True, though the Xbox's pre-orders are rather sluggish compared to the xbox 360's. so times are changing because of customer's input whether it's based on the hardcore or not.
Given the negativity and last minute changing of policies, which have got very little coverage in mainstream (non-gaming) media, I'm not surprised. Lots of people may not even know the original DRM policies have been scrapped.
I'm not too much into marketing strategies but there are a number of ways sales can be effected or even manipulated for demand, (like the Iphone). you're right that the Wii had it's own problems too; but that only was because the actual demand was really high. In which case production was still at fault but not by Nintendo choice.
It's difficult to manipulate sales, unless the company send folks out to retail to buy products on shelves. Unlikely. Sales will be made when there is an actual demand. You can inflate perceived demand by channel stuffing but that's shipments, not sales. And if one of the consoles sells badly, you can't get away with "we're sold out" because too many places report actual sales figures.
In microsoft's case (being the most expensive console.) i can see shipping with small numbers based on a couple reasons, from factory testing to available time left for mass production. It's obvious Microsoft is behind on schedule going by their beta kits used, to DF's article on Esram.
I believe that Microsoft are behind on software tools, bkillian has said as much, but production? I've not seen any tangible evidence of that. It depends what their component supply chain is, how many consoles they can produce a week and the target number units they want available at launch. I personally do not believe any of these last minute spec change rumours, I think Microsoft are likely already in production or about to go into full production.
So Microsoft might stumble on shipped units regardless and may also take advantage of that through hyping it, till they can respond effectively in the mean time. It would be similar to the ps3 and I do remember the hype still being pretty big over where i was at. (in the US)
It's difficult to hype or spin this because too many retails channels report actual sales figures. If, whatever reason, the PlayStation 4 is outselling the Xbox One, that's bad for Microsoft.
I've said before but I will say it again... People who ordred ps4s late in the game will be upset when they are told they wont be getting it on launch day. I know gamestop overbooked for what they consider launch day avalibility and the response the RMs and DMS are getting is to just deal with it when the time comes.
Yup. It depends on who and how your ordered. If you've secure a 'Day One Edition' or placed a deposit, which you stand to lose, you're likely fine and within that stores allocated stock. But places like Amazon, who require no deposit, will know that lots of people who preorder later cancel so they'll certainly be allowing more launch pre-oders than they anticipate having launch stock for. There are likely less cancellations for paid deposit orders.
