I've been looking to buy an Xbox for the past 3 weeks now, for what was supposed to be a Xmas present. None of the High Street retailers have had them in stock for weeks and they do not know precisely when they will have Xbox's in stock on the shelves. Its just the same online, all out of stock. Apparently GAME UK has a back log of orders from prior to Xmas and other retailers are just telling potential customers to phone on a daily basis. God knows how many potential customers MS lost this holiday season but it would have been substantial even Sony's famous short supplies don't come anywhere near this. This is a big cock up on MS Europe part especially with XB2 in the distance.
Still no sign of Xbox in the UK
- Thread starter Pug
- Start date
Sony's difficulty apparently wasn't Microsoft's opportunity. They could have sold a lot of Xboxes this Xmas if they were there on the shelves, but obviously someone wasn't paying attention. Perhaps they had already maxxed out their manufacturing allocation for the year or something, I don't know. Still, a missed opportunity, probably.
gofreak, Even Sony managed to get the new Slimline PS2 back on the shelve before Xmas. Its a pretty poor effort on MS part that they can't get the Xbox back in stock 2 weeks after Xmas. Worse than that the shops have little idea when they are going to get any. To be honest I reckon its due to the change from the Crystal Xbox back to the black machine. They probably prodcued X amount of crystal machine for the Xmas period based on some Market research and managed to sell the lot much faster than anticiapated, leaving them with no stock. All I know is when the machine are eventually available they will be the black models.
It wasn´t all MS fault for the lack of Xbox-units. The problem began with the lack of PS2s, people bought Xbox instead and thus created a greater demand for it and the supplies didnt quite match the increased demand.
Still, MS should have up:ed the production and shipment when they saw the problem. It´s all about logistics....
Still, MS should have up:ed the production and shipment when they saw the problem. It´s all about logistics....
sonycowboy
Member
EndR said:
Well,
That's a direct result of contracting out manufaturing through FlexTronics vs in-house as Sony does. Flextronics has scheduled out manfacturing for months and it's very hard to ask them to double output as they already have clients in the queue who have requirements for the holidays as well.
That's supposed to help Sony not have the problems they've had. I still haven't heard a decent explanation as to how in the hell they could have a six month shortage. The switch over on the product lines must have been much more problematic than anticipated.
MrPing1000
Member
I want to know hardware numbers for the uk for the past few months. I wonder if the ps2 and xbox shortage helped nintendo at all
I also think a factory in Europe was more expensive, but it would have been better situated to react to this problem. Was that MS's or FlexTronics' decision? The Suez Canal is crushing MS and Sony. Probably be crushing Nintendo too if they had the same crazy demand.sonycowboy said:
The tsunami disaster has really gummed up Indian ocean shipping for the next quarter too.
radioheadrule83
Banned
Absolutely no problem getting an Xbox in Liverpool. I've seen people buying em daily. In fact, I don't remember them being out of stock ever here.
Slim PS2s seem to be ebbing back into stock now too.
Slim PS2s seem to be ebbing back into stock now too.