We have all seen January's NPD, and have seen sales from America the past few weeks, and the PS3 has been selling more than the XBOX 360... but why?  If we are to believe Microsoft, the 360 is having problems with supply, a la the Nintendo Wii, but why would shortages be happening now, two years after launch?  It's not like it doubled sales from the previous year or anything, so where are all of the XBOX 360s at?

The answer?  The "Ultimate" XBOX 360.  The internet was all abuzz a few weeks before CES about Microsoft coming out with an Ultimate XBOX 360 with a built in HD-DVD drive, and Wireless.  But before CES started, Warner Bros. put their weight behind Blu-Ray, effectively ending the "HD Format Wars". 

What I think is that Microsoft may have been phaasing out the Elite and Pro SKUs and adopted a two SKU strategy, a la Sony, and have only the Arcade and the "Ultimate".  I also believe that the "Ultimate"  SKU would have been priced competitively at $400 to go directly against the 40 GB PS3.  And now that HD-DVD has lost the format wars, they have to now go back to producing Pro and Elite XBOX 360s.  This would also explain why Arcades are always in supply whenever you go to your local store, and the Pro and Elites are hard to find.

What do you think?

You're late to the party....


http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=18848

Or maybe this is one of those attempts to be as cool as Rol....like a certain JL thread

Not really late to the party, he says that they're relaunching with a new SKU, I'm saying that they were going to, but aren't, and are reporducing Pro and Elites. That would also explain them being discontinued on Amazon.

 Oh..so this is a real post this time?  I have to take it seriously...hmmmm.   Not going to happen.

 Thatdoes sound plausible, because we know there's a LOT of defective consoles.

 If it's not that, then it's just a matter of PR, to make the PS3 beating it out on 360s home turf not look so impressive.....remember, the whole "supply constraint" didn't pop up until the NPD released the January numbers......

It all boils down to one thing....desperation.

 I think that pretty much sums up this entire generation.  Even Nintendo was desperate this generation and that is why they opted for the Blue-Ocean strategy.  Sony wasn't desperate until E306.....and Microsoft knew they had to make a machine that was profitable...of course that resulted in them getting oout of the gate the quickest, with minimal product testing/reliability standards.

Actually, MS is full of crap. Where I live they have had Elites and Pro Systems in stock for the last few months. Shortage my behind. MS is making up excuses. MS is pulling a Sony here by trying to put a positive spin on bad news.