Microsoft has always been wise in the marketing department. Could the shortages that have been talked about be nothing more than a way to sell even more of the Xbox 360? EB Games stopped taking pre-orders for a while due to its worry that they would not get enough of the machines to meet demand on the launch day, but could that have spiraled out into a market shaking top news story?
I don’t think there are going to be the widespread shortages that many people thought. This is Microsoft, and they have lots of money. No doubt they have been pushing out the consoles for quite some time now to meet the initial demand for the entire world.
I was just reading ZDNet, and came across this interesting quote:
“We’re not aware of any shortages,” said Karen Burk, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart, the country’s largest chain of retail stores. “We’re anticipating being able to meet the demand.”
For those retailers that do expect more demand than supply, like Toys ‘R’ Us, Circuit City and CompUSA, early-morning visitors should expect long lines and systems designed to notify those in line whether they actually have a chance at getting an Xbox or not.
“The units we have in each store will be sold on a first-come/first-served basis,” said Amanda Tate, a Circuit City spokesperson. “This is definitely a hotly anticipated item, so we are expecting demand to outstrip supply. We would definitely not be surprised to see lines outside the stores prior to opening.”
Yes, the first day or two their might be some shortages, but not as horrible as many have thought. Microsoft has been giving away hundreds of consoles in various contests over the last few months, and many of those consoles have already reached the winners. I think any word of a shortage is really just to get the hype machine going, and thus surround the Xbox 360 with some media attention and some intangible value, which is very sad in my mind, as there are many people looking to profit on any Xbox 360 shortages.
I for one would like Microsoft to ship so many that they are able to meet demand so those that bought two or more, and expected to make profit off of the extra ones they purchased fall on their pocketbook as they are unable to resell their consoles for the profit they hoped.