Reminder: Xbox 360s shipping on a weekly basis

by James Ransom-Wiley { Nov 28th 2005 at 12:45PM }

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2005/11/xbox_360_launch.php

In order to combat the circulation of incorrect information, Microsoft's Major Nelson has confirmed, via his blog, that the Xbox retail team is sticking to a weekly replenishment strategy. However, the Major can't speak for specific retail outlets. That is, despite weekly shipments from MS, retailers that accepted pre-orders might still be backed up until next year. However, if a retail employee tells you that the store won't be getting units until March, that employee is either misinformed or lying. Bottom-line: if you keep a close watch on your local Best Buy or Walmart, you'll score a 360 before year's end.

[Thanks, Will]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

PJ @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I already saw the first replenishment at my local Sam's club (Friday after Thanksgiving).

jc @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

We still have some of the first shipment X360 in our area.

I did ask the guy at the Walmart when they were getting the next shipment, and he told me somthing along the lines of 'it depends on how well the X360 accesories sell, because Microsoft is telling us to push them if we want more systems'.

Mind you, I took his 'opinion' with a grain of salt...

Has anyone heard if systems sales are tied to how many accesories are sold?

Michael @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Are shipping days random or is there a certain day of the week that is best to call and check stock?

Pixelantes Anonymous @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

There is absolutely no way a person with a full-time job and a family will get an XBox 360 in a store until next year. You can't possibly outmanouver scalpers, when you've got to be in the office at 8am and at home having dinner with your family after work.

Death to eBay!

PJ @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Personally, I would call a couple of retailers (ones that don't have their future units locked up with preorders) and get specific delivery times/days for each retailers. Then, work the phone at those times/days until you find a delivery fresh off the truck at a retailer.

splash @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I couldn't find any Friday at Best Buy or Circuit City @5am, which was disappointing.

GameStop actually told me check back in March, which at the time I thought they were being obnoxious.

You know, I don't know who to believe anymore.

When does Best Buy receive shipments? Monday? Tuesday?

I noticed on the website for both Best Buy and Circuit City the console is not available. Seriously, I don't think I'm making any more special trips to the store for this one.

shafique @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

they had them at my Sam's as well on saturday after thanksgiving.

i just checked eBay,, WHY are people bidding upwards of $800-$1000 (plus shipping) for Premium systems?!?!? You can pick one up for $400 plus tax if you go to the store! what's wrong with some people!?!

prooie @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

ever considered that Major Nelson might be lying?

Griffon @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

So far for santa clara this seems to be bunk. I surveyed 12 retailers, and every single one of them said they have had no new units since the 22nd, and none of them will confirm new units until january. It would be nice if they would talk about regional volume dispersal a bit, obviously how much to where is a forbidden topic.

Sceptre @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

But the real question is... do you really want one?

Wow, current-gen PC graphics (and games!) on your TV! Yay!

Sense @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

How much are they selling for at Sam's? Just curious.

I ordered mine in August. Now I just get to wait until Gamestop calls me with mine--number 96 on the second shipment. The Gamestop manager gave me the same story that Major Nelson is giving: new shipments every week.

*sigh*

Scott @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I've already got my 360 but out of curiosity I called a Duluth, GA BestBuy and they told me they wouldn't be getting anymore systems until February. Called a local Wal-Mart and they didn't have a clue.

PJ @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Sceptre,
Don't you think that if Major Nelson was lying, in a few weeks someone just might figure it out? What is he supposed to say then - "oh my bad, I meant to say we were not shipping them weekly!" Just because you can't find one 1 week after the launch, does not mean they are not going out weekly. By the way, if you are a reader of his blog he has credible info that has been proven right time and time again.

Like I posted earlier, I saw a second shipment at my local Sam's on Friday.

Try the stores like Target, WalMart, Sam's, Costco (where I got mine). Since they are not geared to the hard core gamer, they get overlooked a little.

PJ @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I meant to address that last post to prooie...my bad Sceptre.

Laughing Man @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Well talk about not being researched very well. Look at the responses on Major Nelson's own blog, from managers at Gamestops and EBs and Best Buys.

http://www.majornelson.com/2005/11/26/xbox-360-availability/#comments

According to them, they are not hearing the same thing, and they are expressing a certain amount of frustration with Microsoft. These are Xbox fanboys stating their frustration. We have everyone from small store owners to just people who want to buy talking about the ridiculousness of one person selling 64 units on eBay and their local store getting 3 core units.

Again there's that pesky "core unit" that no one even wants right now.

Then I remembered this b.s. sandwich i ate once:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/660/660456p2.html

Q: Your shipping schedule is very ambitious. Nobody has tried to ship to three different territories simultaneously and for a good reason. It's very difficult. You've got chip manufacturers hopefully churning out perfect chips, and how is your yield of good to bad chips? Then you have assembly, manufacturing, shipping all over the world. So, how are you going to do it? How many units will you ship to North America, and how many do you plan on shipping total in North America?

Allard: We have a term for this. It's a very technical term. It's called a very hard problem. It's just hard. So, the first thing is, I cannot comment on the numbers. You can try all you want, but I won't give any up. Partly because we're only in the beginning of manufacturing. The ramp rate we're aiming for is very, very steep. We're hoping to manufacture them at a rate that's much more aggressive than anybody's done before. And it's going very well. But until that sort of evens out, attaining a cruising altitude in manufacturing, I don't even have a very accurate forecast for my boss. And until that happens, we don't really tell anybody else. The other thing is, with the financial community, we have to be very deliberate about releasing information like that for all sorts of reasons. We have to be cautious of regulatory issues. That's why we don't comment on the numbers.

But manufacturing is going very well. And honestly we decided as a management team that we'd rather take the heat from all territories saying we wish we had more. And we'll have to say "sold out" in too many places. We'd rather take that heat, then take the heat from Europe saying, "Why do we have to wait a year?" We designed a worldwide product with worldwide partners, and with worldwide ambition, and the world deserves to see it all at the same time, and we're not going to have enough. That's the fact. No matter how aggressive we are with the ramp rate, no matter how good our yields are, that's going to be the fact, which is another reason that manufacturers are worldwide. So hopefully you guys are thoughtful of that in how you report the news, and there will be "sold out" signs out there, and we know we're going to take some heat, but hopefully it's the right thing for the industry. And I think that Gerhardt Florin (Executive VP at EA Europe) said last night, "You know, sometimes the right thing to do is the gutsy thing to do, which is the hard thing to do." And our partners are certainly glad we're doing it, and I think that gamers worldwide are glad we're doing it... It's a logistical nightmare. It really is. It's going to be a hell of a thing. It won't go perfect. It just won't. And like I said, I'd rather apologize for having an imperfect worldwide launch and not having enough units, than saying, "Yeah we got it right for this set of customers." You know, "Sorry Activision, all that money you poured into those franchises and those games, those are going to be old by the time you get around to sell them in Europe, and never mind." No, we're not doing it that way.

So what, exactly, proper way are MS going to do it? Does anyone have an Allardspeak translator?

Bill Baker @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I would imagine that there may be more consoles available from the projected Japanese distribution, now that the biggest Japanese launch titles (DOA 4 and Enchant(ARM)) are no longer going to make the launch window. That would give MS another week for replenishment before DOA hits and allow them to play a little "tetris with the shipments" to make sure that everyone gets fed hardware while addressing critical needs at the same time. I'm prone to believe Major Nelson, as he's always been a straight shooter and has not given bad information yet- if he says they're shipping more, I'd say it's a safe bet they are. This is good news, I'm still counting on acquiring one myself by years' end...

Kevin D @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

So, let me see.....

The official 360 has been out '6 FREAKIN DAYS' and you all are flipping out about no more being on the shelves yet...LOL Good God.... Tommorrow is officially one week since launch...

Yeh, they're gonna have 1 Billion MORE units shipped within a Day or 2 of launch... LOL..

Do as the above posters suggested and call around every couple of days to see when they're getting their next shipement in... Then run like HE.LL to get one..LOL.. Simple...

peace out...

PJ @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Laughing Man,
Listen, Gamestop managers didn't even know how many units they were getting at launch until like a week before they came in - they don't know anything until corporate tells them. They are honestly a horrible indicator of when something is coming in. Gamestop/EB screwed themselves by pissing off their customers. They sold reserves to people they could not meet and now they are trying to shift the blame. Of course THEY won't have systems for weeks and weeks b/c they presold a ton and have to satisfy those customers first.

I can tell you what I have seen with my own eyes - Sam's had their second shipment (here in my area) Friday after Thanksgiving.

zero2dash @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

#3 - damn straight man
FT job + family also = no $$$
definitely no $400
not even $300

unless I'd like to "collectively forget" to pay a utility bill and/or the rent.

Umm...no thanks.
I'll enjoy my DS, GC RE4 + catch up on all the GC+Xbox games I still haven't bought/played, until I can afford a 360, which'll be right around the time the Revolution launches...*and then I buy one of those instead*. Yay

agent864 @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I'll buy a 360 when I can walk into a Target at 8pm on a Saturday and there's one there for me to purchase.

Captain_Japan @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I have to say freakin out when the damn thing has only been out for week is stupid. With all the reported problems the first units have been having your better off waiting until after the holidays anyways. Unless you have to be that douchebag who has everything the first day it comes out, just wait....

Sparks @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

The Best Buy employees in my area answer the question of when they'll be getting a new shipment of 360s the same way, "I don't know." This is repeated word-for-word by every Best Buy associate I've talked to while trying to catch wind of 360 availibilty... Hmmm, �maybe a strategy for preeminintly quelling a launch-day-like second arrival?

sb @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Sparks: I called 3 Best Buy stores in my area this morning and one said "No idea when we'll get more, just keep calling to check", another had a machine when you first call saying "No 360s here" and the 3rd said they're expecting a shipment on 12/18 and they'll be on sale when the store opens that day. It obviously varies by store and all you can do is call around and hope to get lucky.

sb @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

vadermaggot @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

uhmmm.... yeah... # 7 do you live in south africa or something there arent any Xbox 360's at Sam's Club no one thinks you're cool when you tell stupid stories

mike @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

reminder: Xbox 360 crashing hourly..

How dare MS impose the Wintel mediocrity on the gaming world.

SNES crashed all the time? No!
PS crashed all the time? No!
N64 crashed all the time? No!
GC? No!
Gameboy line? NEVER DS? NEVER!

The last time I ever crashed a system that I owned was.. the Nintendo Entertainment System.. I mean.. that thing was friggin pathetic! You had to blow in the slot to clean it from dust.. okay?? That was in the eighties..

The MS company line? "For a machine of this complexity, this is par for course.."

Yah, kiss my ass.. with graphical improvements you expect.. additional instability?! The Gamecube puts out some of the best graphics the industry has seen so far.. it seems to do fine without (egads) running on Windows.

My toaster shouldn't break down. My phone shouldn't break down. My video game machine shouldn't break down.

I'm a Mac user so my computer won't break down either. But there are millions out there who stop there: they expect their comp to break down, get a virus, you name it.

Thanks MS. But spare us the rewriting of the history of VG. Consoles almost NEVER break down. Shipping a buggy product is not 'par for course' it's embarrassing.

jason lynx @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

All this "don't buy an xbox360 becuase it crashes" stuff is blown way out of proportion. Mine never crashes.

ZeroCorpse @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

MIke:

The NES crashed quite a bit.
The PS2 crashed in several versions.
The GameGear crashed on occasion.
The TG-16 CD crashed sometimes.
The SEGA CD crashed almost on schedule.
The SNES glitched out on me a few times.
The original spinach-screened GameBoy did, indeed, crash.
The NeoGeo was subject to the occasional hardware failure.

I'm a Mac user, too. Macs DO break down, on occasion. Need I remind you of the G4 Cube? The Newton? The Titanium PowerBook? The original iMac's CRT? Let us not pretend that Macs are invulnerable to errors upon the launch of a new system. It DOES happen. One need only look at the Apple newsgroups and message boards.

That being said, I love my Mac because Apple does take care of their customers. They know hardware fails, but they also know that customer service can save the day. This is why so many Mac users are so loyal: We know we'll get treated right.

With the 360, from what I've seen MS is taking care of it. They're overnighting boxes, paying shipping, and replacing or repairing faulty units. They have the customer service down.

Your mistake is assuming that the division of MS that creates and markets the 360 are the same guys who program the junky Windows OS. They aren't. They just happen to work for the same boss.

And for the record, I've been in contact with the majority of the customers that I sold 360s to on launch day (including a few coworkers) and they all say their 360s are running fine, not overheating, going for hours, and a ton of fun.

I just don't get this hatred for a particular console just because you don't like the company that makes it. Judge it on its merits, and the reaction of the customer service people when problems do arise. So far, Microsoft has performed well when faced with the problems we're hearing about.

And one more thing: On Xbox.com we're noticing that there are a ton of people reporting overheating consoles, but they don't have Live accounts. Some might be people who didn't get to use their 360 at all, and thus never subscribed to Live, but I can not believe that ALL these negative reports are coming from completely new users. Did nobody who bought a faulty 360 own an Xbox before this one and sign up for Live?

It seems to me that this would indicate there are lots of anti-MS people who just want to make the situation seem worse than it really is. While there ARE some known problems, a lot of them are user error, still others are false reports, and a few are probably legitimately screwed systems.

Are you so blind in your hatred for MS that you choose to ignore that enemies of a particular company WILL blow a system launch's problems out of proportion? Or do you really believe that every iPod nano is a scratch-covered disaster without even touching it?

Show some balance, man.

mike @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Are you so blind in your hatred for MS that you choose to ignore that enemies of a particular company WILL blow a system launch's problems out of proportion? Or do you really believe that every iPod nano is a scratch-covered disaster without even touching it?

Show some balance, man.

--

Eh, you're looking at a lukewarm MS-hater at best.

I was annoyed with their 'all CE products crash' attitude. I listed quality consoles that, in my opinion, were bulletproof.

And yes, the Xbox is running a Windows variant. How can you say their totally separate. The reason for the Xbox's existence is to put Windows on TVs in living rooms all around the world. This is basically Windows MCE, but, ahm, nobody wants an MCE.. tons of ppl want a game console.

So yes I'm a Mac user, but I wasn't born that way. I chose to buy Macs for one very good reason. No religion here.

I'm not a computer science major. How can I possibly figure out how to resuscitate a Windows PC?

Apparently there are 28 shitty versions of Windows and one really solid one.. (what is it? Win2000? WinNT? Fuck, who knows.. whatever)

At any rate.. MS has been saying, 'don't worry, this isn't based on a shitty version of windows, it's based on one of those good versions of windows'

this company lives breathes and eats mediocrity.

and why not? that's why monopolies are bad in the first place.

lastly, the XBOX is closed architecture man. yeah win pcs blow chunks. but at least they have an excuse! this is closed down. this is a MS Mac for christ sakes (er, styled accordingly to boot)..

first day? meltdown..

par for course.. pfft.

bbxboy @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Well, after playing with my 360 in the evenings only for 3 days it suddenly crapped with hardware faults out and has to be sent it for repair/replacement. I kept it cool with plenty of ventilation and away from other components, but it went tits-up anyways.

Considering that i went through 4 (!) of the original Xbox (I'm a dad with very little spare time which should provide some indication as to how much abuse I put these systems through), and 2 of the 7 other people I know with Xbox360 launch units have also had their machines crap out in the first week (same problem - 3 blinking red lights and no dice), I think Microsoft has more than earned their rep when it comes to the build quality of their consoles (or lack thereof).

I loved it when it was working, but I'd recommend anybody thinking about buying one wait until they work the initial kinks out.

Mike Daniels @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Well, even if they do succeed in replenishing stores weekly, I'm pretty sure that stores aren't going to see any significant increases in the quantity shipped per week.

I pre-ordered in early September and was told that I would be on the second shipment which would arrive in December. As recently as one week before launch I was told by the staff that I should have it prior to Christmas.

Given that this store (Washington, DC area) initially only received 14 copies on launch I have little faith in seeing my unit prior to 2006 even with replenishments.

However, given the initial problems the system seems to have and given the lack of any must buy "original" games, I think I can survive until that time.

Mike Daniels @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

Kevin D @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM

I like that "given the inital problems the system seems to have"... By whom?

I belong to a select forum and NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE has had any of the so called crashes or whatever. This is out of almost 400 people with the new 360. However, everyone on this 'site' are over 18, so maybe that has something to do with it?

How many did they ship Tuesday? 400,000?.. How many REAL complaints (a few hundred)? maybe?.. One pissed off Sony fanboy can post in 100 different forums under 100 different names if he wants to...

MS has their Shit together, no matter how much you hate them, they AINT going anywhere... LOL.. They're here to stay and I say its good that Sony finally has some real competition. Its better for all of us if their is a competition.

Peace out...