600,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold in US

by Blake Snow { Jan 13th 2006 at 10:30PM }

Reuters reports that Microsoft has sold 600,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the United States since its November 2005 launch. Data comes from the NDP Group which measures and projects nearly two-thirds of all US retail sales.

From the article: "The Xbox 360 debuted to much fanfare on November 22 in North America, where the unit has been in short supply. Analysts, video game publishers and retailers have said shipments during the key holiday season fell short of expectations."

As expected, the system has not been selling well in Japan up to this point either, but Microsoft has confirmed its target of selling between 4.5 million and 5.5 million 360 during the current fiscal year ending June 30 of this year.

[via Real Media]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Artimus @ Jan 13th 2006 10:39PM

Less than a million so far MUST be a dissappointment? If they keep this up they'll have as many as the DS in another five years!

Einhanderkiller @ Jan 13th 2006 10:43PM

5 times less than what was expected (3 million).

DidYouLoseASock @ Jan 13th 2006 11:03PM

And I thought it was doing bad in japan.

Nick @ Jan 13th 2006 11:06PM

Supply issues will do that to you.

Nick

Master misChief @ Jan 13th 2006 11:08PM

But whatever quantities launched to the stores were sold out. If more consoles were in stock, more would have sold. Microsoft's only worry at the moment is to get enough consoles into the stores, and the third manufacturer recently signed up to produce the consoles is a step in the right direction.

No worries.

rocket @ Jan 13th 2006 11:11PM

This is why I've been unable to find one. They're still like impossible to locate in stores. What's the deal?

It's not like it's selling bad, they're just not available for sale.

UT odaVoO @ Jan 13th 2006 11:20PM

To #2

Three million was the worldwide sells projection; not just in the US.

Jeff @ Jan 13th 2006 11:51PM

"Three million was the worldwide sells projection; not just in the US."

Right. So your point is they've sold 2.4 million systems in... where? Europe?

I don't think so.

Yes, they've had supply issues. They've also sold probably about 1/5 of what they expected in Japan, and their only supply issue there is a lack of warehouse space to store all those unsold systems.

When you make a business plan, you expect to sell a certain number of units in each territory, and your overall profitability comes from hitting all of those targets. You can't do 2/3 of what you expected worldwide and still be profitable - not unless your profit margins were over 33% to begin with (I know, I'm way simplifying the math, but 2/3 of 100% is 66.6%... 100% - 66.6% is 33%). And nobody's profit margins are that high.

And MS hasn't even done 2/3 of what they've expected. They've done about 1/2 what they expected in the US, 1/2 what they expected in Europe and 1/5 what they expected in Japan. The US and European sales are mostly due to supply issues, although some of you guys act like that doesn't matter - what it's done is just pissed off people like me who normally buy every system, and I'm no longer even looking. It's given a lot of people who are normally early adopters plenty of time to be disappointed in both the system and Microsoft. How is this not a problem for MS? Oh, and by the way, they also basically missed Christmas last year - despite supposedly launching in November.

I really don't think they can be profitable without Japan. That's 1/3 of your projected sales and a lot of developer support along with it (which translates indirectly to lost sales all over the world). They lost $4 billion on the original Xbox and they thought originally that they'd eventually turn a profit. They hit their targets in the US and Europe. They lost all that money because of Japan.

Embassy @ Jan 13th 2006 11:57PM

lol@ cats acting like its bombing or sumthin..they've sold 100% of thier units in the US..and im sure they sold that in the 1st day alone lol..when( not if) they get more units..its a wrap...

cap-n-crunch @ Jan 14th 2006 12:04AM

I agree with number 5, How could they expect to sell more consoles then thre were available? Have wal-mart scan it twice.

skyrous @ Jan 14th 2006 12:24AM

Ok it's official, microsoft has squandered their head start. The first couple million are the easiest to sell. fanboys and early adopters scoop them up.

You want to supplant the ps2 and sell 40 million this generation you have to bring along everybody else. If some of the fanboys don't even have their consoles 2 months after launch you should have just waited until you had enough. Delaying 3-6 months lets you develop some games. If your going to launch before christmas you MUST have enough to fill the pre-orders and fill out the shelves. They wasted a perfectly good christmas selling season and a ton of PR both paid and free, people don't buy $400 game systems on impulse they wait for christmas or maybe birthdays, this is a huge squandered opportunity.

Even if they have signed on another manufacturer it takes weeks or months to setup the assemply line and start cranking out systems. It also takes a couple of weeks to load them on the boat and ship them over from china. we're talking march-april timeframe for a new factory to start putting console's into the distribution system. By then your up against E3 where Sony and Nintendo start hyping their new systems and people paying attention to them.

Microsoft needs their other manufacturing plants to start churning out systems by the thousands right now... or hope both Sony and Nintendo screw up just as bad, but that's not gonna happen.

Griffon @ Jan 14th 2006 12:27AM

I can only hope the sails stop entirely to force retails to stop forcing people to buy these insulting and stupidly over priced bundles. You can't just buy an Xbox online anywhere, everybody seems to think they can ask you shell out a grand or more force you buy there crappy speakers or crappy TV's and sixteen games blah blah blah. It is quite simple greed run to insanity. I'm quietly making a list of every single retailer that is selling this aciddine bundles only, and will never every give them another single cent. YOu can't blame MS for the retailer stupidity but you can absolutely should vote with your dollar and tell MS what you think about their "partners" behavior.

mocax @ Jan 14th 2006 12:28AM

"We've made 600000 Xbox360s, but we expect to sell 3 million of them."

Someone failed at math..... :D

Or a magician with ability to pull new xbox360s out his hindquarters...

Zsavior @ Jan 14th 2006 12:46AM

I believe MS did a fake shortage that turned real,and I also believed that they squandered any sort of lead they had. I think the fake shortage was put in place thinking they could produce more quickly and easily, but the demand became to high for a machine that was already hyped.

THeir job was to attain a high markt growth, to get quick saturation of their product before PS3 even sees the light of day. I mean the way sony is handling their press I do beleive MS still has a chance to dominate, but overall I think they lost their real chance to stick it to sony. If they end up a distant second or worst a farcry third. They will really really regret the word shortage. And no doubtedly somebody will be fired.

mirobin @ Jan 14th 2006 1:00AM

Microsoft estimated 2.75 to 3 million consoles sold worldwide in the first 90 days.

Given that NPD data isn't accurate up to the minute (probably a week or two behind), and in order to make the math easy, let's assume that 600,000 consoles sold in the US represents sales at the 45 day mark.

That means that, assuming a linear sales curve, the 45 day target is 1.375 to 1.5 million.

We have 600,000 consoles sold in the US. They sold 60,000 on launch day in Japan. They sold out of their initial inventory of 300,000 units in Europe. So, current US figures plus launch figures in Europe and Japan puts Microsoft's total sales at 960,000.

No current sales data is available for Japan and Europe, though we know that units are still hard to find in Europe. If we presume that Microsoft is splitting shipments 60/40 US/Europe, that means that an additional 200,000 units were sold in the EU. Let's also assume that Microsoft has sold half of their remaining inventory in Japan (they sold 62k copies of DOA4, and I doubt everyone who bought a 360 bought DOA4), adding another 45,000.

That puts us at a cool clean 1.2 million units. That puts them roughly 12% behind where they want to be right now. Given that they have just brought a 3rd factory online, Microsoft should still be able to meet the low end of their sales targets.

Back_Lit @ Jan 14th 2006 1:20AM

You know...if this happened to Nintendo people would be saying, "This system is a complete failure. Nintendo should go third party."

Stephen @ Jan 14th 2006 1:27AM

600,000? That's less than I expected. Even with the supply issue, I was expecting it would be at least a million.

I am guessing that means the world wide sale is probably just around a million. It's less than 1.2 million for sure. Since barely any 360 got sold in Japan. Europe is probably a smaller market than NA and received less consoles.

I think MS's idea of "head start" didn't really give them much of an advantage against Sony this time. PS2 sold 980,000 units during the weekend it launched in Japan. In NA's launch date for PS2, Sony sold 510,000 units in 24 hours. (This is according to wikipedia)

MS should have delayed it's launch a little bit (March 2006) and launch in NA and Europe together with a super strong line up that targets western gamers (Gears of War, Elder Scroll...etc.). Since the best Sony can do is probably launching PS3 in Japan only at March. Than 360 should launch in Japan few months later with strong titles like Blue Dragon, 99 Nights and DOA4 together. This is just my idealistic point of view though.

Anyone know exactly how many 360 has been sold totally world wide?

Toast @ Jan 14th 2006 2:11AM

Honestly, I think that the launch window figure for sales are over hyped. They are trully constrained by what the company can produce (and you are messing up MS). If you think about it, everyone thata wants a 360 is going to get one. But where the battle is really won and lost is in the casual gamer, who picks one system and stays with it. This game is won over by the killer appz (aka games). Despite their horrible supply shock, the 360 would do wise to get some kind of really good game out, aside from their launch muck

Superzapper @ Jan 14th 2006 2:29AM

I don't know of any company that could eat 4 billion in loses from it's first console then go and plough more money into another console and hope it's going to make money.If they really are losing $300.00 on each Xbox 360 it won't take long to lose another 4 billion.It's like giving away free concert tickets and celebrating because your gig is all sold out.How long can the Xbox division do it without Bill pulling the plug.

mirobin @ Jan 14th 2006 2:43AM

Stephen, the number of people living in europe is greater than the number of people living in NA. (though they're pretty close to the same)

Given that I actually used real numbers and reasonable estimates, I would like to see you derrive a reasonable world-wide total figure of units sold. You'll note that I already accounted for lackluster sales in Japan and assumed a lower rate of sales in Europe than the US.

Delaying the launch would be pointless. Spend a minute and think about it (and consider what it means when your product is in high enough demand that you can't produce enough to keep them on store shelves).

GeoFlame @ Jan 14th 2006 3:07AM

Im not a fanboy of anything but I dot hope Xbox Fails, its like a non-upgradeable PC and in time becomes more expensive if you signed up for live. (which youd have to if you wanted the full worth of the system)

I mean the best selling game for the 360 was Call of Duty 2, which btw is 900 billion times better on the PC, I got a crappy ass PC and it runs just as good, you just gotta know how to use your hardware.

But it is true, the real figures cant be shown cause of shortages but they should have wait for release, get all the kinks and bugs out of it too.

A friend of mine, a big xbox fanboy was very dissapointed with his 360, he first didnt know if you layed the 360 on its side it could burn your disks, and also he wasnt prepared for the over heating and it resulted in his system become burnt out and usless.

GeoFlame @ Jan 14th 2006 3:15AM

Dralt @ Jan 14th 2006 3:24AM

Microsoft completely blew it.

They rushed to have a 1 Christmas season lead on Sony and they failed to captitalize on it.

Ridiculous. Kutaragi must be laughing his ass off.

Now, PS 3 comes out in Japan in April and it's likely they will sell more PS 3 units on their launch day than Microsoft during the entire Christmas season.

Conclusion: Good try, Microsoft, but not this time.

Try again in 5 years.

burninhell @ Jan 14th 2006 3:31AM

Microsoft probably could have sold 2 million units in the US in 2005 with all of the hype and demand. The near-simultaneous global launch wasn't such a great idea. Why rush into Japan with no RPGs or even DOA on launch day? Why rush to launch in Europe at the expense of NA gamers not even getting their pre-orders?

The best thing that Microsoft has going for it right now is that Sony doesn't seem to be anywhere near mounting a convincing push with PS3 (and the fact that it will possibly be stupidly costly at launch).

If Nintendo can rock E3 in 4 months with a $250 Revolution with surprisingly good graphics and features and solid demos of 3 or 4 strong launch exclusives this whole thing might get real interesting.

burninhell @ Jan 14th 2006 3:49AM

I'm looking forward to the PS3. (Is anyone on here system agnostic? Seems like most have an obvious prejudice.)

Still, I am SO doubtful that PS3 launches in Japan in April. No way. With what games, for instance? Nothing is done. Hopefully they won't have a bunch of shovelware like half of the 360 launch titles were. MGS4 is a 2007 title for sure, and who will have anything comparable?

The ZeroCorpse @ Jan 14th 2006 3:57AM

GeoFlame: Your claim of a friend's system burning out is blatantly false. Try a better approach to trolling than using a proven myth as your basis. Unless your friend is an idiot of collossal proportions, you're speaking out of your rear.

And you seem to be the only person who thinks CoD2 is better on PC. Every reviewer has said just the opposite; that the 360 pushes a better framerate than the PC when using the same level of FSAA and particle effects.

A quick look at the newest Game Informer shows some great games on the horizon. Oblivion will shut a lot of people's mouths. Crackdown looks awesome. Burnout Revenge on the 360 is what the series was always meant to be. Star Trek Legacy looks like the one Trek game in the history of gaming that will truly rock. Fight Night Round 3 looks real on the 360. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is going to be the killer flight game we've all been waiting for, as it looks like the real damn thing. Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth is going to be stupendous in widescreen HDTV with thousands of troops moving independently.

And all that is just the next few months.

If you don't have one, and want to sit around for a year waiting for a PS3, that's your business, but don't expect the 360 to fail. Stores can't keep them in stock, even though small shipments are now coming in weekly. People WANT the 360, and not just because of the hype, but because of what the future holds.

So you weren't impressed by the launch. Is that a reason to skip the system? If I used that logic, I'd never have bought a PS1 or PS2. The PS1 had the crappiest launch lineup ever. The PS2 was hardly impressive in its first two months, either.

And Live Arcade *is* going to make a difference. I'm not paying any extra for it, as I just transferred over my subscription from the Xbox. It's a blast playing games online with a *regulated* community. It's great being able to download games that play in HD and have online features. Sure, you could download a ROM of Street Fighter 2 and play it on a PC, but would it be an updated version in high definition that plays online seamlessly?

I'm sorry, but the haters are getting annoying. In all my time dealing with customers during this holiday season, not one has reported that their Xbox 360 was overheating or having ANY problems. The only people who make such claims are the people who either don't have one, or idiots who mistreated the system and want to place the blame elsewhere. Yes, it will scratch discs if you're an idiot and tilt the system while they're spinning. Yes, it will get hot if you place it on top of your TV. If you read the manual, though, you'll avoid all these things.

I like my 360, and since the PS3 is likely not going to be in my entertainment center until this time next year (if we're lucky) I see no reason why I should be a doofus and wait to enjoy next-gen gaming.

If you couldn't wait a couple months for the next wave of games to reach the shelves, that's your problem. Me? I'll be enjoying playing Oblivion on my 360 real soon, and in the meantime DOA4 and high definition, widescreen Halo 2 are making me happy.

Stephen @ Jan 14th 2006 4:39AM

Mirobin. Nice to hear your different opinion.

I agree with your population wise EU and NA are probably close? I have the impression the gaming market in EU is always smaller than NA by a significant margin though, but then I never been to EU so I can be wrong

I just think they should have spended a little bit more time to stock up the consoles and than launch. It's a little ridculous that people pre-ordered few months in advance still could not get the console. This actually turned off some people from buying the 360 and spend the saved up money on something else instead during the holiday. People (like me) who were considering trying the 360 will probably wait to see how the PS3 and Revolution will be since there's no way I can find one anyways.

I think MS did a pretty good job marketing the product this time. I only own the PS2 and Gamecube this generation. Didn't get XBOX because I was not interested in the games on it. However, 360 seems to have some good Japanese developer support this time. There's a pretty good chance I will get 360 with my PS3 and Revolution this time. It's good that they are giving Sony some serious competition this time.

I just think they poorly planned the launch. Sony got almost 1 million PS2 for it's home base at launch. MS should have done at least the same for NA.

kizza @ Jan 14th 2006 5:45AM

MS are relying too heavily on online status. Most REAL gamers know that a good game is a good game, regardess of online capabilities.

Sony have released good game after good game , regardless of it's online capabilities.

Basically MS need to concentrate on games instead of online status. There are a lot more people offline with consoles than on.

So in other words, Real console gamers prefer God Of War over another tom clancy half heart effort.

Mark In Austin @ Jan 14th 2006 6:44AM

"Nintendo should go third party."

Riiight. If Nintendo gets so much as an economic sniffle, idiots begin spouting this B.S. left and right.

These are the same folks who are dying to play Nintendo games - but who won't dare buy the systems they're on. Too bad, bitches. You want some Mario, Samus, & Link time? You know where to go.

Aber @ Jan 14th 2006 7:36AM

Personally, I'll be waiting at least a year for the either the 360 or PS3. I've been burned by too many launch units in the past that simply go to sh!t after a short while, and this goes waaay back, with nearly every console manufactuer (except my TurboGrafx-16 by NEC, got it launch day & it plaed like a champ for years). Sony has been the worst, as both my launch day PSX & PS2 broke/malfunctioned not long after launch day. It's well known that most console launches usually have issues with first production machines.

I've also yet to see anything that really makes HAVE to go "Next-Gen" now. I'm 30 years old, and have seen every console launch since the early 80's, and the leap (in terms of graphics & sound) is simply not as far ahead of the current generation as it has been with previous jumps to the "Next-Gen".

I also notice gamepla takes a step back initially as developers rely on wowing folks with pretty graphics &don't fine tune the actual gameplay. I'll take a game for a 5 year old system by a developer that KNOWS that system inside & out & can squeeze every drop out of it over a rushed, pretty next-gen launch game any day.

Frank @ Jan 14th 2006 7:52AM

What a dissapointment. At this point I might as well wait for PS3, which comes with HD-DVD Blu-Ray and Revolution.

I was just in an EB Games store last night...I asked her if she would not laught at the following question, "Do you have any XBOX 360's?" She laughed anyways and said that if I wasn't on the reserve list I was looking at March or April!!!

The whole launch has been a joke!!

Silverback @ Jan 14th 2006 8:01AM

"Most REAL gamers know that a good game is a good game, regardess of online capabilities."

What is up with this comment? While it is not mandatory that a game has to support live in order to be good, the opposite is true as well. Whether you want to admit it or not the future of gaming is online period. There will be plenty of games that don't support it but the trend is going in the direction that MS is taking. We are going to see more and more persistant worlds created in the near future. Why, because people prefer to play with others than by themselves and/or against the AI. As great as God of War is it would be so much better if you could play with your buddy in co-op mode, online. The way I like to look at it is that Microsoft is bringing the community back into games. It reminds me of the community that used to exist at the arcade back in the day, except now I can do it all from my living room. No, of all the things that will define the next generation of gaming Xbox Live is probably the most definitive.

Silverback @ Jan 14th 2006 8:19AM

I agree with many of the previous posters that the number of consoles sold at this point isn't as important as one might expect. Why? I think because one of the major advantages a console has going early is the headstart they get on games development. Due to MS's early start it will take Sony a long time if ever to catch up with their games. By June MS has stated that they will 50 more games on the market. That is almost 70 games. And they will continue to come in a continuous flood after the June time period. Sony on the other hand will just be launching their console with a few, let's say 18 since that is what MS did, and they will probably be mediocre to just good, just like MS. Microsoft will already be lapping Sony as they come out the door due to that head start. That counts for a whole lot.

Johan @ Jan 14th 2006 8:32AM

Just for reference, the PS2's American launch resulted in 510,000 units on DAY 1.

wikipedia:

"

When the PlayStation 2 launched in America in October 26, 2000, Sony sold 510,000 units within the first 24 hours"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_2#Sales_Record

Even now the PS2 is outselling 360 10 to 1 in Japan,

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/01/13/psp-tops-ds-in-japan/

Honestly this console is in rough shape.

The first Xbox was great because it came much later than the PS2 and thus had better hardware (twice the ram, higher clock speed, standard DX shaders), but this one, launching early and with no Halo or anything really exciting, it's just a mess.

Will @ Jan 14th 2006 8:36AM

Hmm, yeah not great sales figures.

Note that the original XBox sold roughly that amount within it's first week. How long has the 360 been out? Coming up on two months?

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/9943/NPD-Group-Releases-Xbox-360-Sales-Data/&docTitle=NPD%20Group%20Releases%20Xbox%20360%20Sales%20Data%20-%20Xbox

thomas_h @ Jan 14th 2006 8:43AM

""16. 600,000? That's less than I expected. Even with the supply issue, I was expecting it would be at least a million.

I am guessing that means the world wide sale is probably just around a million. It's less than 1.2 million for sure. Since barely any 360 got sold in Japan. Europe is probably a smaller market than NA and received less consoles.

I think MS's idea of "head start" didn't really give them much of an advantage against Sony this time. PS2 sold 980,000 units during the weekend it launched in Japan. In NA's launch date for PS2, Sony sold 510,000 units in 24 hours. (This is according to wikipedia)

MS should have delayed it's launch a little bit (March 2006) and launch in NA and Europe together with a super strong line up that targets western gamers (Gears of War, Elder Scroll...etc.). Since the best Sony can do is probably launching PS3 in Japan only at March. Than 360 should launch in Japan few months later with strong titles like Blue Dragon, 99 Nights and DOA4 together. This is just my idealistic point of view though.

Anyone know exactly how many 360 has been sold totally world wide?""

Actually there are over twice as many people in europe as in NA. ~ 700 million. ( 700 000 000 )

but we still get less consoles than you. fair? no. but we're used to it. we always get consoles, games and stuff later than almost every other continent.

and yeah, its almost impossible to find 360's here to, since it got sold out within hours on launch day there have been very few refills. ( this is the situation in norway, but i guess its like that in most other EU countries too. )

Stephen @ Jan 14th 2006 9:02AM

The figures are too low ;_;.

JRM @ Jan 14th 2006 9:06AM

If MS was projecting 3 million in their first 90 days, shouldn't have they MADE at least 3 million consoles to sell? All ready, and accounted for, at retail chains?

Microsoft LIED, they're using economists (and their "objective", "scientific", theories) to lie to the public, and anyone else that likes to give them money.

Alex K. @ Jan 14th 2006 9:18AM

this'll teach microsoft why console manufacterers almost never do worldwide launches.

Jonathan @ Jan 14th 2006 9:29AM

Ok...what were ya expecting....1 million?

They said before that they only sold 1.3 million worldwide...why would this come as a shock to ya?

Johan @ Jan 14th 2006 9:30AM

Yeah man, they LIED to us!

eric @ Jan 14th 2006 10:49AM

I don't think Microsoft lied. I think they fully intended to sell 3 million consoles by a certain date. Something else happened that prevented this. And I don't think it's the worldwide launch either, although that certainly didn't help matters.

It's most likely a production/yield problem. They're just not able to make enough to satisfy demand. It's actually a good thing, but I'm sure they'd like to have more available for sale.

If you look at the early software numbers, the attach rate for software is quite high. And the number of Live accounts per consoles is also pretty high. What this means now, is too early to tell. It's best to evaluate after 6 months to a year later to get a better picture.

And regarding Microsoft's previous loss in the hardware division, this is nothing new. Microsoft has lost money introducing new products before, as have other companies. Any manufacturer introducing a new hardware console is expected to lose billions in the first couple of years. Sony will experience this too with the PS3. It takes a few years to recover the costs in software or through licensing or more efficient manufacturing methods.

Mike Brauner @ Jan 14th 2006 12:18PM

Reminds me on Sony's PS2 launch.

here's a quote from a CNET article (October 24, 2000).

"Sony suffered another setback when it cut in half the initial American shipments of the PS2. The company originally promised 1 million units. But component shortages forced Sony to reduce that figure to 500,000."

By September Sony was saying the most optomistic forcast was just over a million units by December 31. The reason? Component shortages and slow manufacturing.

Initially Sony promised to ship 3+ million units to the US.

mirobin @ Jan 14th 2006 12:19PM

Stephen, not sure what the total potential market is, but if you compare the total number of xboxs sold in the EU and the total number sold in America, you end up with roughly a 60:40 split.

The preorder mess was outside of Microsoft's control. You would have had that problem regardless of when they shipped consoles. In case you missed it, the major game retailers were selling (and delivering) $1000 bundles online while leaving in-store preorders unfulfilled. All it would do is force people to wait longer for the system and piss off their partners.

I personally think the launch went fine. More units would have been better (it's always better when you can match demand), but having the system out this holiday worldwide was crucial for a number of different reasons.

Todd Rabanus @ Jan 14th 2006 12:19PM

#21 who told your friend that he couldn't lay the 360 on its side? i've had my laying on its side since launch day and i have yet to see a game get ruined. i have yet to have an overheating problem. so my question is what's the problem? so a couple units overheated and the media exaggerated. it happens with every launch. hell the ps2 is still having disc read problems (after 5 years!)

Puh_fifer @ Jan 14th 2006 12:50PM

There are more than a few overheated units that the media over exaggerated. There are a very large number of bad units out there, and I have seen this from several sources. My system died out after a month of playing, I had to wait for 3 weeks for a replacement, and the replacement worked for 3 hours then broke.

Of the about 10 people on my live friends list, 3 of us have had defective systems. The over heating isn't the issue either, it's the three blinking red lights and constant freezes. These indicate an internal hardware failure.

This was a rushed launch with not enough units and lots of defective units. They don't even have replacement units for people who have defective consoles. I recieved a refurbished one with the same problem I already had and was told I would get another refurbished one on this return.

And before someone calls me a sony or nintendo fanboy you can find my gamertag, puh fifer, and see that I've been playing since launch and have about 2700 gamer points. I love the 360, but the manufacturing problems are ridiculous and killing Microsoft's first mover advantage.

nick @ Jan 14th 2006 2:10PM

Two of my friends have a 360 and have never had a problem with their consoles. One got his at Zero Hour, and the other camped out the day before the introduction.

There would be more of us with a 360, but we can't find them in stores. And I'm not going to pay $900 to get one on Ebay or buy a bundle to get one.

a @ Jan 14th 2006 2:33PM

Eric said:

And regarding Microsoft's previous loss in the hardware division, this is nothing new. Microsoft has lost money introducing new products before, as have other companies. Any manufacturer introducing a new hardware console is expected to lose billions in the first couple of years. Sony will experience this too with the PS3. It takes a few years to recover the costs in software or through licensing or more efficient manufacturing methods.

To Eric:

I don't think you know what you are talking about. Nintendo doesn't sell their console at a loss. Ever. Sony sold theirs at a loss initially, but overall made plenty of money. Microsoft lost 4 billion dollars over the life of the Xbox console. In other words, they never came close to breaking even.

Fortunately for Microsoft, they don't depend on the Xbox for their profits, and $4 billion is maybe 2% of their company's overall value, but essentially they are leveraging their monopoly to try to muscle their way into the #1 spot regardless of the cost. No other company could afford to do this. If Microsoft makes $4 billion over the entire life of the Xbox 360, they will have just managed to break even after 10 years in the industry.

Madge @ Jan 14th 2006 3:03PM

Yall need ta stizzay hat'n on tha PS3 n realize that tha Xbox 1.5 is a bizzy!

portnoy @ Jan 14th 2006 5:21PM

"Given that NPD data isn't accurate up to the minute (probably a week or two behind)"

This is a serious exageration. 2 Weeks behind? So you must be saying the 600K figure is accurate to about christmas? Thats funny. And Stupid.

"That means that, assuming a linear sales curve, the 45 day target is 1.375 to 1.5 million.

"

A linear sales curve? You must be kidding right? When you have the holiday season in the first month of launch and then the dry spell of january/february after that the sales curve will likely be negative for months. More stupid assumptions based on factless fanboy magic.

"If we presume that Microsoft is splitting shipments 60/40 US/Europe"

This presumption is weak at best. They won't give us accurate shipment info. Otherwise they would expose the lies they've been feeding us about the sales targets. "Um yeah, we have shipped 1 million units and we expect to sell 3 million." Anyone who thinks MS is doing anything but blowing smoke out its ass has his eyes shut.

"Let's also assume that Microsoft has sold half of their remaining inventory in Japan"

Why would we assume that? DOA sales? Hardly a solid basis for that presumption.

I've seem some half baked logic trains before but this one flew off the tracks before it even got rolling. I can't imagine what kind of person could come up with such an erronious accumulation of non-facts, and half-true assumptions in order to rationalize what has been globally criticized as a massive botch job.

"That puts us at a cool clean 1.2 million units."

Maybe you should tell that to microsoft. Dont you think if they were even CLOSE to being on track for their targets, they would shout it from the rooftops? Do you think if they were going to make their targets they would change them from 3 million in 90 days to 4-5 million in 7 months? C'mon. What are you thinking?

"I personally think the launch went fine."

Um, you must not have talked to the fanboys sitting at home without consoles, or worse the ones whose units died on them.

Anyone dumb enough to think the 360 launch went fine is a hardcore fanboy unable to see reality.

I don't care who wins the war, but so far its not looking good for MS. Any other view has to ignore the facts on the ground. Lucky for them though, is that Sony seems to have nearly as many problems getting to launch as MS has had after launch. Nintendo could go either way at this point.