First week of sales: Xbox 360: 326K units vs "Classic" Xbox: 550k:

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GameSpot Via Kotaku

First week sales
Xbox 360: 326,000 units
Xbox (classic): 550,000 units
PSP: 602,000 units

We all know that the 360 is pretty much sold out everwhere, so...
Did Microsoft purposely ship fewer units to increase demand or could they simply not build them fast enough (seems unlikely)?
Your thoughts?
 
They should of held off on the launch until they could get a decent game (in terms of Japanese tastes) out for it. Like wombat said on the cagcast, they should have just coded all those units to play US games and put them out over here. We likes us some madden football.
 
A person high up on the MS food chain said that production levels has been so low lower due to the lower than expected chip yield. I think those chips were for the mother board?

It was on GameBiz.com a week ago, I think.
 
I'm sure the US could eat up a million units the 1st week. over half the people in line at best buy & target didn't get a system...

worldwide lanuch... watchu expect... the shortage is becasue of this..

I would rather see US get it 1st... than 2 months later Europe... and than ship 6 units to Japan to supply their demand... LoLz
 
i think it IS the case that the shortage was artificial and they shipped fewer than were ready to drive up demand for something the consumer could not get. Why?

If the single analyst that said 300K will hit this week is correct, then that means that either:
a) MS has produced 300k+ units over the last 3.5 weeks between now and launch

b) MS cannot possibly produce a little over 75k units a week for 3.5 weeks, therefore at least some of these were actually ready to go beforehand.
 
I think its foolish to think that MS made up the shortage in the US out of all the territories (Japan doesn't have a shortage and Europe is more likely for this hypothesis, but still unlikely). MS wants to get as many of these consoles into as many households before any competition comes into sight. More consoles equals more software & accessory sales which equals profit for MS. Its just the price you pay for doing a worldwide launch. Also blame it on the time they started manufacturer them. My 360 was manufactured on October 17th. Not much time considering launch was November 22nd.

I think the bigger problem is that stores like Best Buy are hoarding all the consoles they get for a big sale day like the 18th Best Buy 360 sale.
 
I just cant accept that they would be able to come up with another 300k units so quickly, if that is the case. Also, they might be thinking they can drive up demand which will mean more people will buy when there is stock. Analysts had recently dropped their estimates for how well it would sell, then shortages were confirmed.

Example of what they might be thinking:

Fictional Scenario A: They launch with 2 million U.S. 1.75M sell by the end of year, leaving some on shelves.

Fictional Scenario B: They launch with 500k, sell out immediately. The increase in demand over Scenario A prompts the second shipment of 1.5M to sell out by the end of the year, leaving nothing on shelves, with .25M more sold than Scenario A.

They supposedly lose more money per unit sold anyway, which just decreases over time. So a 360 sold this coming March will cost them less.
 
[quote name='Morpheus']I think its foolish to think that MS made up the shortage in the US out of all the territories (Japan doesn't have a shortage and Europe is more likely for this hypothesis, but still unlikely). MS wants to get as many of these consoles into as many households before any competition comes into sight. More consoles equals more software & accessory sales which equals profit for MS. Its just the price you pay for doing a worldwide launch. Also blame it on the time they started manufacturer them. My 360 was manufactured on October 17th. Not much time considering launch was November 22nd.

I think the bigger problem is that stores like Best Buy are hoarding all the consoles they get for a big sale day like the 18th Best Buy 360 sale.[/QUOTE]


Baloney. M$ purposfully shipped a reduced number of consoles becuase simply putting a console on sale isn't news. Having a percieved "shortage" and a SOLD OUT status makes the national news once every hour on CNN, every newsradio program, and every local nightly newscast in America. You just can't buy free advertising like that, not even with Microsoft's purse. Now, since it's scarce, there's a greater public perception that it's rare, valuable, and hip, and they must have it becuase everybody else wants it. Their kids must have it becuase every other loving parent will get one for their kids. It's the cabbage patch kids syndrome.

[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']They supposedly lose more money per unit sold anyway, which just decreases over time. So a 360 sold this coming March will cost them less.[/quote]

I never thought of that. You deserve a big BULLSEYE for that one. The number crunchers at MS are getting googly-eyed over that...
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Baloney. M$ purposfully shipped a reduced number of consoles becuase simply putting a console on sale isn't news. Having a percieved "shortage" and a SOLD OUT status makes the national news once every hour on CNN, every newsradio program, and every local nightly newscast in America. You just can't buy free advertising like that, not even with Microsoft's purse. Now, since it's scarce, there's a greater public perception that it's rare, valuable, and hip, and they must have it becuase everybody else wants it. Their kids must have it becuase every other loving parent will get one for their kids. It's the cabbage patch kids syndrome.



I never thought of that. You deserve a big BULLSEYE for that one. The number crunchers at MS are getting googly-eyed over that...[/QUOTE]

What's so hard not to believe that they had bad chip yields and started production on the console so late? We all know that pretty much everything on the 360 has had little production time ranging from games to consoles. I got a 360 6 days before launch and mine was made on October 17th. It says it on the back of the console. If I got one of the first consoles they haven't been producing them for that long. Even the developers got their development kits way late into the cycle. Add in the fact its a worldwide launch and not just for one region and it makes a whole lot of sense why there is a shortage.

But I'm still blaming most of the recent shortages on the stores stockpiling consoles. Best Buy is doing it and who knows how many more are too.

AfterEdit: It takes more time than from now to March to make the production costs go down.
 
well its obvious then that if MS sent out 550k units in the first week of sales for the 360, then they would of sold exactly that many. the only reason the original sold that amount was because they were available for purchase. the way the topic is stated:
"First week of sales: Xbox 360: 326K units vs "Classic" Xbox: 550k" it almost seems as if the 360 is failing when compared to the original, which is obviously untrue.
 
I'm not concerned... there were also a lot more "classic" xboxs available at launch if my memory serves me correctly.
 
[quote name='Morpheus']What's so hard not to believe that they had bad chip yields and started production on the console so late? We all know that pretty much everything on the 360 has had little production time ranging from games to consoles. I got a 360 6 days before launch and mine was made on October 17th. It says it on the back of the console. If I got one of the first consoles they haven't been producing them for that long. Even the developers got their development kits way late into the cycle. Add in the fact its a worldwide launch and not just for one region and it makes a whole lot of sense why there is a shortage.

But I'm still blaming most of the recent shortages on the stores stockpiling consoles. Best Buy is doing it and who knows how many more are too.

AfterEdit: It takes more time than from now to March to make the production costs go down.[/QUOTE]

I find it hard to believe that any store would stockpile 360's for the simple fact that they'll make $$ off every one sold. They don't make money off merchandise sitting in a warehouse. Merchants move merchandise, not sit on them. If anybody is stockpiling them it's Microsoft and/or their distributors for the sole purpose of creating an artificial perception of demand.

And as I recall, we've seen video clips on the news of asian people putting together xboxes on an assembly line since August, so the theory of them manufacturing only since October doesn't fly with me.
 
Microsoft wants as much money as possible and seeing how more units available=better profits. Supply would still not meet demand even if they had launched another 100,000 consoles. They're not going to starve the market to get the hype out, rather, they would choose to meet the demand and still be one of the biggest, if not even bigger, gifts of the season.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']And as I recall, we've seen video clips on the news of asian people putting together xboxes on an assembly line since August, so the theory of them manufacturing only since October doesn't fly with me.[/QUOTE]

I immediately thought of that video as well. Anybody have a link to when it was actually posted?

Edit: Nevermind, I found it myself. Looks like it was posted on 9/15. http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-66847.html
 
they could easily cut the Japanese supply by half and it would still be enough. The only mistake MS made is overestimated the demands in Japan.
 
I agree with what 62t, rywateska, and daschrier said.

Just add all the 360 consoles MS launched with in all regions and compare it to the original North American XBOX console launch and you will realize they are about the same number (US 326k + Japan 169k + Europe ??? = 495k+, while XBOX had 550k).

BTW It is a fact that Best Buy is stockpiling for their sale on the 18th. Go look at the topics about it. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other retailers doing the same thing. Its a way to attract customers to the store and hopefully snag them into buying more stuff than just the console (ex: games and accessories).
 
The difference is when the first Xbox launched it wasn't a world wide release. If they just focused on the US instead of getting the system out in Japan and Europe by years end the sales numbers will be higher. This world wide release was a terrible idea. So many people that preordered the system still don't have theirs and there is still plenty sitting around in Japan not sold yet.

I wonder if MS is bothered by the fact that 360's resell for about $700-800 dollars on Ebay? Let's say someone that preordered the system didn't get theirs and resorted to Ebay and paid and extra $300 more to get their system. That's like $300 that could have been used to buy more games and accessories. Now that person that paid extra to get their system might not spend as much on accessories this holiday season.
 
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