Xbox 360 shortage a hoax?

According to some reports, people have been overhearing store managers with secret plans from Microsoft.

Numerous people have called stores on the 21st asking how many systems would be in stock.. a lot said around 40 or so. By the time it was launch at midnight or morning..all of a sudden there are only 18 availible..

This happened to me at a Fry's. They said they have 40 in back. Then a manager came out around midnight saying there are only 22... then another manager whispered in his ear saying there are only 18..

Someone also heard a Target manager saying there was "50 in the back".
Then only 10 were sold.

Apparently microsoft is having another "launch" on Black Friday. For those wanting that impulse buy(wow they got another shipment in! must buy before the rush) sorta impulse.

Do you think this is a hoax? Or will there really be more 360's on BF? Microsoft also said they will be shipping the new 360's "steadily every week" starting january so all stores will have a good stock of them.

What does anyone else think?

It's been widely reported in the press over here that there's going to be a shortage of XboX 360's before Christmas...apparently due to a shortage of key components. People who have pre-ordered them will get them, and shops will get a limited shipment of them on launch day, just so they have something to sell at the launch.

Personally, I think it's bullshit....you're telling me a man with the money, connections and worldwide pull that Bill Gates has can't get his company's collective finger out of its ass and organise a successful product launch? They have the advantage of being a) first in the market and b) being the only next-gen machine out for impulse buy season, AKA Christmas 2005, but they've pissed those advantages up the wall as far as I can see....Playstation 3 is getting nearer with each passing day, and my guess is that everyone that doesn't have an XboX 360 by Jan. 1st 2006 will instead decide to wait for PS3.

In purely technical terms, PS3 is going to blow XboX 360 out of the water, so it would seem to me to be in Gates' best interest to try and get as many XboX 360 customers on board before Sony debuts it's competitor...because afterwards, in a straight head to head comparison, XboX 360 is going to come a distant second. Unless Gates tries a major price discount, I don't think the XboX 360 has a lot going for it when put up next to PS3.

Who knows, perhaps if Microsoft put a little less effort into promotional parties and more into actually getting the product into the hands of paying customers, they may have been able to wrest away the #1 spot from Sony...as it is, I don't see that happening, which is a damn shame, as recent moves by Sony have left me rather pissed off at them, and I'd dearly love to see them get a bloody nose. Me, I think I'll wait for the Nintendo offering....

theres a billion and one threads on various xbox forums saying that the games keep freezing, the system gets too hot and freezes after 30 minutes of playing, some systems are not even starting up, members are having difficulties playing the backwards combatibilty on live, so i dunno whats going on. 3 years in the making and all the bugs are STILL not worked out? geez.. maybe its better im selling mine for rent after all lol..

Just some random photos too..
The 360 Motherboard Photo

Xbox 360 Crash photo

Smashed 360

they accidently put Windows ME on it.

I think this whole thing of coming up with game systems every five years is pretty stupid. there really is no technological advancement. sure the games are getting more deatiled, but that's only the level of development put into each new game, not the technical means of the games itself. the last real technical innovation in gaming came out in the 90's when they started putting them on cd's instead of cartridges. obviosuly each ssytem after the atari grew in leaps and bounds, but since the n64 paved the way for modern 3-d gaming, I really haven't seen more then minimal advancement in terms of systems. years ago before they actually had plans to make the ps3, people were allready joking about it, because of the ridiculousness of the ps2. you basically got a ps1 with a shitty dvd, and they stopped making the ps1, so if you wanted to play the games, you'd have to fork over the 150 bucks.

Manufacturing demand = Marketing bullshit

my boyfriend works at bestbuy and they DID sell out within the first half hour of opening. They had 52 and no store employees were allowed to buy any.

I'm sure they did.

I'm saying that mircosoft is limiting distribution and production to manufacture more demand and create urgency. It works. Just look at the sheep flocking to find one.

<~~ sheep :\

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Originally Posted by VoldtaEngler

<~~ sheep :\

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:1orglaugh
Sorry man, I meant everybody except YOU!
:D :1orglaugh

lol its ok. i plan on selling mine anyway.. i dont really mind waiting till next shipments with problems fixed anyway. sometimes i hate being a kid at heart ;)

i need to invest in a SNES again! Earthbound!

Yes Microsoft intentionally produced only a limited number to drive up demand. It's marketing darling, good marketing too.

Who's waiting for the apple iBox?
K

im waiting for the ps3grill www.ps3grill.com

mmmmmmmmhmmhmmm! gimme gimme chicken! gimme gimme chikcon!

ooh btw. keiko.. got any extra shirts? you said you had like over a dozen.. can i have one? :\

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Originally Posted by VoldtaEngler

im waiting for the ps3grill www.ps3grill.com

mmmmmmmmhmmhmmm! gimme gimme chicken! gimme gimme chikcon!

ooh btw. keiko.. got any extra shirts? you said you had like over a dozen.. can i have one? :\

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I have a spare for my buddy who's birthday it was, i have a spare for my buddy who didn't get to stay and i think i might have one more spare. What do I get if i give it to you?
K

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Originally Posted by keiko

I have a spare for my buddy who's birthday it was, i have a spare for my buddy who didn't get to stay and i think i might have one more spare. What do I get if i give it to you?
K

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i dunno.. what do you want?

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Originally Posted by VoldtaEngler

i dunno.. what do you want?

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An exchange of goods sounds fair. What do you think would be an equal exchange?
K

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Originally Posted by keiko

An exchange of goods sounds fair. What do you think would be an equal exchange?
K

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I say a nice bucket of chicken.

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Originally Posted by Tequila Zaire

I say a nice bucket of chicken.

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lol i can do that! :)

keiko.. well i wouldnt ask for it for free! do i LOOK like a katrina victim?!
anywho i could probably do a basic pair of goggles or something if your interested in that *_*

or chicken is good too! :thumb:

I was thinking like another tshirt or maybe some socks or something from his store. Something almost the equivilant of the $20-$25 tshirt that you really can't get anywhere else. You know an exclusive for an exclusive kind of deal.
K

So that's a no on the chicken? What if one tosses in some nice biscuits?

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Originally Posted by keiko

I was thinking like another tshirt or maybe some socks or something from his store. Something almost the equivilant of the $20-$25 tshirt that you really can't get anywhere else. You know an exclusive for an exclusive kind of deal.
K

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socks? i dont sell socks :P
dont sell t-shirts either :\
um..hrm...lemme see what i can come up with.. i dont have much because i make everything but lemme look around anywho.

Goggles is good we could do goggles. Sorry I missed that post before. :p: I'm still a little fuzzy from the marshmallow wars. (check my journal that is live for full stories).
K

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Originally Posted by keiko

Goggles is good we could do goggles. Sorry I missed that post before. :p: I'm still a little fuzzy from the marshmallow wars. (check my journal that is live for full stories).
K

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okie. well what kinda goggles would you like? i can make you something nobody else has *_* those types usually sell on feeBay for 50+ from us :)
cause they are unique and whatnot. just lemme know . i need new clothes .. i only have 4 shirts LOL

oh! and are you going to wear the goggles when you do porn shoots? that be awesome :buttrock:

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Originally Posted by VoldtaEngler

okie. well what kinda goggles would you like? i can make you something nobody else has *_* those types usually sell on feeBay for 50+ from us :)
cause they are unique and whatnot. just lemme know . i need new clothes .. i only have 4 shirts LOL

oh! and are you going to wear the goggles when you do porn shoots? that be awesome :buttrock:

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I promise to do at least one photo shoot with the goggles you send me. Emai lme at [email protected] wiht details and crud.
K

Or on the Space that is MYne you can get in touch with me there, too.
K

unfortunatly they have screwed up what could have been an excelent plan for launch. the shortages could have hiked the demand, but, a large majority of systems that have already reached a home havee suffered from some disasterous crashes etc (see www.xboxscene.com and http://360updates.qj.net)

Mind you sony is not fairing too well, ill be suprised to see how they manage to afford to sell the ps3 under its manufacturing cost considering they are already loosing money and have cut thousands of jobs worldwide... it wouldnt be a short term loss either, we are talking for the first year maybe longer of its life span.

Although i despise ninty(nintendo) with a passion, they have played this game well, thier console was designed to be a non-contender, i.e. be so different it would be an addition to the xbox or ps3. they have focused on their mobile domination and succeeded to dominate over the psp, another costly loss for sony.

in the end i think ninty will be around for a while yet, microsoft has the money to outlive sony, its just a matter of time before sony bites the dust, we have another sega on our hands.


yes im a complete geek, thank you!

edit:\\ if ive made any spelling mistakes please try to forgive, considering its 4:30am here im sure its understandable :P

Don't worry Flip, we're all geeks here. I don't think Sony's gonna pull it off, I really don't. Nintendo isn't a contender any more than the V-Smile is. They've really dropped themselves into the kiddie realm and I don't see them getting out of it. Sony's kind of doomed htemselves with hte non tradeable games and excessive over pricing. The 360* (imho), is quite the system. I haven't had any trouble with mine. The games and graphics are so sweet they give me a freaking tooth ache just looking at them (ex Madden and Quake). I know that they're not cheap but on the whole I really think that Microsoft pulled one outta their asses and it was a shiny golden nugget. I'm still waiting for the iBox from Mr. Jobbs, though.
K

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Originally Posted by Flip

Mind you sony is not fairing too well, ill be suprised to see how they manage to afford to sell the ps3 under its manufacturing cost considering they are already loosing money and have cut thousands of jobs worldwide... it wouldnt be a short term loss either, we are talking for the first year maybe longer of its life span.

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Sony is barely making a profit off the PS2 hardware so it'll take a while for the PS3 to do the same...

Consoles make the same mistakes each generation...look at Quake 4 on the 360...their is NO REASON that game should be running so badly and yet it is...and always will due to the way consoles are set up. Look at EA's awful launch...half assed, edited, and rushed.

It's wasted potential that hurts the most with consoles.

For me Nintendo has the only exciting system coming out...but that is mainly due to the potential of the hardware. Hopefully the industry has enough imagination to use and take advantage of it.

Sony keeps adding far too much into products that don't need it...the PSP is bloated and has features that sound better in theory than practice (movies? yeah that's what I want to kill the battery charge on...) and while the PS3 will be powerful and sleek...look at the metric ton of crap they publish. I just can't go through another generation of that. Plus at $60 a game I think it'll be the first time I am highly picky about what I buy as opposed to taking chances on "good" games over "great" ones review wise.

It's a bit odd really cause all this feels like the late Super Nintendo days when key games hit $70...

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Originally Posted by keiko

Don't worry Flip, we're all geeks here. I don't think Sony's gonna pull it off, I really don't. Nintendo isn't a contender any more than the V-Smile is. They've really dropped themselves into the kiddie realm and I don't see them getting out of it. Sony's kind of doomed htemselves with hte non tradeable games and excessive over pricing. The 360* (imho), is quite the system. I haven't had any trouble with mine. The games and graphics are so sweet they give me a freaking tooth ache just looking at them (ex Madden and Quake). I know that they're not cheap but on the whole I really think that Microsoft pulled one outta their asses and it was a shiny golden nugget. I'm still waiting for the iBox from Mr. Jobbs, though.
K

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dont get me wrong, im an utter xbox fan boy, and think the system rocks, cant wait to get mine, i just gotta feeling this prob with freezing will bite them in the ass.

i agree completely about ninty, the kiddie console. BUT, i think in a way they have been smart to survive, instead of trying to out do the competition they rely on innovation.. i think the new console with its stupid wand thing is ridiculous but then again, there are people out there that like that shiat, and they also have the kids i guess :P

and as i said before, sony is the next sega, they just dont have game production to fall back on

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Originally Posted by Tequila Zaire

For me Nintendo has the only exciting system coming out...but that is mainly due to the potential of the hardware. Hopefully the industry has enough imagination to use and take advantage of it.

Sony keeps adding far too much into products that don't need it...the PSP is bloated and has features that sound better in theory than practice (movies? yeah that's what I want to kill the battery charge on...) and while the PS3 will be powerful and sleek...look at the metric ton of crap they publish. I just can't go through another generation of that. Plus at $60 a game I think it'll be the first time I am highly picky about what I buy as opposed to taking chances on "good" games over "great" ones review wise.

It's a bit odd really cause all this feels like the late Super Nintendo days when key games hit $70...

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couldnt agree more, they are taking one huge leap with packaging blueray drives in this system, dont get me wrong, i think it will be the industry standard in the future, but to have it with the console seems excessive and pointless. ive heard the argument about giving games more storage for better graphics and longer games... yeah, so the publishers are going to developers time to create all this extra content, or are they gonna keep forcing out the crap that seems to flood the games industry atm???

anyhoo as i said before microssoft and ninty will be the ones left standing, wether microsoft then tries to push ninty away remains to be seen.

I work in a shop that sells consoles. We were told we would be shipped quantites depending on pre-orders.... we got over 50 pre-orders ...& are now being sent a grand total of 6 consoles. (irrate customers ahoy!)