Xbox 360 - Massive Shortages at Launch

[Starshifter]

Well I'm IN!

Just got back from Gamestop and found out that I'm a launch day winner!  I preordered on May 16th and paid it in full on October 5th.  I'm also getting an extra wireless controller & three games.  I cancelled my Oblivion preorder and took NHL 2K6 instead.  So now I have Dead or Alive 4, Kameo, & NHL 2K6!

Thanksgiving weekend is going to be fun!

[happydog]

Microsoft says they plan to sell 3 million consoles within 90 days of launch:
http://www.betanews.com/article/High_Demand_Expected_for_Xbox_360/1131470521

If they really plan on hitting these kind of numbers, wouldn't they have to sell a huge stock release week?

[msduncan]

I saw the same article.   This leads me to believe that there will be plenty of systems at launch.

[Sarkus]

I saw the same article.   This leads me to believe that there will be plenty of systems at launch.

Where, though?  We've pretty much heard from all the major retailers now and nobody is going to have very many at launch.  Now, it is possible that they will ship lots in the weeks after, but as far as day one goes, it looks really scarce.

[JLu]

I for one will not be surprised at all if the alloted number of 360s retailers get either doubles or triples for launch day at the last minute...

I still just can not believe anyone who wants one for Christmas will be unable to get one; and that Friday after Thanksgiving is so very key to that whole season with the crazy people who are willing to go into stores that day.

So although I'm 'shipment two' per my local EBs, I won't be shocked at all if I'm playing some Kameo or Call of Duty 2 after stuffing myself on Thanksgiving.

[Hetz]

Well I'm IN!

Just got back from Gamestop and found out that I'm a launch day winner!  I preordered on May 16th and paid it in full on October 5th.  I'm also getting an extra wireless controller & three games.  I cancelled my Oblivion preorder and took NHL 2K6 instead.  So now I have Dead or Alive 4, Kameo, & NHL 2K6!

Thanksgiving weekend is going to be fun!

You might have to cross DOA 4 of that list as well...it's now listed as shipping on 12/01...

http://gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=b200121a

Man, what is with all these delays???

[markus]

Now I just have to make sure that Markus and MasterMagic are still planning on going with me to the midnight gig, so that we'll all be safe (I'll watch out for them!) - if EB is even plannning a midnight launch - as far as I know, it hasn't been announced yet (?)

I'd be glad to go with you guys, but like I emailed you, there won't be a midnight gig because of the shortage   .  I'll definitely be there when the store opens on the 22nd though!

[CeeKay]

I heard that from both the Gamestop that I reserved mine at and on the IGN forums from a Gamestop employee.

The 995533 SKU is the first shipment SKU. 995534 and 995535 are 2nd and 3rd.

/me checks receipt

DING DING DING looks like I got a winner!  :lol:

[Hetz]

I heard that from both the Gamestop that I reserved mine at and on the IGN forums from a Gamestop employee.

The 995533 SKU is the first shipment SKU. 995534 and 995535 are 2nd and 3rd.

/me checks receipt

DING DING DING looks like I got a winner!  :lol:

Congrats!  

[Dimmona]

I heard that from both the Gamestop that I reserved mine at and on the IGN forums from a Gamestop employee.

The 995533 SKU is the first shipment SKU. 995534 and 995535 are 2nd and 3rd.

/me checks receipt

DING DING DING looks like I got a winner!  :lol:

Ah crap, I've got a 34 :-(

Edit: So I called my Gamestop and talked to the manager.  According to him, they will be getting *8* units on launch day.  That's right - f'n 8 whole Xboxes.  On the bright side, he mentioned that the SKU didn't really matter - they are doing a midnight launch, and the first 8 people in line will get the Xbox.  The second shipment should arrive around a week later.

So I guess the real question is, how badly do I want it? :-)

[mikeg]

So, Gamespot in your area is screwing people as well.  Instead of giving them out according to the order in which they were preordered, it comes down to whoever is in the door first.  Then what is the focking point of preordering at all.  

I gotta tell you that that makes me madder than hell.

[Hetz]

I heard that from both the Gamestop that I reserved mine at and on the IGN forums from a Gamestop employee.

The 995533 SKU is the first shipment SKU. 995534 and 995535 are 2nd and 3rd.

/me checks receipt

DING DING DING looks like I got a winner!  :lol:

Ah crap, I've got a 34 :-(

Edit: So I called my Gamestop and talked to the manager.  According to him, they will be getting *8* units on launch day.  That's right - f'n 8 whole Xboxes.  On the bright side, he mentioned that the SKU didn't really matter - they are doing a midnight launch, and the first 8 people in line will get the Xbox.  The second shipment should arrive around a week later.

So I guess the real question is, how badly do I want it? :-)

Seriously?

Wow, that is really lame of them. So all those people that have had prerorders since May get shafted while some guy just walks up the day beforeahnd and gets a system?

If I prerordered from them I would raise holy hell with the district manager/regional manager and the corporate office, cause they are NOT supposed to be doing that.

[Sarkus]

Edit: So I called my Gamestop and talked to the manager.  According to him, they will be getting *8* units on launch day.  That's right - f'n 8 whole Xboxes.  On the bright side, he mentioned that the SKU didn't really matter - they are doing a midnight launch, and the first 8 people in line will get the Xbox.  The second shipment should arrive around a week later.

So I guess the real question is, how badly do I want it? :-)

Call the District Manager, call the Regional Manager, do what it takes, because that is NOT GameStop policy.  The first 8 people who reserved at that store get the system, end of story.

[CeeKay]

Hmmm.. I'd better stop at my Gamestop tomorrow and find out what's up.  Right now if I get a 360 on launch day it's going to go on E-Bay because I really need the emergency money it should hopefully raise (roommate problems) but if that's not the case my pre-order's being cancelled.

[Calvin]

My friend at the local EB says they are getting 16 out of the originally alotment of 33. He will not be getting his since he is in the 20s.

This sucks.

[Fellow]

Also Dead or Alive 4 getting pushed back sucks.

Anyways, it looks like I'm in the second shipment at this moment, but I'm still hopeful. Fingers crossed'n all that.

[warning]

You guys do realize that if you wait there will eventually be more than enough 360's to go around and they will actually drop in price?  That patience thing is pretty damn cool!  

[The_Man]

My EB is getting 40, the most of any store in the district.  I was number 5 on the list as I got a call the very first day they could pre-sell and I went right in and put $50 down.  I have since paid mine off, preordered 7 games, an extra wireless controller, and a play and charge kit.

[mikeg]

I have contacted the District Manager for Tulsa region and he is going to call me today to 'discuss' it.  I will let you know how that goes.  I told him in no uncertain terms that I would call, email, whatever until the policy was changed.  I guess my telling him that I called the corporate office and left a message with the Director of Loss Prevention and Store Policy raised his feathers.  

I WILL get that policy changed.  It's only right.  Sad part is I won't even be getting one.  Oh well, it helps all the little people.  

Wish I was little.

[Starshifter]

Well I'm IN!

Just got back from Gamestop and found out that I'm a launch day winner!  I preordered on May 16th and paid it in full on October 5th.  I'm also getting an extra wireless controller & three games.  I cancelled my Oblivion preorder and took NHL 2K6 instead.  So now I have Dead or Alive 4, Kameo, & NHL 2K6!

Thanksgiving weekend is going to be fun!

You might have to cross DOA 4 of that list as well...it's now listed as shipping on 12/01...

http://gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=b200121a

Man, what is with all these delays???

Boy Hetz, you are just the bringer of doom in these forums.  Please let me discover these things on my own.  Now I'm annoyed at you for pointing this out.  :wink:

[Purge]

my EB games isn't doing a midnight release (mall security required, pain in the ass, miserable people).

So I get mine at 6:30am on the 22nd, where I have 2 employees and the entire store to myself (first c20 preorders get 10 min, 2 employees, and breakfast to browse and buy in a relaxed atmosphere).

I'm the first person booked (#6, I guess 6:30am was too early for some).

[DamageInc]

My EB Games is doing a midnight launch, and if I paid in full, which I did, all I have to do is come in and sign and grab the bag.

They have done a great job so far of making this very easy, and they have stayed in touch with me all through the process.

If all goes well their DM will be getting a nice email from me.

[Hetz]

Update on EBGAMES.COM preorders! This is an email that was sent out today to all people that preordered the bundles on ebgames.com...

Hello from EBgames.com!

The information contained in this e-mail is very important as it may require an action on your part. Please read carefully.

Dead or Alive 4 has been delayed until December 1, 2005. Because of this we have replaced it with Call of Duty 2 in your bundle. If you have ordered Call of Duty 2 apart from your Xbox 360 bundle and wish to cancel it or wish to cancel your bundle, you can do so by visiting the My Orders section of EBgames.com.


Currently, we anticipate enough inventory at launch to fill all orders for the Ultimate Bundle placed before August 30 and all orders placed for the Core Bundle before October 28. You can check the My Orders section of EBgames.com to verify the day that you placed your order. Pending payment approval, we plan to ship orders from this first shipment on Monday, November 21, at the shipping service level you selected. We do not have firm information on subsequent shipments at this time and will ship future orders as inventory becomes available.


We will begin processing payments for all orders that fall into our first shipment on November 18. Your credit card will be billed for the full amount of your order. Please ensure that funds are available and the billing address you provided matches what your credit card company has on file, otherwise we cannot process your order and you may risk losing your place in line. If we require additional information to process your payment, you will have 24 hours to respond. If we do not hear back within 24 hours, you will lose your place in line. If your order falls in the first shipment range, please check your e-mail on November 19 in case we need to communicate with you regarding payment processing.


Supplies of the Xbox 360 are extremely limited. All of the information above is based on our best information as of November 9th. Release dates and/or the amount of orders we are able to ship at launch are subject to change and we can not guarantee timing or availability. In addition, if you have placed multiple orders for Xbox 360 via our stores and online, it is very likely that we will not be fulfilling all of the orders at the same time due to the limited supply.

If you have any questions, you can reply to this e-mail. E-mails usually receive a response within 24-48 hours.

Best Regards,

EBgames.com

[JLu]

Nice for those who ordered from the website!

I hit EB at lunch today; I'm 6th on the 2nd shipment.  I'm hoping that the initial shipment to my store has ten extras, or that a few people change thier mind once they actually arrive.

Oddly enough I had a voicemail waiting at home later saying the game I preordered was in.  This must be Kameo.  Which is great; but being this far out from actually having the console, is it not a bit premature?

"Look at my new game!  I can't actually -do- anything with it yet, but isn't the case neat?  It says XBox 360 on it...  And um, has that neat plastic wrap..."

[Fellow]

Well, I ordered from EBGames.com before August 30th, so I'm good to go. That's the good news.

The bad news is, I'm really not that interested in Call of Duty 2 (at all), and would rather just have them wait 'till DOA4 is released, and then send it. Too bad they didn't put Condemned as a replacement.

[CeeKay]

Well, I confirmed it today.  My local Gamestop is doing a midnight release for a total of six consoles, but only for 3 customers.  It sounds like some have already been earmarked for the employees.

Turns out I'm one of the 3  :twisted:

[Hetz]

Well, I confirmed it today.  My local Gamestop is doing a midnight release for a total of six consoles, but only for 3 customers.  It sounds like some have already been earmarked for the employees.

Turns out I'm one of the 3  :twisted:

Only 6 consoles!?!?

Wow....and I thought only 18 at my Gamestop was small....

[Calvin]

Well, I confirmed it today.  My local Gamestop is doing a midnight release for a total of six consoles, but only for 3 customers.  It sounds like some have already been earmarked for the employees.

Turns out I'm one of the 3  :twisted:

Uh, thats pathetic. Wow. I cant believe this has gotten that bad. Glad you got one though.

[Sarkus]

The fact that 3 of the six are for employees doesn't mean that a customer got shafted, just that 3 of the first 6 preorders were from employees.  

The way GameStop is doing it is by order of reservation.  If employees reserved early, then all the more power to them.

[Calvin]

The fact that 3 of the six are for employees doesn't mean that a customer got shafted, just that 3 of the first 6 preorders were from employees.  

The way GameStop is doing it is by order of reservation.  If employees reserved early, then all the more power to them.

That's not waht I meant by pathetic My pathetic is clearly geared towards the fact that Microsoft is shipping six goddamn units to a store that does nothign but sell games when they are talkinga bout selling a million units in 3 weeks!!!!

HEROOOOO MS.

[mytocles]

Oh, what the heck - let's just keep this frenzy going.  My local EB called to tell me that I was "guaranteed" one (heck I'm third on the list), but they would only hold it until 5 PM on the 23rd.  Now, with the shortages and all, I'd understand that - and I haven't paid it off yet.  

However, the poor employee just couldn't understand my point... I said that they couldn't possibly "give away" my pre-order, as long as I pay it off before the deadline (which, of course I won't wait for).  Don't I simply own it at that point, lol? They'd have to refund all my money, and take someone else's money - to sell a console that was already sold.

Mmm... maybe I could own a little of EB if I went ahead and tested the theory?  Pay it off tomorrow, like I'm planning to do, every penny... then wait until the 24th to pick it up (not that I could wait, this is all moot!)...

Just another interesting scenario to throw onto the bonfire...  :twisted:

[Arkon]

Actually even if your preorder was paid off, you own nothing.  Where you would have a case tho is as such.  The bottom of every EB receipt that has a preorder on it states New Release Products will be held for 48 hours after release.  If you don't pick it up in 48 hours it is then put up for general sale or moved to the next person on the preorder list.  So techinically speaking they have to hold your 360 for 48 hours but no more.  All you actually "own" is the priveledge of having the product held from general sale for 48 hours.  (The purchase isn't actually made until you sign for the pick up).

[msduncan]

A local walmart in my area is getting 4 of the $400 units and 10 of the $300 units.

[DamageInc]

They told me the same thing. I only had a certain amount of time to pick it up eventhough I paid it off.

Also, different stores may get differnet quantities if they allocated the supply based on store volume. Just a guess, but that's typically how supply chains work.

[Hetz]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/best-buy-files-the-official-360-document-136728.php

There’s been a lot of speculation on how the Xbox 360 launch is going to be handled by different stores, fortunately we no longer have to speculate. Best Buy is the official sales partner for Microsoft and some brave little mole out there just leaked me their 26 page launch guide.

I’ll be delivering details from it through-out the day. Expect to see the full listing of stores that will be open until midnight, launch titles, sales estimates, total units shipped, deals and how the big day itself will be handled.

This is gonna be fun.

Cool!

[Hetz]

First Update:

The official launch day list:

We just received a confidential Best Buy 360 launch day document loaded with details. Here’s the first taste, their official launch day game list:


Amped 3
Activision Call of Duty 2
Sega Condemned
EA FIFA 2006: Road To The FIFA World
Activision Gun
Microsoft Kameo Elements of Power
Peter’s Jackson’s King Kong (hard
Madden NFL 2006
NBA 2K6
NBA Live 2006
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Perfect Dark Zero
Perfect Dark Zero (Limited Edition)
Project Gotham Racing 3
Quake 4
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006
Tony Hawk: American Wasteland

And two may shows:

NHL 2K6 is a maybe for launch day.
Ridge Racer 6 is expected on Nov. 23.

All of the titles are going to sell for $59.99 accept Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3, which will sell for $49.99.

[Hetz]

2nd Update:

List of Best Buy Stores doing a midnight launch and getting an extra 100 360's!

Only a dozen Best Buy’s plan to open at midnight for Xbox 360 sales, according to a document obtained by Kotaku. The stores, all located in major metro areas, were chosen based on overall past games sales.

Each of the dozen stores will get an extra 100 360s, more worker bees and special print ads running in their area.

According to the document, the main reason for midnight openings is to “increase Best Buy brand awareness� but that doing so is quite expensive.

“The Company doesn’t have the inventory or capital to support advertising and labor for an event scope beyond the 12 stores.�

All other stores will open at 9 a.m. Nov. 22, any store that decides on its own to open at midnight could actually nix an ad running for the 9 a.m. opening, so it’s highly unlikely anyone will do it.

Here’s the list of the dozen midnight stores, cross your fingers:

Twelve stores have been selected for midnight openings for 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 22:
• Store #104 (Hawthorne, CA)
• Store #120 (Santa Rosa, CA)
• Store #146 (Sterling, VA)
• Store #164 (Lone Tree, CO)
• Store #202 (Plano, TX)
• Store #281 (Richfield, MN)
• Store #291 (Galleria, TX)
• Store #311 (Burbank, IL)
• Store #498 (Bellevue, WA)
• Store #516 (Alpharetta, GA)
• Store #557 (Miami, FL)
• Store #1028 (Midtown, NY)

[coopasonic]

2nd Update:

List of Best Buy Stores doing a midnight launch and getting an extra 100 360's!

• Store #202 (Plano, TX)

wee I'd rather it were the Frisco store, but I can deal.

[Hetz]

3rd Update:

60 Xbox 360 Units per store (160 for the Midnight Launch stores)

Best Buy is expecting 43,000 Xbox 360’s company wide which works out to about 60 per a store with the midnight opening stores getting an extra 100 each.

According to leaked documents, the company is expecting to do about $16 million in hardware sales (that’s with a planned sell-out), $5.1 million in game sales (that’s 86,000 games), $5 million in accessory sales (again about 86,000 units) and $2.5 million in their scamish product replacement plans (or about 21,500). That works out to about $29 million in total 360-related sales on one day. Not bad.

Wow, only two games per a 360, that seems kinda low.

The company’s goal is for every customer walking out of the store with an Xbox 360 in their basket to have another $300 in stuff in there with it.

Before Xbox 360, the average video games hardware basket was about $65. Attaching $100 to an Xbox or PlayStation 2 was (and still is) considered a solid performance. With the nearly limitless attachment opportunities, Xbox 360 will rewrite the rules of what good looks like. For an Xbox 360 sale, it’s realistic to shoot for $300 in attachments of software, accessories, Xbox Live and Product Replacement Plans.
So don’t expect to get out of your local Best Buy without a phalanx of sales people attacking you. The store is hoping to push their Reward Zone members to spend $600, something that they say will be easy to do.

[Jimmy the Fish]

Any word on what the core vs. premium SKU breakdown is for the 60 units per Best Buy store?