All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2021 Edition]

Maybe?
I did see PS5: stock piled like crazy for Walmart DC pictures on Reddit. Maybe they are just getting them prepared for post cyber Monday and ready for the Xmas.

I’m very curious to see how much stock will be released for all consoles these holidays. I’m frankly confused as to why you’d bother stocking them up; I’m not a fan of online orders given the scalping issues. I say release them as you get them into the wild in person.

But I agree for the first Christmas after Halo is released, Xbox should do good this year.
 
Maybe?
I did see PS5: stock piled like crazy for Walmart DC pictures on Reddit. Maybe they are just getting them prepared for post cyber Monday and ready for the Xmas.

I’m very curious to see how much stock will be released for all consoles these holidays. I’m frankly confused as to why you’d bother stocking them up; I’m not a fan of online orders given the scalping issues. I say release them as you get them into the wild in person.

But I agree for the first Christmas after Halo is released, Xbox should do good this year.

I saw a lot of series x and s also , but from people I know in retail it seems that series s might have out numbered ps5 by as much as 3:1.
 
For post thanksgiving? That’s a load of stock
I think the week leading up to black Friday through Christmas. MS is able to produce a lot of series s consoles vs the x. Sony's ps5 is apparently being produced in quantities between the two xboxs . Of course this is going by second and third hand information.
 
I saw a lot of series x and s also , but from people I know in retail it seems that series s might have out numbered ps5 by as much as 3:1.


Seems still readily available. Just not a good sign it wont seem to sell out.

It needs to win NPD IMO to have any validity. I know there was that report (people REALLY want the S to be a hit) but it was another firm I've never heard of with no sources and/or questionable methodology. Give me the NPD receipts for nov and dec and we'll talk.

Maybe if you can produce two+ S for every X/PS5, it's an end around short term win in shortage-topia. A reverse goal type of win, but a win nonetheless. But, given all the countless supply constraints besides just the SOC, yeah, I 100% doubt it.
 
Unfortunately, the best we are going to get is that the Xbox outsold ___ last month, or more money was spent on Xbox or the bestselling system was Xbox. No numbers. Not saying it is going to happen just saying that is the best we are going to get.
 
Seems still readily available. Just not a good sign it wont seem to sell out.

It needs to win NPD IMO to have any validity. I know there was that report (people REALLY want the S to be a hit) but it was another firm I've never heard of with no sources and/or questionable methodology. Give me the NPD receipts for nov and dec and we'll talk.

Maybe if you can produce two+ S for every X/PS5, it's an end around short term win in shortage-topia. A reverse goal type of win, but a win nonetheless. But, given all the countless supply constraints besides just the SOC, yeah, I 100% doubt it.
That doesn't make any sense. You're charting demand as being equal to supply.

That's like saying Coke doesn't sell better than XSX because it's always in stock.

You can't sell what's not on shelves. And people aren't not willing to spend 300 to buy something they don't want; your argument doesn't flow properly in both directions.
It cannot be 'Just not a good sign it wont seem to sell out', and at the same time it's the best selling device for Black Friday.
If it's outselling the competition, supply constraints or not, it's selling more; therefore people want it.
It doesn't matter than it's still on shelves and PS5/XSX are not; about the only knowledge you gain from that fact is that demand has not yet outstripped supply.

But that has no bearing on sales performance. Series S not having a bottleneck around supply does not have any indication of sales performance as we see here on Black Friday. It's still on shelves, but it's among the best selling items in _all_ categories of Black Friday.

Scalping prices is not a direct indicator of demand either. Things that are are not supply constrained cannot be scalped. It's an indication of demand relative to the amount of available supply.

Price points matter. The idea that everyone who bought a $300 XSS, is more than happy to spend $500 on XSX/PS5, but couldn't and settled for a $300 is deaf commentary in a world that is just coming out of recession and unemployment from covid. Yes XSS does count as a substitute good in some ways, but it's not that strong of a substitute good.

$299 with or without discounts is still by far the cheapest way to get into next gen gaming, (if you side step xcloud).

Using basic Economics 101 class: Hypothetical chart of various products. I have given a large demand advantage to PS5 and moved XSS demand to far left to provide it the perceived 'no one wants it'. But I also gave it the best supply curve as it is by far the cheapest to produce (with XSX being the most expensive to produce), and you can see in totality, even in this scenario with 'low demand' and high supply, it still sells more units than PS5.

I want to be clear, this is not reflective of anything in real life, or is this filled with real data. But looking at how well stocked shelves are and correlating that to unit sales is probably the incorrect way to look at it.

We can only assume that the equilibrium points "are" the starting prices of the consoles. In order for there to be discounts in pricing and therefore 'increase sales" if the demand curve stays the same, unit supply has to improve in order to allow for it, or the business loses money. We could keep moving the PS5 demand to the right to better model the PS5 craze, but if you cannot move the PS5 supply graph to the right, you cannot sell more; the price only goes up.

esPDMPo.jpg
 
Last edited:
That doesn't make any sense. You're charting demand as being equal to supply.

That's like saying Coke doesn't sell better than XSX because it's always in stock.

You can't sell what's not on shelves. And people aren't not willing to spend 300 to buy something they don't want; your argument doesn't flow properly in both directions.
It cannot be 'Just not a good sign it wont seem to sell out', and at the same time it's the best selling device for Black Friday.
If it's outselling the competition, supply constraints or not, it's selling more; therefore people want it.
It doesn't matter than it's still on shelves and PS5/XSX are not; about the only knowledge you gain from that fact is that demand has not yet outstripped supply.

But that has no bearing on sales performance. Series S not having a bottleneck around supply does not have any indication of sales performance as we see here on Black Friday. It's still on shelves, but it's among the best selling items in _all_ categories of Black Friday.

Scalping prices is not a direct indicator of demand either. Things that are are not supply constrained cannot be scalped. It's an indication of demand relative to the amount of available supply.

Price points matter. The idea that everyone who bought a $300 XSS, is more than happy to spend $500 on XSX/PS5, but couldn't and settled for a $300 is deaf commentary in a world that is just coming out of recession and unemployment from covid. Yes XSS does count as a substitute good in some ways, but it's not that strong of a substitute good.

$299 with or without discounts is still by far the cheapest way to get into next gen gaming, (if you side step xcloud).

Using basic Economics 101 class: Hypothetical chart of various products. I have given a large demand advantage to PS5 and moved XSS demand to far left to provide it the perceived 'no one wants it'. But I also gave it the best supply curve as it is by far the cheapest to produce (with XSX being the most expensive to produce), and you can see in totality, even in this scenario with 'low demand' and high supply, it still sells more units than PS5.

I want to be clear, this is not reflective of anything in real life, or is this filled with real data. But looking at how well stocked shelves are and correlating that to unit sales is probably the incorrect way to look at it.

We can only assume that the equilibrium points "are" the starting prices of the consoles. In order for there to be discounts in pricing and therefore 'increase sales" if the demand curve stays the same, unit supply has to improve in order to allow for it, or the business loses money. We could keep moving the PS5 demand to the right to better model the PS5 craze, but if you cannot move the PS5 supply graph to the right, you cannot sell more; the price only goes up.

esPDMPo.jpg
All this. And also the whole narrative that “shelves are stacked” is ridiculously anecdotal.

No, Steve, all you saw was one shop with some stock, please move along thank you.
 
Maybe?
I did see PS5: stock piled like crazy for Walmart DC pictures on Reddit. Maybe they are just getting them prepared for post cyber Monday and ready for the Xmas.

I’m very curious to see how much stock will be released for all consoles these holidays. I’m frankly confused as to why you’d bother stocking them up; I’m not a fan of online orders given the scalping issues. I say release them as you get them into the wild in person.

But I agree for the first Christmas after Halo is released, Xbox should do good this year.


Yes they are in DC's. That's just the supply chain. Then they sell out of course the instant they hit stores (except for S). I have seen some people online act like this is some giant conspiracy "omg, PS5 just stacked on the warehouse! The are withholding them on purpose" I guess they dont understand how physics work.

There does seem to be quite a good supply of XSX/PS5 in the chain for this holiday, I also noticed a PS5 for sale on my local marketplace, NIB bare PS5, guy was asking 800 and it had sat for like a week. Saw he had reduced that to 750 the other day and it was still available. That tells me people arent biting as much, they're thinking they can get one at MSRP, which probably means theyre seeing friends and family score them at MSRP, or at least bundles in which case at least they get some content like a couple games for their 8 hundy. So I think there was a solid supply of XSX/PS5 this holiday. I'm wondering if finally they may start becoming available on shelves in January. Part of me figures shortages are near permanent nowdays though.
 
Personally get too caught up in the fact that I would not settle for a Series S, which is why I find it hard to believe many hardcore gamers would. I'm not sure I would even consider myself that hardcore anymore, but I would not spend 300 dollars for something to hold me over until I can get an X. I think it is even more unlikely that someone who was not already part of the Xbox ecosystem would do something like that while waiting for a PS5.
 
Ranger, I think you get too caught up in the fact that YOU don't want an XSS and it stops you from seeing that many less fortunate people, especially in secondary markets that MS is trying to grow (ie. Brazil, India, Eastern Europe etc...) actually find it to be good value. Time will tell.


I'm starting to think it could be ok for the reason you state, also IFFFF they can actually physically produce more of them vs XSX or more importantly the competing PS5 when things are in component shortage.

Overall though I'm going to judge the success of the S on the overall Xbox success this gen. Because my whole thing is S has a very insidious and corrupting negative effect on the Xbox platform that's hard to describe, but includes things like no XSX DE, confusing people, necessitating a horrendous naming convention that actively befuddles casual consumers (made worse by MS in previous generations too be fair), and nerfing the all important short term power advantage they have in casual mindshare So far I have not seen particularly positive results in Xbox platform unit hardware sales this gen vs last, but I guess to be fair data is incredibly thin on the ground (I've been watching too much DF).

To be more succinct, a hypothetical 399 XSX just makes the XSS almost useless. It's really that simple and nothing else needed to be debated. There's nothing in the small die cost savings of the XSS that justifies it. MS is probably going to scramble all gen to keep it afloat, and they're bleeding more money on it, and there's just not a lot of room to go down there from 299, it gets harder and harder down there, and the XSX and PS5 (DE especially) is going to be pressuring it from above more and more with a lot more room to drop.

As for emerging markets, that's a nice idea but I think we need to keep in mind that profits are likely hard to find there, and there's a reason those markets are perennially not the priority to Sony or MS. There's no sense chasing 5% of the profit pie or whatever. Or even if you think it it can grow to 10% in the short to mid term (made up numbers obviously), you cannot expend too many resources to gain that.
 
Personally get too caught up in the fact that I would not settle for a Series S, which is why I find it hard to believe many hardcore gamers would. I'm not sure I would even consider myself that hardcore anymore, but I would not spend 300 dollars for something to hold me over until I can get an X. I think it is even more unlikely that someone who was not already part of the Xbox ecosystem would do something like that while waiting for a PS5.

Would you rather stick to playing on an Xbox One or One S? And living with 2 to 3 to 4 minute game loads. Until who knows when you can land a Series X.
 
Yes.
Because ~90% of my library is physical.

That sounds like a lot of plastic waste. :oops:

I haven't bought a game disc since the Xbox 360. Of the 4 Xbox consoles I've owned since the 360, none of them have ever had a game disc in them.

Back on topic, give me the Series S every time. It's been my go-to recommendation for all my family & friends.

Tommy McClain
 
Yes.
Because ~90% of my library is physical.
That used to be me. But... I mean I get 4 free digital games a month through Games with Gold. I don't buy 36 physical games a month. More like 4-10 a year. My Xbox library is probably closer to 50/50 now, without counting.
 
Yes.
Because ~90% of my library is physical.

Ah yeah, if you're stuck with physical. I've been digital since middle of X360, so naturally never registered needing the drive for anything other than movies.
 
Back
Top