I read at the Neogaf forum that the 360 shortage was caused because of a chinese manufacture abondend Microsoft as a partner in 360 production.

@ MikeB

That makes no sense for a very simple reason. Everything available in the three main regions in terms of Xbox 360 stock would have been largely pre-determined around the end of Christmas, perhaps even earlier. At this point, consoles would be configured according to their PAL, NA or Jap allocations and packaged and perhaps even shipped. At this point, it becomes practically impossible (and definately financially stupid) to try and reallocate products that have already been allocated to other markets.

In this case I believe Microsoft have either a new bundle or a new SKU coming soon. However it is perfectly reasonable to think that they simply underestimated demand for the US market, and must now produce more consoles as quickly as they can, or quickly configure and allocate some already-produced generic product. They are not going to ship consoles out of the EU towards the USA.

MikeB said: With the resources of a company like Microsoft I am a little sceptical about non-intentional shortages. AFAIK, the other 360 models overall eclipsed the sales of elite models anyhow. I am also sceptical of a HD DVD equiped Elite rumour as well. All HD DVD drives released so far have been half the speed of the PS3's Blu-Ray drive and a HD DVD drive within the 360 would mean the HD DVD drive must be able to speed up considerably to achieve 12 speed DVD reading speed to not result in long loading times for non-HD DVD stored games, this because the data density is much lower on a DVD than a HD DVD and especially compared to a Blu-Ray disc. One disc rotation equals for less data being read on a DVD disc. For Europe the 360 seems to be overstocked, at least the pallets at local stores shrink much slower than the PS3 pallets. Also Microsoft doesn't have to allocate many units for Japan. This all makes me sceptical of their excuses.

Their resources don't come into it as they are focused on their main business.

Compared to Sony and others like Samsung MS is really a very small electronics manufacturer and I suspect have minimal influence no matter how much money they could theoretically throw at the problem.  They can't ramp up any quicker than Nintendo say when they had shortages, and in fact are very likely to ramp up slower for the aforementioned reason.

Manufacturing is based on forecasts which are used to drive factories, ordering of parts, etc.  You get the demand wrong and you pay for it as it takes a while to recover.  If you run out of manufacturing then it really takes a while to respond.

Retailers will each forecast for themselves based on consumer sales which drives their ordering, while MS will forecast what it believes retailers will order based on their order history (probably, this is normally how it works). 

The more I look at it the more I think they may just have overcommited to Arcades and stuffed retailers full or Arcades which aren't shipping fast enough, while missing on the other models and getting caught short - I notice from online search that Arcades seem to be readily available while the others are limited.

 

 

@ Starcraft

Excactly they knew beforehand they wouldn't need to ship many units for Japan, they also know they aren't doing well in Europe. The main focuss for them should have been on the US and to lesser extend Australia and the UK (countries also relatively unconcerned by their lagging European localization efforts).



Then they haven't been listening enough to tracking and analysis firms or looked at their past track record with regard to the XBox. The bulk of XBox users who still haven't upgraded towards a 360 reside in North America.

They could easily have known the US is where they can expect to sell the most hardware. But still online US stores have and had plenty of 360s in stock in January and now, so I think most people who really wanted a 360 could have gotten one either way.

@ Reasonable

The main technical component differences between the different 360 models is the inclusion or exclusion of 120 GB harddrives and HDMI 1.2 output. Seemingly nothing that can't be overcome.

I really don't think the higher end models are more popular than the lower end models as there's quite a big price difference between them for so few distinguishing factors. The Elite has been shipped in very little quantities before (if not constantly), IMO this to artificially provide the perception of overwhelming demand for PR purposes.

SpartanFX said: first let me say that I do not intend to bash 360 in anyway,, a healthy competition between consoles is always good for us gamers.   Here we have microsoft claiming that they had shortage problems with one SKU and I do believe it is true ,,but the thing is so does 80GB PS3,,,That Sku is really hard to find anywhere(I had to call up 10 stores to find one),,, they are all sold out ,,,also the 80GB sells more than the 40 GB ,but we don't hear sony saying that we had shortages on one of our more popular SKUs. here is the article that shows 80GB was outselling 40 GB http://www.thesimexchange.com/news-item.php?id=17730   So why is that?why does microsoft think they have shortage problem but Sony doesn't?

Because Sony has already gotten rid of the 80 gig in two of 3 markets. Are we sure sony is even making any more of them? Or are they just running through all their stock in America before discontinueing it all together.

They don't want to announce they have a shortage of a product they want to get rid of.

I think microsoft tried to virtually cut price by making the arcade/core version more popular but people refused to buy this version

MikeB said: @ Reasonable The main technical component differences between the different 360 models is the inclusion or exclusion of 120 GB harddrives and HDMI 1.2 output. Seemingly nothing that can't be overcome. I really don't think the higher end models are more popular than the lower end models as there's quite a big price difference between them for so few distinguishing factors. The Elite has been shipped in very little quantities before (if not constantly), IMO this to artificially provide the perception of overwhelming demand for PR purposes.

MikeB you are always around here complaining that the 360 doesn't have a harddrive standard due to the low-end model and that noone wants a 'gimped' SKU! Now all of a sudden there is no difference in console popularity?

For a number of weeks peopel on these boards had been hearing from all over the place that premiums and elites are low on stock. FACT.

A representative of Microsoft LATER came out and confirmed that the Xbox 360 in general was hard to come by. FACT.  There is therefore zero reasons to doubt this. 

Sony is phasing out the 80 gig...Only one left that can play PS2 games... Makes sense

but the thing is that the premium probably has like 80% of sales while the 80 gb has lik 60%