Microsoft built 5 million 500GB xbox ones that had Kinect bundled with them. Somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million of those had NOT sold by the end of this past June. Most of them from parts of the world outside north america. I'm convinced that even the Assassins creed bundles(that have kinect in the box) may well be European consoles that got shipped to a factory in mexico and repackaged /region coded for north american sale.
The kinect free xbox one will have an additional 5 -7 million consoles manufactured through to the end of december. This includes 500GB barebones skus , 500 GB sunset overdrive bundles, 500 GB assassins creed bundles (without kinect) and finally the 1TB call of duty bundle.
This is why they made a temporary price drop too. They would really like to sell as many of the 10-12 million LTD they've produced as possible. It's a loss on their profits this quarter sure but if they don't get those systems into homes , especially to make north america a little bit more even between them and sony they'll be scrambling for the next 4 years.
So, the short version - their press release is indicating that they've shipped almost 10 million xbox ones to retail worldwide. This actually works out quite well with my above guess - MS initially ordered 5 million systems, anticipating they'd sell out by the end of march, perhaps sometime in January they were likely able to option another 5 million systems by the end of september. Instead they halted production or at least slowed it down substantially. Then, they went to work producing a kinect free version. I'm going to take a wild guess and say the bare bones xbox one 500 GB had 5 million units ordered. Between the later launches in the territories outside the initial 10 , MS was likely hoping for worldwide sales to pick up a bit. When they did not, they switched gears to focus on saving the console in north america , it started with the free game promotion in September and now it's continuing with the 17% price drop through the holidays combined with 3 new software bundles. Were I a betting man, I'd bet 500K asscreed bundles shipped worldwide, 500K sunset overdrive bundles shipped worldwide and 1 million call of duty bundles. They weren't all sent out at once obviously. I'd say 25% of their shipments day 1, 25% for november, 25% for black friday and the final 25% for december.
So when it's all said and done - 12 million units in the retail channel. Betting further, I'd wager MS would love to sell all of them but probably have an internal target of 9 million at minimum and 10 million preferable. You'll know if they fail to hit that target by how soon they release a post christmas bundle pack.
There WILL be a post christmas bundle too. Even the temporary price drop ? a fleeting concern. They may well put things back to normal for January just to make people think they got a good deal. But Somewhere in february or march you'll get a Halo MCC bundle pack and it will come in a 1TB flavor for the same 499.99 as the COD bundle. Who knows, maybe by the time march rolls around we may even see MCC DLC in the form of Halo Reach full HD edition , included for free in every bundle but 9.99 to everyone else.
I could see the return of the 349.99 xbox one as the new price for the barebones console.... which they'll stop manufacturing by the end of this year to make it less common next year. Instead for 399.99 they'll have a 500 GB evolve bundle and so and so forth for every fiscal quarter next year you'll see 1-2 bundle deals. As well as adding some of the XB1 launch library to games for gold. Forza 5, dead rising 3, ryse are all fair game I think.
-----
Full disclosure- I hope MS does do well this holiday because this industry needs competition. I bought an XB1 this past monday after having owned a PS4 for 6 months and a wii U since launch. I'm an adult and I can spend my money poorly if I wish
.
