Hey,

I just noticed that the current sold Xbox 360s on VGC is the exact number MS reported to have shipped end of last year. This means back then MS had enough consoles in stores for more than a quarter or 112 days or 30.7 % of the year.

According to VGC they have shipped enough consoles for the next 110 days already.

But there is always the "wait for next quarter" logic.

This is really getting on your tits, isnt it?

Dude... again???

The miniscule 1.4 million shipment of Xbox 360 in Q1 of 2012 proves VGC numbers are right. MS overstuffed the retail last year.

MS didn't over stuff retail channels. Retailer's did that, not MS. Most likely retailers and distributors banked on the 360 and kinect selling like it did when it launched way back in 2010. MS was only too happy to oblige to their orders.

This. Companies can't simply force retailers to take in and pay for a shit load of consoles because they shipped them. A retialer has to order something before they recieve it.

Incentives perhaps. Maybe MS asked retail to stuff an extra million X360s and gave them some discounts in return, all so that he could become the number one selling console worldwide in 2011

Agree. MS did again a huge marketing campaign from BF to Xmas, the potential for even larger sales was there, retailers preferred selling the surplus after Xmas than risking missed sales during their most profitable season. Add to the marketing also the fact that the chances that the huge BF created momentum for the successive Xmas or that it subtractred sales from it by just anticipating some Xmas sales were roughly 50-50 or just unpredictable. But a missed sale for Xmas is almost never recovered after (you can delay a Xmas gift to some people, but the vast majority of Xmas gifts are given at Xmas, in some places even earlier, on St. Lucy's Day), it's just given to competitor retailers, a risk they just couldn't take.

Edit: obviously I agree also with Slimebeast about possible incentives by MS, it would just be coherent with the marketing campaign.

true, MS could have offered volume discounts and whatnots but at the end of the day, its still the retailer's and distributor's call on how much to stock.  plus the massive BF sales must have convinced them that the christmas sale would be even bigger.  Its still not MS who did the stuffing.

there are actually some instances wherein companies can force retailers to buy a shit load of stuff and way more than what they need. this usually can happen when the company owns the the leading product and has an overwhelming control of the market plus the product is greatly greatly in demand.

I've seen this happen once when I use to work at retail. good thing that i wasn't the purchaser in charge of that product lol!