or a similar business that microsoft should've gone with #2, you've got powers of mind control.

[Dark Hamlet]

Quite simply, you can't wave a magic wand and produce a million consoles.

Can't do it, don't know why people don't understand this.

Microsoft had two choices.

Choice #1 - Ship what they have now, making the Thanksgiving/Black Friday window, while also insuring a maximum leadtime over the competition to garner the nextgen market share

Choice #2 - Wait till they have a million+ stock on hand, and then ship product, definitely missing thanksgiving/black friday, and quite possibly missing christmas, reducing time advantage over competition.

If you can convince anybody in this business, or a similar business that microsoft should've gone with #2, you've got powers of mind control.

I doubt it actually mattered whether Microsoft launched the 360 before Black Friday. I mean, how many units were sold that day? I would guess sales were right around 0 units for non-auction retailers. My point is that it didn't matter when they launched it relative to Black Friday. The same crowds would have been waiting in Best Buy and Walmart anyway.
I do agree that it would have been very bad for Microsoft to miss a pre-Christmas launch, however. It is simply a balancing act relating to simple macroeconomics. When does supply approximately equal demand? Obviously, demand is a bit higher when someone in Virginia is willing to commit an armed robbery to nab a couple of units.
So, I think Choice #1.5 would have been best. It was obviously a premature launch, but they still could have drawn in the Chistmas shoppers with, say, an early December release date. I'm sure that the demand still would not have been met with such a delay, but it may have been a little less chaotic come launch day.

[KhitomerRouge]

Of course, there's Choice #3, which involves not futzing around with useless kiosks and some wierd 360 building in Japan when resources could be sent elsewhere, say, other manufacturing facilities. Especially after seeing the number of preorders sent to retailers months ahead of the launch date. Choice #1 would have made sense if it was a gift or a toy, along the lines of Tickle Me Elmo, but I'd put good money on the vast majority of 360s being personal use purchases. Like Dark Hamlet says, it would got a similar response whether it was sold November 22 or December 22.

[bapenguin]

I doubt it actually mattered whether Microsoft launched the 360 before Black Friday. I mean, how many units were sold that day? I would guess sales were right around 0 units for non-auction retailers. My point is that it didn't matter when they launched it relative to Black Friday. The same crowds would have been waiting in Best Buy and Walmart anyway.
I do agree that it would have been very bad for Microsoft to miss a pre-Christmas launch, however. It is simply a balancing act relating to simple macroeconomics. When does supply approximately equal demand? Obviously, demand is a bit higher when someone in Virginia is willing to commit an armed robbery to nab a couple of units.
So, I think Choice #1.5 would have been best. It was obviously a premature launch, but they still could have drawn in the Chistmas shoppers with, say, an early December release date. I'm sure that the demand still would not have been met with such a delay, but it may have been a little less chaotic come launch day.

They don't care how many systems sold on Black Friday...they care about how many games and accessories sold. That's where the real meat is for them.

I don't know the exact stat, but it's something like 50% of all retail income is done between Black friday and the week after x-mas. That's pretty crazy...you know they didn't want to miss that.

[Kelegacy]

Unless they are playing the system outside, that doesn't mean jack squat. Could you enlighten us as to how the system messed up, and/or what kind of error lights they got? I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska and own one, haven't had any problems. I know 2 other people with them also. One bought a premium (I have a core) and another won one from Mt. dew. So, from my end, the rumors are blown out of proportion.
So you know 2 people who have working models, he knows 2 people who have broken models. That's a pretty good ratio...

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I cant wait for all systems to melt down after a month of use.

[bean19]

Choice #1 - Ship what they have now, making the Thanksgiving/Black Friday window, while also insuring a maximum leadtime over the competition to garner the nextgen market share

Choice #2 - Wait till they have a million+ stock on hand, and then ship product, definitely missing thanksgiving/black friday, and quite possibly missing christmas, reducing time advantage over competition.

How about this option:

Choice #3 - Increase the number of shifts at manufacturing plants turning them into 24/7 producing industires, and/or open an extra manufacturing plant that is planned to be closed a year after the initial launch in order to meet demand inside the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales window. Take a loss on the costs of opening and closing the plant in order to acheive the early launch date and garner greater sales because of it.

Being completely sold out of product on Thanksgiving/Black Friday si not increasing their sales. Just imagine how many consoles they would have sold if they had met Gamestop's preorders and had units in Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. when Mom's and Dad's were out shopping for Christmas presents.

They are missing their Christmas target here. The hardcore gamer will find a way to get the product. They'll camp out overnight for it, suck in all the preorders from game stores, and bug different merchants in their town obsessively until they get there product.

Parents don't have time to do this, and would hesitate over such an expensive purchase anyway. While the console WOULD make a fantastic Christmas present, it will be too expensive an item to purchase for many children's birthdays, etc. If they are from middle to upper income families, like the one I grew up in, then a big purchase like this is a suitable gift for several children. You can get two or more children one console, a controller, and a game without spending more than $200 - $250 on each of them. It is within "big main gift" range in expense. However, $400-$500 for a single child on a birthday is FAR too expensive a gift, especially if you have several children and have to think about making your gifts to each of them somewhat fair.

They are missing the boat with their week distribution. . . big time. They probably should have completely held off the Japanese release until January, and quite possibly the European release too, as big Christmas spending is such a huge phenomen in our capitalist society.

2 million units by Christmas with one million at launch would have been ideal. Right now they are far, far behind, and it doesn't appear to be getting any better. Keep in mind that he is saying that the items are getting to DISTRIBUTORS now. The different stores will probably then ship them by normal shipping rather than overnight or Priority since the items are heavy and the official release date has been blown. They know the unit will sell out, so what's the rush?

This is Microsoft's fault in the planning stage. Maybe if they'd lowered their marketing budget and instead invested in greater production, they'd be able to take advantage of the holiday market. After Christmas is past, gamers will have their units, and parents will have settled on other toys for their kids. I expect we'll start seeing X360's readily available on all store shelves the first week in January.

[bean19]

They don't care how many systems sold on Black Friday...they care about how many games and accessories sold. That's where the real meat is for them.

I don't know the exact stat, but it's something like 50% of all retail income is done between Black friday and the week after x-mas. That's pretty crazy...you know they didn't want to miss that.

Good point bapenguin.

Looks like I got beat to the Choice #3 thing by like 3 other posters. :) I had to spend 10 minutes typing out a thesis on WHY getting more consoles out on this date would be more helpful. Basically, their product is getting gobbled up by the hardcore early adopter that is always first to the market, and the holiday shopper is missing out.

So in reply to you bap, I contend that more consoles sell more games and accessories.

[bone_matrix]

So you know 2 people who have working models, he knows 2 people who have broken models. That's a pretty good ratio...

Actually, I know 3 people who have working consoles. I myself have one. ;)

The point I was trying to make was that his situation doesn't mean that the rumors are true. Of course, in my situation, I can't 100% say that they aren't. But logic tends to win in my favor, because not half (or however many the rumors say) of all 360s sold are going back to Microsoft or the retail stores. We are only hearing from angry buyers, not from stores furious that they have a crapload of broken 360s in back somewhere.

[Inverarity]

Choice #3 - Increase the number of shifts at manufacturing plants turning them into 24/7 producing industires, and/or open an extra manufacturing plant that is planned to be closed a year after the initial launch in order to meet demand inside the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales window. Take a loss on the costs of opening and closing the plant in order to acheive the early launch date and garner greater sales because of it.

That's right up there with "wave a magic wand". For starters, I can guarantee you that (barring a shortage of a critical component) they're running 24/7, and probably have been from the moment that they knocked the initial bugs out of their manufacturing process.

More importantly, an electronics manufacturing plant is not something that you decide to build in January, start up in August, run for a year, and then close. There are relatively few facilities on the planet that can produce a machine like the XBox 360 in the required quantities, and there are other companies that also want their manufacturing capacity. Microsoft isn't the only company that wants to ship tons of electronic doodads in the last six weeks of the calendar year.

Manufacturing is no picnic, kids. Turning out a complex device on a short schedule with a low defect rate is hard, and it takes decades of collective experience, lots of expensive equipment, and really good people to even have a *shot* at getting it right. From what I've read so far, Microsoft isn't doing too badly (and that's coming from someone who's still waiting for his 360).

[Tennistoad]

I'll tell you why this Launch was "Pooched", Peter (i killed the dreamcast) Moore. The dam guy is like a lead weight. Pushing the release date to the point that they can't even fill pre-orders is a joke. Tack on the "World wide Release" and it's a joke. It's no wonder the dam things are glitchy and overheating, they rushed them to market. Hell I even saw one overheat in a kiosk.

In one other rant I'll just say that *** should've limited the 360 to one per household etc.. The amount of them on ebay by horders is insane. Lets see 300k sold in stores...150k of them back on ebay. arrrggghhhh... Think I'll be sticking with the old-gen a while longer...

[netcraazzy]

Ok, this (http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:KJQIalSAGowJ:www.emulationstation.c om/systemlist.asp%3FID%3D24+PS2+launch+day+available+ units&hl=en) is a cached site on google since the original host site does not seem to be working but it's still worth a look as there's some good reminders in there about the PS2 launch in North America and Japan.

Sony initially shipped 500,000 units of the PlayStation 2 to North American retailers with plans to ship approximately 100,000 additional units per week.

Sony Computer Entertainment America slashed its PlayStation 2 shipment plans from a million units to 500,000 because of reported component supply shortages.

This should help put the 360 launch in a little better perspective. I chose to quote the North American launch numbers for the PS2 as they seem to be the most relivant to the 360 launch but the article also states that Sony had about 1 million units for its launch in Japan.

[MosBen]

Are people still doing that rediculous "***" thing? My god, how sad. Furthermore, how exactly is Microsoft supposed to control how many units each individual person buys? Are they, through magic I assume, able to stop someone from preordering three units by going to Best Buy, Game Stop, and EB? That's good magic!

Also, given the complex task that is launching a major, highly sought after, device released right before Christmas, I'm willing to be most of the people here, including myself, are not qualified or informed enough to be Monday morning quarterbacking the launch. Highly sought after items are *always* in short supply during the holiday season. People fought over trying to get a Tickle Me Elmo and people are fighting about getting a 360. Are these companies all so stupid that they consistently underestimate demand, or is it more likely that it's simply really really difficult to create and market a product to the point where it's highly sought after and then produce enough to fill the demand?

[Tennistoad]

Also the "Major" is a paid Microsoft employee.. So believe his "Blog" as if it was an advertisement on mtv.

[NACIONAL]

Also the "Major" is a paid Microsoft employee.. So believe his "Blog" as if it was an advertisement on mtv.


Why.... I tend to believe his blog more than any yahoo article.

[Tennistoad]

Why.... I tend to believe his blog more than any yahoo article.

What the ap news service is more biased than microsoft employees??

[bapenguin]

Also the "Major" is a paid Microsoft employee.. So believe his "Blog" as if it was an advertisement on mtv.

Right...but it also means he's the closest to the situation.

Major's team is the team responsible for the dashboard UI design.

[NACIONAL]

What the ap news service is more biased than microsoft employees??

I just don't find any credibility when you relase some article based on an internet poll.

we are not there yet.

[pomeroy]

Major's team is the team responsible for the dashboard UI design.

I love him.

[51|RandoM]

Do you really think Microsoft had a realistic option in the mix to get a million+ consoles ready by Thanksgiving and just for the hell of it said, "naaa, why bother?"

If they could've, you bet they would've, it is just common sense, lol.

You don't wave a wand and create more plants, you don't wave a wand and create more hours in the day(for more shifts).

As far as people belittling the Thanksgiving rush, you're blind as bats. Just look at the software releases in the month before thanskgiving, and then compare them to the release schedule for the rest of the year. It makes it pretty damned obvious that the publishers believe in the importance of black friday, don't you think?

[Ozymandias]

Ok, this (http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:KJQIalSAGowJ:www.emulationstation.c om/systemlist.asp%3FID%3D24+PS2+launch+day+available+ units&hl=en) is a cached site on google since the original host site does not seem to be working but it's still worth a look as there's some good reminders in there about the PS2 launch in North America and Japan.





This should help put the 360 launch in a little better perspective. I chose to quote the North American launch numbers for the PS2 as they seem to be the most relivant to the 360 launch but the article also states that Sony had about 1 million units for its launch in Japan.


Good data points.

Thing that amuses me about all this forum thrash is that there's no way Microsoft can win this one in your eyes. Every launch some region feels slighted and you have people complaining that the company didn't launch there. Microsoft tried to do something different and launch in every region - which is where all of those 'missing' units went that conspiricy theorists like to forget about.

Sure, it would have been better to have more - but seriously, do you think waiting another week or two would have made a difference? Would it have been the "right" choice to wait until next spring after the holidays? You'd all be complaining that you didn't get your holiday units.

[MosBen]

I really would like to see how many units shipped to which regions.

[bean19]

I just watched the Gamespot video of Peter Moore from the X360 dessert launch thingy. He pretty much says most of the stuff we've been hearing from Microsoft. 350K shipped at launch, and they will continue shipping units as they are manufactured. Also, they hope to have 2.75 to 3 million units shipped WORLDWIDE (not just in the States) by late February.

He estimates that supply will not catch up with demand until March.

So. . . yeah, they launched early and without enough product, especially for a simultaneous world launch. Personally, I think that the simultaneous world launch was a bad idea. Japanese companies don't do it for Americans or Europeans for a reason. Still, maybe this will be better for Microsoft in the long run as they seem to be creating some Japanese market share, and that will in turn create more Japanese games made for my 360 (that I WILL be getting soon because I have the #3 reservation spot - was #10 at Gamestop).

As far as upping production, I conceed the point to people who seem to know a lot more about it than I, and I appreciate the information. Thanks!

[ruprect]

I've been amazed how 100 posts from people who may or may not have broken XBox 360's and may or may not have heard about 75% failure rates from their store can get picked up by major news outlets and treated like real news. This thread just has more examples of stuff like that.

A religious prophet could return to earth and within a day posts would show up on the internet about how people are unhappy about it, with first person accounts to back their conviction up. This would then get picked up by news services and the headline "People Disappointed by Prophet" would be headlined on every newspaper.

[Murmillo]

I see a funny divide. The majority (both sides) of those who have a working console see this as one of the best launches yet, those with out a console or even worse, a broken console, see this launch as "screwed, fuckered, worst ever, random bull crap..." Its just shows you how much having and not having something changes somebodies opinion.

And for the record, I do not have one and I'm number 40-60 on the waiting list in 4 different stores. The first one to get me to #1 wins my money.

[Sykus]

Quite simply, you can't wave a magic wand and produce a million consoles.

Can't do it, don't know why people don't understand this.


Of course not. You have to *plan*, which they obviously failed to do.

They botched the launch, don't know why people don't understand this.

[Sparky]

I can tell you as a decade-long retail industry insider, and not some 'peon' working a register, that no matter HOW much spin Microsoft tries put on this launch, it is not a pretty one. Look at how well the first Xbox and the Gamecube launch were handled. Look at how smoothly the Nintendo DS launch went and how there was ample supply for the PSP. Then look at train wrecks like the 2000 PS2 launch. A very similar situation where Sony didn't even come close to meeting retail and consumer demand. You can eat up the Micrsoft corporate pap as much as you want, but it is what it is.

[BabyJesus]

I just think MS screwed the pooch by not getting the units out by XMAS. I preordered, sure I was on the late side, but ordered pretty much as soon as they confirmed the ship date. I'm being told I won't get mine until late January to early March. Rediculous. They COULD have had one kickass launch but now they seem to have more pissed customers than satisfied ones. I was told repeatedly that if I didn't get mine launch day I would almost surely get it before XMAS. Sure we have the proverbial finger pointing by both companies(EB and MS) but it still adds up to a customer waiting alot longer than reasonable to get a unit, IMHO anyway.

[netcraazzy]

Then look at train wrecks like the 2000 PS2 launch. A very similar situation where Sony didn't even come close to meeting retail and consumer demand. You can eat up the Micrsoft corporate pap as much as you want, but it is what it is.

Keep in mind that even though the PS2 launch was quite bad, and the 360 launch does appear to be just as bad, the PS2 still went on to become the darling of the console industry. Moral of the story, mistakes can be corrected and a launch day shortage is not the end of a console. I still believe that their outstanding implementation of the LIVE service and the potential that the live arcade holds far outweigh the short-term teething issues they are having on the distribution side of things.

[bean19]

I have a source at Best Buy that informed me that their replenishments will hit shelves on December 18th, as they are replinishing to conincide with an ad campaign. The idea is to have a reasonably large number of the units so that they can pull shoppers in with the ad and deliver for a good number of them.

[agentgray]

Quite simply, you can't wave a magic wand and produce a million consoles.

Can't do it, don't know why people don't understand this.


Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but the DS at least met pre-orders and demand. Wasn't it near..well...a lot.

I don't remember reading about DS shortages. Yeah, I know it's different. It's a portable and maybe the demand wasn't as high. I dunno. I just don't remember reading about shortages on the DS.

The N64...well...that's another story.

However, I just cannot see one of the largest companies in the world not being able to meet demand. I personally, think it was a rush job. Yeah, I'll end up with one eventually, but MS has got to face all the negative press, comments, and users. They should have met demand and they didn't. Here's how it works though, so why do we even discuss it.

MS did okay: those who got one and it works
MS sux: those who tried to get one and didn't and those who did get one that's tripple redding.

[Achilles]

In one other rant I'll just say that *** should've limited the 360 to one per household etc.. The amount of them on ebay by horders is insane.How would Em Dollarsign do that exactly? Walk into Wal-mart HQ with a shotgun and order them to? I'm sure that wouldn't affect their business relationship. I like how people don’t ask this stuff, they just state that it would solve the problem like it’s fact.Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but the DS at least met pre-orders and demand. Wasn't it near..well...a lot.

I don't remember reading about DS shortages. Yeah, I know it's different. It's a portable and maybe the demand wasn't as high. I dunno. I just don't remember reading about shortages on the DS.A lot of people forget that the US launch of those systems was months after the Japanese launch. Both PSP and DS were sold out for their Japanese launches, and only a few hundred thousand units were available on day one, kinda like here.

[Montgomery_Python]

This is plain jerk around horseshit, no spin required. MS launched before they had enough plats just to try and create a frenzy.

[NACIONAL]

This is plain jerk around horseshit, no spin required. MS launched before they had enough plats just to try and create a frenzy.

and you my friend.... you are a moron.

[Montgomery_Python]

and you my friend.... you are a moron.

I disagree.

[BleedTheFreak]

I think if they had waited until they had more units, we'd ALL still be waiting for launch, instead of most of us. At least some folks got there systems in, so I can hear all the good things about it and know it's worth my time to be a bit more patient.

I do very much doubt this is at all what Microsoft planned. I think they stand to make a lot more money if they had them on shelves.

Unless... maybe they plan on having parents/folks purchase games in anticipation of getting a system? What about the number of kids who get 360 game "X" with a note from Santa, "Merry Christmas! Your 360 should be here next month!" type surprises?