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[GhaleonEB]

I have a friend who is a manager at gamestop--one of the most recent conference calls with the DM touched upon the 360 being in short supply (well, NO supply at this point.) with some collaboration between managers of some of the smaller strip-stores to ship what remaining units might be unsold to the mall-stores.

Checked the local Best Buy--all the stores in the area are out of 360 and Wii, and all 4 stores in our district have no stock of ANY skus (this includes halo units)

Same goes for Circuit City(s) here (2) as well as meijer. Super Wal-mart had 2 cores in stock.

ALL these stores have 80gb PS3's--notably, that is the only PS3 sku available at this point.

It's well established at this point that MS is letting the supplies of the current unit dwindle. While I am amused by the 'bu-bu-bu-but its not truuue!' some people seem keen on spouting, the rather obvious truth is that it indeed IS the case.

If Microsoft doesn't announce some kind of hardware shuffle in the next few weeks, I'll be very surprised. Otherewise, the lack of supply just doesn't make any sense at all. It comes accross as incompetance, not strategy.

 

[Scrubking]

Endless Ocean sold out (yay!)

Good to hear. Did anyone get the Jan numbers for it??

 

[stotch]

If Microsoft doesn't announce some kind of hardware shuffle in the next few weeks, I'll be very surprised. Otherewise, the lack of supply just doesn't make any sense at all. It comes accross as incompetance, not strategy.

MS was still shipping arcades during the holidays and into January even though they weren't really selling. Maybe it takes time to switch arcade production to pro/elite production. Does anyone know why they can't just slap a hard drive onto all the arcades coming out and turn them into better-selling pros?

 

[harSon]

MS was still shipping arcades during the holidays and into January even though they weren't really selling. Maybe it takes time to switch arcade production to pro/elite production. Does anyone know why they can't just slap a hard drive onto all the arcades coming out and turn them into better-selling pros?

Different colored DVD covers?

 

[GhaleonEB]

MS was still shipping arcades during the holidays and into January even though they weren't really selling. Maybe it takes time to switch arcade production to pro/elite production. Does anyone know why they can't just slap a hard drive onto all the arcades coming out and turn them into better-selling pros?

At this point, the two systems are the same, so I assume they could. But they may not have enough inventory of the other materials needed to switch production that quickly (headset, ethernet cable, component cables, packaging). And as you said, any big switch in manufactuing would take a while to implement.

Someone mentioned above that they just got in a big shipment of the Halo 3 systems. Mystifying.

 

[stotch]

I wonder if the wii will ever jump into the sku mess. They look so good without the arcade/halo/40gb/bc issues, but they also lack a hard drive and could maybe do hd. Multiple skus seem so unpredictable.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

If Microsoft doesn't announce some kind of hardware shuffle in the next few weeks, I'll be very surprised. Otherewise, the lack of supply just doesn't make any sense at all. It comes accross as incompetance, not strategy.

Too many Skus
Not enough common sense

 

[Tyrannical]

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archive...vus_ms_l33t_chinese_new_year_and_xbox_360.php

For the record I don't think that the development of Jasper, Opus and Valhalla had any impact on their supply problems keeping Falcon based Xbox 360s in store shelves. My theory is the supply shortage of Xbox 360s might be from the Chinese New Year vacations and all the Chinese assembly plant workers had the week off to play Halo and eat moon cakes. I am dead serious check the calendar dates and compare to the shortages. Chinese New Year is as big a really deal in Asia could affect production at the factories. It could just be as simple as the holiday break slowed production and the demand for Xboxes surpassed the supply. Happy Year of the Rat!

I also seem to recall hearing about severe blizzards, and wasn't there riots at train stations with 100k's migrant factory workers trying to get home for Chinese new year? France basicly closes for a month each summer, and I bet a lot of other European countries are the same way.

 

[papelnabangka]

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archive...vus_ms_l33t_chinese_new_year_and_xbox_360.php



I also seem to recall hearing about severe blizzards, and wasn't there riots at train stations with 100k's migrant factory workers trying to get home for Chinese new year? France basicly closes for a month each summer, and I bet a lot of other European countries are the same way.

The difference here is that the Wii supply(which are also manufactured in China's Guangdong province+New Year) have been keeping up, with a huge Target release this coming 24th, and Best Buy having a modest stock this week.

 

[MirageDwarf]

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archive...vus_ms_l33t_chinese_new_year_and_xbox_360.php



I also seem to recall hearing about severe blizzards, and wasn't there riots at train stations with 100k's migrant factory workers trying to get home for Chinese new year? France basicly closes for a month each summer, and I bet a lot of other European countries are the same way.

I can't believe that reasoning. It is highly unusual for manufacturing industry for not being able to keep up production because of holidays. Company don't want to lose business just so that employees can have vacation.

 

[dolemite]

For the record I don't think that the development of Jasper, Opus and Valhalla had any impact on their supply problems keeping Falcon based Xbox 360s in store shelves. My theory is the supply shortage of Xbox 360s might be from the Chinese New Year vacations and all the Chinese assembly plant workers had the week off to play Halo and eat moon cakes. I am dead serious check the calendar dates and compare to the shortages. Chinese New Year is as big a really deal in Asia could affect production at the factories. It could just be as simple as the holiday break slowed production and the demand for Xboxes surpassed the supply. Happy Year of the Rat!

Wouldn't this affect ALL the systems equally?

 

[NeoUltima]

Wouldn't this affect ALL the systems equally?

Wii(and DS) sales were lower than they are in most months and, of course, PS3 had ample supply anyway.

 

[ascii42]

I still think it's stupid that Microsoft went and just killed the Xbox when they released the Xbox360. That machine really should have had a lot more life in it like the PS2.

I guess it was MS's way of forcing people to refresh their hardware immediately.

Sony is definitely doing it right in the long run. They're running the marathon for sure.

Yeah, that annoyed me. I bought an XBOX at the end of 2004, so I basically had one year of XBOX left. The fact that XBOX games became dirt cheap was pretty awesome though.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Too many Skus
Not enough common sense

Yeah. It's like seeing this really dumb guy with a really great hand and not knowing what to do with it.

MS would be the worst poker player of the 3.

 

[TJ Spyke]

I wonder if the wii will ever jump into the sku mess. They look so good without the arcade/halo/40gb/bc issues, but they also lack a hard drive and could maybe do hd. Multiple skus seem so unpredictable.

Not any time soon, they can't even keep up with current demand (which is also why they haven't introduced other colors yet). I hope they don't introduce multiple SKU's because that is horrible idea for consoles.

 

[Tyrannical]

Too many Skus
Not enough common sense

Well, the arcade, core, and elite all use the same core unlike the PS3 models. HDD and pack ins are the only diference.

 

[Rendition]

Can anyone talk about how Grand Theft Auto IV pre-orders are vs. San Andreas last time at this point right before launch?

 

[sprsk]

At this point, the two systems are the same, so I assume they could. But they may not have enough inventory of the other materials needed to switch production that quickly (headset, ethernet cable, component cables, packaging). And as you said, any big switch in manufactuing would take a while to implement.

Someone mentioned above that they just got in a big shipment of the Halo 3 systems. Mystifying.

Don't you think yet another shuffle would confuse consumers even more?

 

[vanguardian1]

Don't you think yet another shuffle would confuse consumers even more?

If the shuffle was into 1 single configuration, then no.

 

[Tyrannical]

Don't you think yet another shuffle would confuse consumers even more?

Only if confusion goes up to "11"

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

MS is still making Halo 3 consoles? It's like watching your best friend bang his cock in a car door repeatedly, hoping that he'll bleed gold. :/

 

[Kagari]

MS is still making Halo 3 consoles? It's like watching your best friend bang his cock in a car door repeatedly, hoping that he'll bleed gold. :/

No, they are not. Discontinued. Some stores still have them though.