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[PhatSaqs]

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/44875/windowspaulthurrott_44875.html

No wonder XBs are going for 200-300 on Ebay :lol

I wonder if MS is slowing down production in preps for Xenon?

You may have heard erroneous reports of Apple's iPod being sold out this holiday season, but one of Microsoft's products has actually made that rarified lists of gotta-have-it products that are suddenly and inexplicably unavailable for purchase. Like the wildly popular Nintendo DS handheld game system, the $150 Microsoft Xbox video game console is going-going-gone. So gone, in fact, that potential customers can't even order a unit for post-Christmas delivery at major electronics e-tailers.

The timing of the Xbox's mysterious disappearance is both puzzling and unexpected. Stacked boxes of rival Nintendo GameCube, a cheaper buy at $99, crowd the aisles at stores like Best Buy. The Xbox's chief competition, the Sony PlayStation 2 (also $150) is almost as hard to find as the Xbox, but consider the chief reason: Sony recently revised its PlayStation 2 as a much smaller player with built-in Ethernet, jumpstarting sales. But unlike the Xbox, it's still possible to order the new PlayStation 2 at many e-tailers, despite the fact that it's also sold out at most brick and mortar stores. Why is the Xbox suddenly so unavailable?

One reason might be that Microsoft prepped the retail channel with a special Xbox holiday 2004 bundle that included two free games, EA NCAA Football 2005 and Top Spin, for the same price that the company normally sells just a bare console. But wouldn't the company keep a number of bare consoles in the channel for when the holiday bundles sold out? Some I spoke with at retail stores this week speculated that Microsoft might be prepping a smaller new Xbox, similar to the recent PlayStation 2 revision, for January. But I've heard nothing about such an update, and Microsoft never responded to my questions about the Xbox shortage yesterday.

Meanwhile, those seeking an Xbox this holiday season are out of luck unless they bought early. What are readily available, however, are game titles and accessories. So if you're the procrastinating type and don't mind the crowds, you're in luck: Aside from some Halo 2 shortages, you should have little trouble finding your favorite Xbox users something special.

 

[human5892]

Color me surprised -- in my area I see plenty of them. DS, too.

PS2 is definitely hard to come by, though.

 

[worldrunover]

Oh.... darn?

 

[Azih]

:lol every mainstream article on videogaming has to include some sort of backhanded Gamecube insult this holiday season.

Gamecube: The Rodney Dangerfield console of this generation

 

[jedimike]

I did a lot of Christmas shopping last weekend and nearly every store I went to had PS2's, GC's, and Xbox in stock. Costco had plenty of all 3. Maybe I live in some kind of surplus fantasy land. I just have a hard time believing all of these shortage PR's.

 

[sonycowboy]

meh. My local stores have stacks and stack of them wherever I go...








:lol :lol :lol

Sound familiar?

 

[Odnetnin]

:lol every mainstream article on videogaming has to include some sort of backhanded Gamecube insult this holiday season.

Gamecube: The Rodney Dangerfield console of this generation

I didn't see that comment as an insult. Why is it an insult? There is stock. They reported as much. ?

 

[mosaic]

This girl called me up, said "come on over, no one's home." I went on over--no one was home.

 

[Azih]

I didn't see that comment as an insult. Why is it an insult? There is stock. They reported as much. ?

Stacked boxes of rival Nintendo GameCube, a cheaper buy at $99, crowd the aisles at stores like Best Buy

C'mon, I guess this *could* be an unintenional jab but the wording convinces me that it's a malicious one.

 

[NotMSRP]

Another damn sports bundle? WTH?
Gotta keep on waiting then.

 

[The Faceless Master]

This girl called me up, said "come on over, no one's home." I went on over--no one was home.

:lol :lol :lol

 

[mashoutposse]

The eBay barometer suggests that this article is accurate. XBOX has come a very long way in three years.

 

[kwes10]

I've seen barebones Gamecubes but the MarioKart holiday bundle is nowhere to be found. As for Xbox, DS & the redesigned PS2, those are also a hard find.

 

[Odysseus]

"My lady ran off with my best friend. Yeah, now I've got no dog." -GameCube

 

[atomsk]

i had some woman tell me she heard they were stuck on a boat somewhere, waiting passage through some canal, and thats why there werent any in north america...

i had to explain to her where the Suez Canal was, and that it was PS2's on that tanker

all i know is MS hasnt sent us any xbox's since black friday. and people are pissed.

 

[Gantz]

Maybe Microsoft is trying to copy Sony's shortage marketing schemes..

 

[sonycowboy]

i had some woman tell me she heard they were stuck on a boat somewhere, waiting passage through some canal, and thats why there werent any in north america...

i had to explain to her where the Suez Canal was, and that it was PS2's on that tanker

all i know is MS hasnt sent us any xbox's since black friday. and people are pissed.

Didn't Microsoft shut down production in Mexico in favor of going exclusively w/ China for costs?

 

[Prine]

We havent had any new Xbox's for 4 weeks now

 

[Karg]

The EB (NorthEast FL) I work at we've had DS, PS2, and Xbox shortages. Still selling the Mario Kart Cube bundles as well. The other systems just trickle in, we don't even know when we're going to get them. Last shipment of Xboxs we got were the normal package and not the holiday bundle we've had for a few months. Oh well.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

In MI almost everything is sold out. PSTwo's for awhile, Xbox's for awhile and even GC's are finally becoming scarcer new. I think the big two have been sold out for so long that people are finally saying screw it and buying the Cube as well.

 

[DarienA]

Any east coasters MD, VA, DC seen any recently? We'd like to get my soon to be stepfather one for Xmas, but no local stores in my area have them in stock. PS2's are LONG gone in this area... hey you can still get a Cube though....

 

[3phemeral]

"My lady ran off with my best friend. Yeah, now I've got no dog." -GameCube

This girl called me up, said "come on over, no one's home." I went on over--no one was home.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

 

[PhatSaqs]

Any east coasters MD, VA, DC seen any recently? We'd like to get my soon to be stepfather one for Xmas, but no local stores in my area have them in stock. PS2's are LONG gone in this area... hey you can still get a Cube though....

I saw some in Marlow Heights CC about a week ago. A week is a long time tho.

 

[Sysgen]

I've heard this smaller Xbox talk at my local video store. The store manager was telling people that there will be a smaller Xbox after the holiday. I'm not sure how they can get it smaller :/

 

[jedimike]

I've heard this smaller Xbox talk at my local video store. The store manager was telling people that there will be a smaller Xbox after the holiday. I'm not sure how they can get it smaller :/

It's pretty easy... just move the power supply out of the unit like the GC and PStwo.

 

[StorablePrawn]

Halo 2 shortages? Good lord, the store I work at has literally about 50-60 copies of overstock. They're all the special edition, too... why can't people just shell out the extra five bucks so I don't have to look at those damned things anymore?

 

[tedtropy]

I've heard this smaller Xbox talk at my local video store. The store manager was telling people that there will be a smaller Xbox after the holiday. I'm not sure how they can get it smaller :/

It wouldn't take much from a technology standpoint to make the XBox smaller. Replace the enormous PC-size DVD drive with a slimline one, replace the 3.5 inch HD with a laptop-sized one, move the power supply to an external power brick (and I use that word intentionally in the XBox's case), and there's probably a few other spots that could be condensed. Problem is those changes would jack the price up quite abit.

 

[pj]

It wouldn't take much from a technology standpoint to make the XBox smaller. Replace the enormous PC-size DVD drive with a slimline one, replace the 3.5 inch HD with a laptop-sized one, move the power supply to an external power brick (and I use that word intentionally in the XBox's case), and there's probably a few other spots that could be condensed. Problem is those changes would jack the price up quite abit.

They wouldn't even have to do that. There are modders who have fit 3 extra harddrives AND the original internals, inside a stock case..

 

[DarienA]

They wouldn't even have to do that. There are modders who have fit 3 extra harddrives AND the original internals, inside a stock case..

A stock case what size? Links? pictures?

 

[Sysgen]

It wouldn't take much from a technology standpoint to make the XBox smaller. Replace the enormous PC-size DVD drive with a slimline one, replace the 3.5 inch HD with a laptop-sized one, move the power supply to an external power brick (and I use that word intentionally in the XBox's case), and there's probably a few other spots that could be condensed. Problem is those changes would jack the price up quite abit.

I know that they can make it he size of a laptop but the price issue was implied in my post when I said I didnlt know how they could do it. Why bother though (except for making it cheaper to fabricate)? Do they want people buying Xbox's past 2005?

 

[Justin Bailey]

"My wife wants sex in the backseat of the car. She wants me to drive." -Iwata

 

[monkeyrun]

This girl called me up, said "come on over, no one's home." I went on over--no one was home.

this one's the best :lol

 

[pj]

A stock case what size? Links? pictures?

An xbox sized case..

There's a huge thread about it somewhere on xbox-scene, I'll edit this post if I can find it.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

There's a huge stack of Mario Kart GC bundles right front of you when you walk into my Best Buy.

 

[sonycowboy]

I just can't see Microsoft bothering with a redesign for the Xbox. Xenon comes out next year and all we've heard is that Xbox development is essentially dead.

However, if there is a redesign, that should be very good news for Xbox owners as that signals a continued dedication to the platform for at least another couple of years.

 

[1st Born]

I got my nephew the XBox bundel that includes an XBox, extra controller, GameShark Lite, KOTOR, NCAA 2005 (hope this copy doesn;t have slowdown like the last copy of NCAA 2005 I played), and Top Spin, plus a memory card all for $199. Not bad at all.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Stores like EB and Gamestop don't have any, but when I went to Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target they have had X-Boxes. Most of them were the Top Spin/NCAA bundle.

The weird thing I saw was that Gamestop had 3 used DS systems already.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

What could have become yet another Gamecube doom-and-gloom thread has become something much more special.

- "One time I went to a hotel. I asked the bellhop to handle my bag. He felt up my wife!"

 

[shpankey]

I just can't see Microsoft bothering with a redesign for the Xbox. Xenon comes out next year and all we've heard is that Xbox development is essentially dead.

However, if there is a redesign, that should be very good news for Xbox owners as that signals a continued dedication to the platform for at least another couple of years.

why would they have to stop support on Xbox if they redesigned it? it could still be a cash cow for them while they endure the costs of launching the xenon. also, it might hlep them a little more in japan as i've heard it listed as the #1 reason they hate it over there. this could be like how sony had the psone even while they had ps2. they are tapping 2 different market segments at the same time, the low budget and the hardcore. i'm sure of course 95% of their software support will be for xenon and they would leave the small xbox for 3rd party to support.

 

[sonycowboy]

why would they have to stop support on Xbox if they redesigned it? it could still be a cash cow for them while they endure the costs of launching the xenon. also, it might hlep them a little more in japan as i've heard it listed as the #1 reason they hate it over there. this could be like how sony had the psone even while they had ps2. they are tapping 2 different market segments at the same time, the low budget and the hardcore. i'm sure of course 95% of their software support will be for xenon and they would leave the small xbox for 3rd party to support.

I think you read my post wrong.

Redesign = Continued Support
Development Halted ~= No Redesign (read as: probably means)

 

[Firest0rm]

You know, these shortages might just save Nintendo's ass this year :S. How sad, they can't provide compelling software to sell their console. Instead they rely on their competitors helping them sell their console.

 

[Shig]

"When I was a kid I got no respect. The time I was kidnapped, and the kidnappers sent my parents a note they said, "We want five thousand dollars or you'll see your kid again."" -Miyamoto

 

[Mr_Furious]

All those people stupid enough to have purchased an overpriced Xbox on eBay are going to have a harsh awakening when the support for their "new" machine all but shrivels up just six months later.

 

[jedimike]

Couldn't a redesign save them money? The motherboard is quite small, they wouldn't even have to touch that. They could save manufacturing costs by reducing the amount of plastic. A laptop hard drive would not cost anymore than a 3.5" drive. I looked on newegg and the cheapest notebook drive was a 20GB for $63 versus a 20GB 3.5" for $59. MS could easily strike a deal to get notebook hard drives for the same wholesale price they are paying for 3.5" drives. I assume the same deal could be arranged for a slim DVD drive. They could slap a more efficient cooling system in it and it would be ready to go. Might only save them $10-15, but if they hit the break even point there is no reason for discontinuing production.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I would buy a $100 redesigned XBox. I'd finally be able to play the 5 or 6 games I own for it that I bought the last time Circuit City had a blow-out sale :lol

 

[Alex Anderson]

Any east coasters MD, VA, DC seen any recently? We'd like to get my soon to be stepfather one for Xmas, but no local stores in my area have them in stock. PS2's are LONG gone in this area... hey you can still get a Cube though....

I don't know how much help this will be, but the Blockbuster in Mechanicsville, VA had one sitting in the back when I was getting interviewed. It wasn't a bundle, though.

 

[jedimike]

All those people stupid enough to have purchased an overpriced Xbox on eBay are going to have a harsh awakening when the support for their "new" machine all but shrivels up just six months later.

You and xsarien.... why do you even bring this up? The Xbox has been out for 3 years. Even if you pay $250 for it on Ebay, it still comes with 2 free games and a library of over 500 games. Of those 500, most of the best games can be bought for less than $20. If you are buying a console now, you're buying it for the games it has. Not the games it will have.

 

[sonycowboy]

Couldn't a redesign save them money? The motherboard is quite small, they wouldn't even have to touch that. They could save manufacturing costs by reducing the amount of plastic. A laptop hard drive would not cost anymore than a 3.5" drive. I looked on newegg and the cheapest notebook drive was a 20GB for $63 versus a 20GB 3.5" for $59. MS could easily strike a deal to get notebook hard drives for the same wholesale price they are paying for 3.5" drives. I assume the same deal could be arranged for a slim DVD drive. They could slap a more efficient cooling system in it and it would be ready to go. Might only save them $10-15, but if they hit the break even point there is no reason for discontinuing production.

There is a general principle of redesigning any product that you absorb a pretty substantial upfront transition cost. It's why the Ford Crown Victoria is Ford's most profitable product. They haven't redesigned it in 25 years or so. For a redesign to work, you have to be committed to continuing the product line for quite a while such that the initial costs are outweighted by the cost savings on parts.

 

[Mr_Furious]

You and xsarien.... why do you even bring this up? The Xbox has been out for 3 years. Even if you pay $250 for it on Ebay, it still comes with 2 free games and a library of over 500 games. Of those 500, most of the best games can be bought for less than $20. If you are buying a console now, you're buying it for the games it has. Not the games it will have.

Because it has long been established that the average successful console lifespan is at least 5 years in this industry. 3 years may seem like a long time to the hardcore early adopters but the average consumer usually waits a while for a multitude of reasons. The Xbox has had it's most successful year EVER yet MS is going to quickly abort their current platform, prematurely bringing to the market it's successor. Basically the Xbox's lifespan has been cut short by 1 and a half years just so MS can start making a profit on their hardware. What's stupid about this whole scenario is that it was a viable option to redesign the current Xbox to be profitable without cutting features. BTW, people buy systems they feel confident will be around for a while and have adequate support so it's not just the existing library but also the console's future library as well. You may be fine with a next-gen console releasing annually but I sure as hell do not. I hope MS shoots themselves in the foot with the Xbox2. Here's something to think about: what if Xbox2 doesn't end up successful in MS's eyes and they want to end production in 3 years for yet another next-gen system? The market will not sustain on people spending 300+ dollars every 3-4 years for home hardware "upgrades" just because companies aren't smart enough to be profitable with their proposed hardware.

 

[Justin Bailey]

I'll prolly get an xbox and one of those controller adapter thingies just for emulation when it gets a little cheaper.