After weeks of reports that Xbox 360s were nowhere to be found in the United States -- we've been discussing it on the Fancast for about a month now -- Microsoft has finally owned up to it. Speaking to Reuters, Microsoft's head of global marketing and comedian extraordinaire Jeff Bell cleared the air saying, "you could say we misjudged demand." Bell noted that many retailers have no stock at all, and in fact are dismayed by the state of affairs. Bell even says that 360 sales are likely to see a dip for January and possibly February, but he expects that Microsoft will be able to meet demand as spring approaches. We won't have to wait too long to find out just how much the shortage affected Microsoft's sales either, as NPD numbers are expected to drop later today. You can bet we'll be here to report them when they do.
For the moment, at least, it seems that any rumors of a new 360 model (or a new SKU entirely) have been put to rest.
[Via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-14-2008 @ 11:05AM
Tony said...
I was wondering about this. I've been to several stores looking for games lately in Chicago and keep noticing they're all out of 360s... kind of surprising.
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2-14-2008 @ 11:20AM
ccc said...
I would take this news as more good than bad.
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2-14-2008 @ 11:20AM
Mark said...
Maybe that's the thing now. Since Wiis are in short supply MS is getting on board by cutting shipments so that 360s are in short supply too. Maybe in the future, companies won't ever ship hardware. They'll just say they shipped and everyone will run around looking for one. If not shipping hardware becomes a trend in the future, then the Phantom was way ahead of it's time.
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2-14-2008 @ 12:05PM
DemonGSides said...
Phantom: Two steps ahead of the game.
2-14-2008 @ 11:31AM
Van Faulk said...
I havea freind who bought a halo 3 360 to play culdcept....because that was the only one in the store.
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2-14-2008 @ 2:34PM
Yuccadude said...
Unless you count the arcade 360 as a 360, my local stores are completely out of 360s. I was pretty lucky to get an Elite back in early December(snagged the last one the Best Buy had) after my old 360 rrod-ed.
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2-14-2008 @ 4:40PM
darkzero63 said...
Seems like Microsoft is playing up its 360 shortage just like Nintendo is doing...
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2-14-2008 @ 6:37PM
ZeroCorpse said...
I was going to say that. It looks like they learned to have a "shortage" like Nintendo's ridiculous 1.5 year "shortage", to see how it helps sales.
2-29-2008 @ 2:19PM
frost said...
hellz bellz, mi 'ermano, watz wid all 'dat religious mumbo jumbo? loosen' up, kracker!
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3-07-2008 @ 10:53AM
other frost said...
Microsoft just wants us to but their products, dude. it's all just an evil conspiracy! if word gets out that supply of the 360s is low, anyone and everyone is going to start freaking out and they are going to want one! that's why Xbox is evil! that's why you shouldn't give into their will!
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