9:03 AM on 02.14.2008
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The Wii may be winning the war, but it appears that they aren't the only ones who are struggling to keep up with consumer demand-- just ask Microsoft's head of global marketing, Jeff Bell: "We're literally out of stock in many stores. We think this will have an impact on our sales. It may cause the overall industry number to be down a little bit. Retailers have been really upset-- they are on allocation. It is a lag I think we're seeing in January and that may continue into February, then as spring ramps up, we'll be able to meet that demand."
This issue has even affected one of our own. Destructoid tipster Joe Burling can't find a replacement for his red-ringed 360 within a two-hour radius of his house. This sort of makes me wonder about that sudden surge in demand. It would be intriguing to see how many of those people interested in buying an Xbox 360 are staring at a cabinet full of games, now with nothing to play it on, and how many are getting the console for the first time. With a ton of money invested in my own Xbox collection, it would without a doubt, influence me to buy another one if my current console crapped out again -- and with the track record it has -- that's just sad. [Via Reuters -- Thanks Adam!]
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66 comments + 37100 views
Must be a US thing, here in Scotland there seems to more than you can shake a very sizeable stick at.
Well they better have a fucking Wii AND a 360 when I decide to go out an buy one! Christ, this is worst than that unicorn shortage in '93!
Same down here in England, we have 360's in every flavour
In NC, I haven't seen a Pro SKU anywhere, but I have seen a lot of Arcade's and just a few Elites.
They just trying to make it look the same as the Wii. They have a huge amount off 360's hidden somewhere.
Like In mah bazementz, next to Electro Lemon
Going to Gamestop tomorrow I'll ask
I just ordered my Elite from Amazon last year.
I'm thinking maybe it's just a regional thing? I have seen the "Pro" units sold out but there always seems to be a ready supply of Elites and Arcades.
hhhmmmmmm... I remeber when Sony used this tactic, they weren't moving enough consoles. I guess they think telling everyone that they are out will spark sales. Everyone wants what they can't have!
That quote makes it sound like they desperately want to create the hype that the Wii's shortage did. Like "OMG people love us so much we can't keep up!!!!"
Sounds to me like it isn't a surge in demand but a reduction of production. A scheme to reduce inventory without a sale?
Sounds like they stopped making them for a while to get some profit, then they got off schedule. lol
Probabaly becasue they had to replace a load with the warranty thing me thinks.
Or they have implemented the new cooler chips and begining new production methods.
Give it a couple of months to ramp up production.
That's weird, there's tons of them at my Best Buy just 5 minutes from my house.
Sadness!
They're probably faking it again to get rid of the non HDMI 360's. I picked up my 360 in May 06 and it has a manufacture date of Nov 05 so they definitely fake shortages.
I've seen plenty of arcade 360's around and those work for replacement systems at least.
Like Pagster said in the UK we have 360's a plenty!
it's simple.
Bill Gates stole them.. check ebay soon
I agree, there's nothing like 'accidentally on purpose' creating a shortage to bring in a bit of panic buying when bad news (RROD hits mainstream news, PS3 sales getting ahead of 360, PS3 has freeview TV with slingbox capability onto PSP). Poor Mr Gates !
US sales have been up to around 75K post-holiday, past the typical weekly mark of around 50K (both very rough estimates from vgchartz.com), so maybe there is something to it.
If it weren't for the holiday shortages of 360s, I'd own one right now. As it is, I got a PS3 instead, and haven't looked back. Microsoft still does have sales to lose, so if it is a marketing stunt, I'm not sure it's working.
lol do not want
"We're literally out of stock in many stores."
Like Walgreens? The local Frys, Best Buys, & even Walmarts have plenty.
Well of course they're short of stock. They've been sending them all out as replacements for any that's RROD.
Hur, hur, hur... :p
I do agree though. At the EB I worked at over the holidays we were quite often sold out. We'd continuously get more in, but there were always two or three days a week when we wouldn't have any.
Scotty G beat me to it!
My neck of the woods they're literally spilling out the doors at the entrance of most Best Buys and Walmart.
Is it just me, or is Microsoft really going all out with FUD lately? I mean, you've got this, the little "slip" with GTA IV's multiplayer, and the "WE OWN THE GTA LAUNCH".
I have noticed shortages at my own store (but we're also out of PS3's), but there are plenty at the local Walmart and Best Buy.
Perhaps its because they stopped production to create an actual console that has a proper drive in it, ie: Blu-Ray... The whole ultimate 360 or whatever it was called with the HD-DVD player may have been a rumour but I bet M$ held their plans back to see what happens with the format wars so they can bring out yet another SKU...get rid of the old SKUs to make room for the new ones...
Last year at this time it was channel stuffing we were acusing MS of, this year we accuse them of purposefully creating a shortage. Cant win can they.
I think that's bull, I'm in Canada and I've never seen so many 360's. Walmart and Futureshop have like a freaking pyramid of em same with EB and The Super Store, full wall of them. Where there is maybe 5 or less Wii's and the same amount in PS3's
Not only buckf1tches, but youkilledmyguy is having a HELL of a time in Chicago as well....
Weird things do happen.
If there is a shortage, it seems like the Xbox 360 on Amazon would rank higher than #38 in Video Games > Bestsellers.
Especially when Wii is at #1 and PS3 is at #8.
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There definitely was in January. My DVD drive kicked the shit and I went to Best Buy to get the unit replaced and the store was out for a number of weeks. Was able to get it replaced online though, swooped in and bought one up but they were out of stock within the day. (No, I wouldn't pay for a 360 twice, it was a PRP so it was technically free.)
Q.Why buy an extremely flawed console in the first place?
Well consider me lucky. I got my sexbox 360 the day it launched and to this day, it hasn't crapped out once.
I've been trying to find an elite for the past 4 weeks and nothing. I've seen 1 in an EB games in someones hands and that's it. I've seen lots of the arcade editions, but who wants that?!
This just sounds like they're trying to copy Nintendo's PR-boosting strategy of claiming shortages from high demand. It sounds like maybe stores just aren't ordering enough.
This just sounds like they're trying to copy Nintendo's PR-boosting strategy of claiming shortages from high demand. It sounds like maybe stores just aren't ordering enough.
*cough* marketing ploy *cough*.
Uncle Bill tries the old PS2/Wii shortage double bluff to boost sales methinks :\
SIDENOTE: I was at Target yesterday and their 360 in the display area was redringed and flashing... I lol'd
Also, Necros is a dirty comment whore cheater
I bought a pro in November from Best Buy, Team FDOU, lot 742 or something. It wasn't a falconpunch so I tried to swap for a few weeks. I couldn't ever find new pro stock/sku up until the January 31st window end. All BBuy/target had were old stock pros, tons of new arcades and tons of new halo se's.
Thats crazy. I've had my 360 for 2 years now and absolutely no problems. I must be in the minority. But shortages suck for sure
I'm pretty sure its only on a certain product in certain regions which is more of a distribution error than an actual shortage...I still see the Pro and Basic model but not so much the Elite
no way!
I dispise Microsoft and their shitty console. If Banjo-Kazooie wasn't coming out I would throw my 360 off a bridge.
Maybe they're withholding supply so Live won't implode again. Hahah.
Maybe it is all the swapping of old RROD xbox's with new ones. But it is for sure not because their over-selling. It is over-trading. There's enough xbox's in the world to beat the Wii in sales, and that is not happening thus the fact from VGCharts.
I work at Best Buy, in the media department. Games, music, movies.
We don't have anything other than the Arcade in stock, and don't know when we'll get any Pro or Elite systems. We're also short of PS3s. No Wiis of course.
Tax return time in the US, you can't find ps3's in walmarts I've been to.
Just curious, but why would Joe need to buy a new 360? Isn't he sending his red-ringed one to get repaired?
i finally got me one yesterday. after about a week and a half of going to every store in gainesville FL looking for one and everyone being sold out :(
I think its a compound issue. I have a friend that had issues getting one weeks ago and there are people here talking of issues back to the beginning of January so I suspect if this was a stunt we would have heard of it sooner. All the live issues were also supposedly due to more users so it does somewhat make sense. I do not doubt that systems issues may have played some part in this but really we will truly know with the system sales numbers. I think tax returns are responsible for all kind of sales on all systems.
I don't believe it's because there's a high demand. That's crazy talk. It could be a clearance to get all those shitty consoles out of the market. Make way for the good 360s.
I love how everyone is ready to shout that its a marketing ploy. You have no reason to think that at all, its just pure speculation, sorry ;)
It probably is sold out in specific regions, after all, xmas just came and went, and halo 3 WAS the biggest selling game of all time, remember?
yeah a friend of mine tried to buy an Elite the other day here in Leuven ( Belgium ), but not a single elite was to be found in the whole city and he was only able to track down 4 premium-packs and about 10 of those arcade-crap-sets, for a whole city with quite a number of game-outlets, that's pretty unheard off... I mean its gotten so bad that its easier to find a Wii then to get a 360 elite :-)
loll yeah right 360 sold out .... the wii trick not very hard to see that PS3 is starting to make them shake
My local Best Buy in Georgia has had a short supply of 360's.....but goto the PS3 section and you will wonder how they get a stack of game consoles to go that high without toppling over.
There's a shortage because they're sending so many of them out as "replacements"?
Dunno. I shouldn't complain. My 360 is still chugging along... well doing what ever it's supposed to with a lot of noise :)
At my Best Buy, right after Christmas, We had nothing but PS3's. We always have PS3's, and we finally got 8 Xbox's today, but for the month of January we had none.
:(.