Gameconomics

2005-11-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

Microsoft posts end-of-year sales predictions.

Microsoft released to investors its sales targets for the next three months for the Xbox 360. They hope to sell 3 million units of the new system. Enough, they say, to satisfy demand.

This is another nail in the coffin of the idea of a Deliberate shortage of Xbox 360. A shortage is where the market supply is UNABLE to meet the demand of the market. It does NOT make economic sense to deliberately sabotage your sales, by creating a shortage. In the short term it may increase some sales down the road, but a shortage does more harm than good. One will cause a lot of ill will in consumers, who pre-ordered, and were unable to get one on the day that they were told they would. The Playstation 2 shortage was caused by Sony having problems in manufacturing, setting them a month behind in production and not being able to meet supply goals. It ended up doing more harm than good for the prospective customers. It would be foolish more Microsoft to cause a deliberate shortage.The publicity gained from such a shortage, and consumer fears of one will actually hurt sales more than it will help them.

2005-11-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

Xbox 360 Launch Predictions

On November 22, Microsoft will lauch the highly anticipated game console, the Xbox 360. This launch date comes less than a week before the busiest shopping day of the year. Known in the retail industry as "Black Friday". Amid the news of the launch, are fears that there will be shortages of the consoles, and that retailers will have to turn prospective customers away.

Here at Gameconomics, we are going to post our predictions on the week following the launch date.

As you can see from the graph here. The Xbox 360 will have a strong first day of sales. This will wane down for the day before and of Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, will notice a sharp increase in sales, which will then plateau off by Monday.

The best day to buy an Xbox 360 would be Wednesday November 23rd. Although there will less demand on Thursday the 24th. That is Thanksgiving Day, and it is likely that stores will be closed on that day.

As for the predictions of a shortage, we think that there is some possibility to them. However, we think that the general availability of the console on launch day is that you should be able to walk in on launch day, and buy one.

NOTE: These are only our predictions, and are speculation on our part. do not take what you read in this post as absolute fact.

2005-11-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Gamenomics! a blog/column about economics, as it relates to video-games.

Features to come:

Columns on the industry
Analysis of industry trends and predictions from those trends
Price indexes of the economies of various MMORPG's

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