Playfeed | Xbox 360 Launching November 25? This appears to be a PR stunt to me since this is a great day to get attention. There are a slew of news stories that hit the streets after this three-day post Thanksgiving buying fest. There is bound to be a story on how the Xbox does. My predicition it will sell out and be newsworthy. All Microsoft has to do is keep them in short supply until after the news stories run then swamp the retailers with a ton of them.
It looks like the Xbox 360 will not be launching on November 4 after all, as Microsoft opts to give developers a few weeks longer to put that extra shine on their launch titles. So it looks like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is set to launch on November 25, 2005, which just happens to be both Black Friday and the day after Thanksgiving. This is the biggest shopping day of the year, so my guess is that finding an Xbox 360 come November 26 will not be an easy task.
Well, this contradicts your theory that Microsoft is bad at marketing. This is pure genius. They must have hired a better marketing firm this time around.
It certainly was genius to be ready for this holiday season, while the Playstation loyals scratch their heads and wonder when they’ll see their system…
It is so sad that the norm for product rollouts anymore is to intentionally create shortages of product in hopes of generating buzz and heightening interest. It seems that Apple started this trend (intentionally or not) with their first iBook ™, and other electronics-makers have followed suit.
Dvorak, your prediction is probably accurate; Microsoft will carefully orchestrate shortages of the 360 to create mad rushes for them at the store, only to release a greater supply to be gobbled up by desperate shoppers just in time for the holidays.
Of course in the meantime Ebay sellers will be making hundreds of dollars in profits selling to the desperate few who think life will end if they can’t put a shiny new 360 under their Christmas tree.
With Sony not trying to one-up Microsoft in the information game, it seems that our friends in Redmond will be allowed to get away with this false product shortage.
They’ll have plenty of time in the first quarter of ’06 to roll out X-Boxes to the masses.