"Pre-sales of Microsoft’s next-generation gaming system wipes out e-tail inventory weeks before system ships.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is already sold out online, forcing Wal-Mart’s e-tail site to suggest to consumers that they line up outside its stores at midnight on November 22, the date it will be released in the United States.

“We’re sorry, but we’re sold out of our initial launch quantity of Xbox 360 hardware,” said the site. “However, the Xbox 360 will be available in Wal-Mart stores at 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 22.”

Amazon’s site also said the unit is not available in the U.S. and told consumers in the United Kingdom they may not be able to get an Xbox 360 before the holidays, according to Bloomberg News.

Bids on eBay reached as high as $4,100 this week, according to PortalIT. On Friday, eBay bids were over $1,200. Microsoft plans to sell the unit for $299, or $399 with extra accessories.

Other sites such as Buy.com also did not seem to list the unit, and a search on Froogle turned up sites that said the system was either “out of stock” or “temporarily unavailable.”

Microsoft hopes to ship 4.5 million to 5.5 million Xbox 360 systems by June for a total of at least $1.35 billion. It seems well on the way, judging by initial demand. Shares of Microsoft were up $0.18 to $26.62 in recent trading.

Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell predicted shortages of the company’s next-generation gaming system on a conference call, but said the Redmond software giant would continually supply merchants with additional units.

The company hopes to catch up to Sony, whose PlayStation 2 still sells double the number of gaming systems as the Xbox in the U.S., according to the NPD Group. Microsoft already has 15 to 20 games coming out with the release. The company also faces competition from Nintendo’s GameCube." [link]

¶ D.Vader // 11/05/2005 11:07:00 PM // PermaLink

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