Unhappy Xbox Holiday for Some

Posted on November 11, 2005

Game/Life, a new blog from Wired, discusses a recent post on Kotaku that obtained this list of Xbox 360 launch numbers.

The final shipment of the US Consoles on the 22nd is 1,098,200.
Microsoft plans on selling 4 million 360's within the next 5 months worldwide.
There are currently 2,190,876 accesories being shipped on the 22nd to the US
There are currently 29 Games that will be available BEFORE the end of the 2005
There are current plans for sequels to NEW franchises that arent even out on the 360 yet.
Microsoft plan on expanding there Xbox Live user base to 14 million users by the end of the 360 lifespan.

Game/Life says that if the above numbers are accurate it could mean we are in for an Xbox 360 accessory shortage.

What's really intriguing about this (other than we now have a numerical value for how many people are going to be riding the short bus home from Best Buy) is the number of accessories. How many accessories do YOU want for your 360? At minimum I'm buying an extra controller, a Charge and Play pack, and two rechargeable batteries. That's four.
What's two million divided by one million? Two. Is four more than two? Yes.

An accessory shortage would be bad but it looks like the console shortage could be even worse. An IGN article said some stores informed them that the Xbox 360 won't be available until April.

The rumors, apparently, are true. According to retailers in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Miami and Houston, there will be mass shortage of Xbox 360 units on the targeted launch date of November 22. IGN contacted dozens of stores around the country, including Gamestop, EB Games, Electronics Boutique, Target and Walmart. One short-tempered clerk at a Gamestop in New York estimated that Xbox 360 units will not be available for walk-in customers until April. That's right, April.
April is obviously the worst-case scenario, but every retailer we spoke with that accepted preorders estimated that walk-in customers will have to wait until January for their new system. And since none of those retailers are accepting any more preorders, there may be a lot of disappointed little gamers this Christmas.

There are going be some perturbed gamers this holiday season.

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