Rant on the sucketh with me.

[thefemnazi]

Alright, I'm not even into XBox, and anyone who knows me knows I can't afford one even if I want one.  But this whole shortage of systems is the major suck.  I worked a midnight release party tonight, and a kid left crying because he couldn't get one, even though he had reserved it back in August.  Let us all take a moment to send hate-rays towards Redmond.

[Xepher]

Let us all take a moment to send hate-rays towards Redmond.

A "moment?" Frack! I'm a computer tech... I spend the better part of each day in vitrollic loathing for the evil up there in Washington. (Oh, and the other evil in the other Washington too.)

[Databits]

You'de think that when they are going to put things like the 360 into production, they would make more than initially "reserved."

I mean, when's the last time that new game system from a popular company came out and didn't completely sell out in every store within 1-2 days? It happens all the time. If they are expecting the incredible demand for them, why not meet the supply head on? It's not like they'd be losing any money on it. Rather they'd just pretty much be getting it up front instead of over longer spans of time.

[Xepher]

You guys do realize they constructed the whole "shortage" thing. They even went as far as having some vendors sign contracts promising they'd sell out on opening day. For the major vendors (like wal-mart and such) they prepared signs saying "SOLD OUT" and gave the various stores explicit instructions to display them prominantly as soon as they ran out of stock. They also held a large number of units in reserve, specifically to cause the shortage, and to guarantee lots of articles about "360 sells out in 6 hours!"

[Gwyn]

Our walmart has 1 or 2 core systems left :p

Yeah I was pretty sure they came up with the shortage thing on purpose. But, my GOD it's JUST a console system, people are acting like it's a mass world wide water shortage or something.

[Databits]

Warning! Opinion Biased Post Ahead!

I realize that it's nothing more than a marketing strategy to make their system seem even more popular than it is.

I view it as a form of false advertisement, a scam. I mean... Yeah, no shit, a store will sell out when you stock them with about 5 total systems (not including the ones that are already reserved by people) during the most busy shopping time of the year. It has nothing to do with "Look how popular it is!" as it does "Let's make it look like it's more popular than it really is so people want it more."

What's more annoying is when they don't send enough systems to the store to compensate for all the people who actually put it on reserve. If 35 people put the system on reserve, they damn well better send, at the very least, those 35 systems to that store.

Why is it that people can't trust their own product to produce those results anymore? Instead of devising some intricate scam to drive it up by skewing the initial outcome. I mean, I'm dead sure that if they stocked all the stores with a good supply of 360's they'd probably end up getting the same results in sales because... hi! hello! it's allready popular.

As this marketing strategy doesn't always work well. I can think of a few systems that were a complete flop, and thanks to this marketing system, they died prematurely. Remember the Atari Jaguar or Sega Dreamcast? How about the Sega CD or Nomad? All those systems were complete and total flops. All died before any significant sales could be made. Hell, Sega hasn't made a game console since after Dreamcast. How did the delay for illusion of popularity help them? It didn't. Rather, it gave people the time to spread the word of "Don't buy this! It's crap!"

[Aetre]

it's not just marketing. if there is artificially low supply, they can jack up the price on "special orders." it's just what monopolies do.

[dragyn]

Hmmm...strange as this may be, I actually own the Atari Jaguar.  Not many games for it though.

In other news, yeah, that really does seem like a really bad idea.  Just as well I couldn't/can't afford one anyway!

[griever]

That kid needs to learn a few things.  x.x  Crying cause he can't get his game console?  Bah.  I just read that some of them have technical glitches, so maybe he's better off without it.

[thefemnazi]

he was crying because he'd been looking forward to something ALOT and then he can't have it.  The kid looked about 7.  Please, before you judge the poor little guy, put yourself back at seven and then tell yourself that they have cancelled your birthday this year.  That's pretty much what I'm thinking he went through.  Every one else gets to buy it, and he stayed up till forever and couldn't get one.

[Databits]

That always sucks... I hear that someone took advantage of this "artificially low supply" as Aetre put it, and placed a 360 on eBay for about $800.00.

-_-

[Gwyn]

they where selling for up to 5000 on e-bay

[Xepher]

http://search.ebay.com/xbox-360

There're several listed for close to 20,000 bucks, but I don't think any of those are actually selling. The going prices seems to be betwen 500-800. Still, people are stupid. Oh, yes... in other news, water is wet.

[thefemnazi]

Yes, Xeph, water is wet.  Did you learn this first-hand recently?

[griever]

he was crying because he'd been looking forward to something ALOT and then he can't have it.  The kid looked about 7.  Please, before you judge the poor little guy, put yourself back at seven and then tell yourself that they have cancelled your birthday this year.  That's pretty much what I'm thinking he went through.  Every one else gets to buy it, and he stayed up till forever and couldn't get one.

Details would have helped clarify.