According to one GAME store manager contacted by CVG, the retailer delivered the news to staff at is behind-closed-doors national conference last week.
CVG has spoken to five GAME stores across the UK this afternoon - which all gave us the same message.

Every one reiterated that the only way we'll be able to pick up Kinect is if we've booked a pre-order - and that they're running out fast.
"Microsoft hasn't sent us enough us Kinect units to fulfil all pre-orders and there still won't be enough for launch day," one sales rep told us. "The message has gone round to all GAME stores."

Another told us it was "guaranteed" that there would be no stock on launch day. One even forecast that we'd have to wait until after Christmas to buy one - something "categorically denied" by GAME HQ.

A GAME spokesperson told CVG: "We are not aware of any potential stock shortages with Kinect and are working with Microsoft to meet expected demand.

"We do anticipate Kinect to be incredibly popular and it absolutely has the potential to sell out on release day. As a result, customers who want to get their hands on Kinect at launch really need to pre-order to guarantee that they get it."
Sales reps at entertainment giant HMV said they had received no such message from their HQ - and that they expected Kinect to be in stock in November.

The news points to heavy demand for Microsoft's new piece of kit - and a possible emulation of the UK Wii launch in 2006.

The Nintendo console was out of stock at retailers throughout the Christmas period - which only served to push demand higher as word-of-mouth spread.

GAME and Microsoft will no doubt be hoping that a similar consumer fear of losing out drives sales of Kinect.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=267040

Is this a case of extremely high demand? Is MS supplying less to give the appearance of super high demand? Are they pulling a Nintendo/SONY?

What do you think?

My friend who works at game told me something similar. Apparently if you don't pre order you just won't get one.

Probably a little bit of undershipping to give the illusion of demand

wow Kinect is gonna be huge!

And Euphoria I dunno about purposefully sending in less supply cus there was an article that said Kinect pre-orders in UK were around like 250K - 500K or something a month back.

damn, if this is true, I would imagine Kinect is gonna be a huge success.....I just cant see it happening thou

Most companies want to make as much cash as possible during the holidays, so I would seriously doubt they would do something like this on purpose.

The article you are referring to said that it could reach UP TO 500k by launch.

Wow, I see you in every Kinect thread. Always great things to say about the Kinect and 360.

Nintendo couldn't meet the demand of Wii consoles at launch. With that said, MS expects to sell even more Kinect units. So shortages could be a potential issue.

Also remember guys, just like I was told in the PSMove thread, this could be just GAME telling people this so that they would go there and preorder it. Remember that these are the only guys claiming all this stuff.

This is also the same chain that is closing 85 stores in the UK within the next couple of years.

This could be a ploy to increase preorders for the Kinect and get people to go into their stores.

Never underestimate the casual market. If Kinect taps into just 25%-30% of potential Wii owners this holiday and persuades them to get Kinect instead then it will easily sell out. The other thing which people forget is that in UK to pre-order Kinect you have to put a deposit down. So it won't be like with other products where people click cancel on the pre-order a few days before as they will lose their money.