"To ensure an immediate "sellout" of the Xbox 360 on launch day (therefore getting lots of media buzz about their new console), Microsoft will simply restrict the supply down to a trickle. My favorite part of the article: "In addition to limiting the per-store stock of consoles and having the retailers prepare to prominently note the unit's "sold out" status, Microsoft has allegedly asked Norwegian retailers to sign an agreement that they'll sell out of the consoles on the launch date." Looks like it's not a rumour.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051101-5510.html
We reported a while back that signs from retailers indicated that the Xbox 360 console will be in short supply on its 11/22 launch date, and now that information has been semi-confirmed by Microsoft. In addition to quoting various analysts on Microsoft's plans and reasons for limiting the launch date supply, this Reuters piece quotes Microsoft's CFO to the effect that the Xbox 360 won't face the same spike-then-slump phenomenon that plauged Sony's PS2 launch. The idea seems to be that would-be Xbox 360 buyers will be less unhappy with a steady but limited supply of consoles than a massive sell-off followed buy a drought.
I think there's some significant merit to this idea of doing a kind of rolling, first come, first serve thing where the consoles are steadily and predictably doled out to buyers than having a ton of lucky gamers take home units initially followed by a period where nobody can get their hands on one. That being said, Microsoft's has other motives for restricting the launch supply than what they're stating publicly. As it turns out, a complete launch date sell-out would generate a ton of positive media coverage for the new console.
Gizmodo reports that in Norway, the launch marketing campaign aims to build hype around the console by trumpeting its "SOLD OUT!" status to would-be buyers. In addition to limiting the per-store stock of consoles and having the retailers prepare to prominently note the unit's "sold out" status, Microsoft has allegedly asked Norwegian retailers to sign an agreement that they'll sell out of the consoles on the launch date.
Here in the states, Kotaku leaks the details of Target's launch preparations. From Kotaku's Target mole:
The average store can expect to have between 25 and 50 consoles the first day, but it mentions elsewhere that this number can be as low as 10. This is all determined by average store volume. I checked the computer and the consoles, games and peripherals are already in the system, so if you have a generous Target employee they can check to see exactly the amount of consoles they have in when they get the shipment.
On Nov. 22:
Every store will print up tickets representing the number of 360's and core systems they have in stock. They are also supposed to print a large sign informing customers that the store has sold out and keep it on hand.
Check out this post for more store-by-store launch date inventory details.
In other Xbox 360 news, there have been some new technical details presented the CEDEC convention in Japan. Among them are the fact that there's some differentiation in the three cores' designated functions. The Xbox 360 system software runs on cores 1 and 2, with a minimum of 5% of the processing time of each of these cores being reserved for system-related tasks like networking, I/O, etc. For console developers, core 0 will be the primary core for running game code, because they'll have that core all to themselves.
This information fits somewhat with an Inquirer article stating that game designers will be using two cores to fill the graphics pipeline. Putting the pieces together, it appears that the game's host thread will run on core 0 and the data generation threads will run on cores 1 and 2. (For more on these two terms, see Part I of my Xbox 360 tech article.)
Other details include the fact that 7GB of the double-layer game DVD media are available for storing game data, and that the HD will be used as a cache for game data.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051101-5510.html
We reported a while back that signs from retailers indicated that the Xbox 360 console will be in short supply on its 11/22 launch date, and now that information has been semi-confirmed by Microsoft. In addition to quoting various analysts on Microsoft's plans and reasons for limiting the launch date supply, this Reuters piece quotes Microsoft's CFO to the effect that the Xbox 360 won't face the same spike-then-slump phenomenon that plauged Sony's PS2 launch. The idea seems to be that would-be Xbox 360 buyers will be less unhappy with a steady but limited supply of consoles than a massive sell-off followed buy a drought.
I think there's some significant merit to this idea of doing a kind of rolling, first come, first serve thing where the consoles are steadily and predictably doled out to buyers than having a ton of lucky gamers take home units initially followed by a period where nobody can get their hands on one. That being said, Microsoft's has other motives for restricting the launch supply than what they're stating publicly. As it turns out, a complete launch date sell-out would generate a ton of positive media coverage for the new console.
Gizmodo reports that in Norway, the launch marketing campaign aims to build hype around the console by trumpeting its "SOLD OUT!" status to would-be buyers. In addition to limiting the per-store stock of consoles and having the retailers prepare to prominently note the unit's "sold out" status, Microsoft has allegedly asked Norwegian retailers to sign an agreement that they'll sell out of the consoles on the launch date.
Here in the states, Kotaku leaks the details of Target's launch preparations. From Kotaku's Target mole:
The average store can expect to have between 25 and 50 consoles the first day, but it mentions elsewhere that this number can be as low as 10. This is all determined by average store volume. I checked the computer and the consoles, games and peripherals are already in the system, so if you have a generous Target employee they can check to see exactly the amount of consoles they have in when they get the shipment.
On Nov. 22:
Every store will print up tickets representing the number of 360's and core systems they have in stock. They are also supposed to print a large sign informing customers that the store has sold out and keep it on hand.
Check out this post for more store-by-store launch date inventory details.
In other Xbox 360 news, there have been some new technical details presented the CEDEC convention in Japan. Among them are the fact that there's some differentiation in the three cores' designated functions. The Xbox 360 system software runs on cores 1 and 2, with a minimum of 5% of the processing time of each of these cores being reserved for system-related tasks like networking, I/O, etc. For console developers, core 0 will be the primary core for running game code, because they'll have that core all to themselves.
This information fits somewhat with an Inquirer article stating that game designers will be using two cores to fill the graphics pipeline. Putting the pieces together, it appears that the game's host thread will run on core 0 and the data generation threads will run on cores 1 and 2. (For more on these two terms, see Part I of my Xbox 360 tech article.)
Other details include the fact that 7GB of the double-layer game DVD media are available for storing game data, and that the HD will be used as a cache for game data.
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