Microsoft wants you to purchase an Xbox and has already begun its multi-million dollar advertising campaign. It is invading magazines, Internet sites and TV shows. With a marketing budget of $500 million, Microsoft can afford to do this without breaking much of a sweat. However, this is not going to make it any easier to pick up an Xbox of your own, come Nov. 8.
Microsoft originally estimated that there would be 600,000 to 800,000 available Xbox units when the console launches in about six weeks, but analysts are not so sure about that now.
Microsoft has manufacturing plants in Mexico and Hungary about to begin producing the hardware, but they have yet to start piecing the units together. Microsoft has stated that they can produce 125,000 to 150,000 units per week for the remainder of the 2001 year, but now many are speculating that only 300,000 units will make it to store shelves by Nov. 8 This cuts the number of initially expected units in half, which will leave a lot of people who pre-ordered an Xbox upset.
For this very reason, many major retailers have been holding back on pre-selling Xbox to consumers.
Some stores began taking pre-orders as early as last year, but others are not beginning the pre-order process until the end of this month or on into October.
What this means, essentially, is that anyone who did not pre-order a long time ago and is not hurrying to a store that is about to begin their pre-order campaign, will not be picking up an Xbox come November.
Take the PlayStation 2 launch of last year, for instance. 1,000,000 PS2’s were expected to make it on launch day, but just a few weeks before, Sony cut that number in half, and there were nationwide PS2 shortages throughout the Christmas holiday. Select retailers had taken hundreds of pre-orders, and each one of those had to filled before they could even start putting them on store shelves. Each store only gets a small allocation of systems each week, and there is no way for them to obtain more.
With the Xbox launch, we could easily see a repeat of history.
Microsoft is not officially commenting on how many units they will have, so we can only speculate as to whether there will be a shortage.
For those who have not pre-ordered their Xbox but are highly interested in obtaining one, there are only a few options left. A few popular online retailers have not begun their pre-order campaigns yet. Web sites like CDUniverse.com will not begin theirs until October. Other sites like Amazon.com, EBGames.com, and GameStop.com sold out several thousand pre-orders already, and are waiting on the go-ahead from Microsoft to pre-sell more systems. Amazon.com will open the floodgates to more pre-orders on Monday, Sept. 24, but be wary¥their last two allotments sold out in half an hour.
If you’re willing to travel, try talking to store representatives at surrounding area game stores. Babbages in Tupelo has already sold all of their pre-orders, but they will gladly add you to a waiting list. From there, as they get more Xboxes in the store, you’ll have the first chance to grab one.
The Xbox has been gaining tremendous popularity over the last month, primarily from online advertising and marketing.
Much like the Blair Witch Project, something that might not have been that interesting is made extremely popular by word of mouth.
The Xbox was the least popular console at last May’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it has done a complete turnaround and is now showing a lot of promise for Microsoft.