From the Rumor Mill: X360 Production Stopped Relaunch In February

[Alpha_Spartan]

I'd have thought a public announcement would be needed. Certainly stockholders and software devs should be being told. As a possibility, it'd tie in with idea that there's not as many launch units because there's a high failure rate at the manufacturing phase. So as far as rumours go it seems more probable than most. LB's just jealous he didn't come up with this one!

All the public needs to know that there is a [artificially] high demand for the system and people are buying them faster than they can keep it on shelves...or so they think. The public will just think that they are selling so fast that they won't be able to buy one until February.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

This sounds VERY suspect. To take that drastic an action you would have to have serious problems with the hardware - something more substantial than a few reports of overheating consoles on some messageboards. A hardware problem that big would not go unnoticed.

Perhaps your source simply meant there would not be a really big flow of stock until Feb which is plausible as the worldwide launch has meant that supply is stretched.

No what she said is that because of a defect with the console, production has been halted while the problem is sorted out. They can't continue to ship out defective consoles, so when the problem is fixed, production will resume and the console will re-launch in February.

 

[Carl B]

Well strangely enough, I was in a Best Buy yesterday and a manager there told me the exact same thing: that production has halted and Feb is the new target date.

Now, when I heard that I just kind of smiled and acted surprised, because obviously I know more than he does. (y'know?) But now with this as well, it's maybe something to watch. We'll just have to see what happens with upcoming shipments. I still 'don't believe it,' but I am surprised at the coincidental nature of Alpha's experience - two forum posters having the same conversation with reps from two different companies on the first instance of their discussing the topic with reps from said companies.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Care to explain what is "artificial" about the demand for the 360? Aren't you living proof to the contrary? (What, with the complaints about not being able to get one, and all?)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Care to explain what is "artificial" about the demand for the 360? Aren't you living proof to the contrary? (What, with the complaints about not being able to get one, and all?)

I think he's implying that M$ kept the quantities available intentionally low so as to cause all these "sell outs" of units and the high demand for them.

If every store had a thousand units at launch availability wouldn't be so much of a problem.

I don't know about this rumor, if it's true we should get confirmations trickling in all day at least so we'll find out soon enough.

I tend to think that M$ would keep shipping them flawed until they get it fixed, the want for the X360 is so high they'd just keep selling possibly flawed units until they could get a fix out just for bragging rights.

 

[Dave Baumann]

If there was a "defect with the console" then you wouldn't think they would be launching in the two markets that are yet to launch knowing that. The Europe launch is all set to go tomorrow, and there's no indication of Japan halting.

 

[Jon Brittan]

I heard a rumour that Microsoft were intending to buy every single PS3 made, it's a cunning plan because we all know that companies take a hit on the hardware sales in order to make it back on software sales, but here's the cunning bit Microsoft don't plan on buying any games for the system!


Seriously though, I very, very much doubt that this rumour is true, I just can't see (without some further leaking at least) what issue could be big enough to halt production entirely, every component will have been tested to death before they started building the units so there shouldn't be any major faults with any individual component and if it's just the odd bad batch then they wouldn't stop production completely.
It's possible, but I can't really imagine the circumstances.

 

[Carl B]

Well I actually think that they would still launch - really we'll just have to watch and see if any more shipments arrive between now and Christmas, and then on from there.

I hear in the US December 7th and/or 17th are two dates to watch for, so I myself will be watching.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I think he's implying that MS kept the quantities available intentionally low so as to cause all these "sell outs" of units and the high demand for them.

I believe it was actually MS's intention to specifically target Alpha_Spartan to make sure that he personally did not get a console.

 

[fearsomepirate]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140371.html

In response to the retail drought of Xbox 360s across the country, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices division, told GameSpot, "We are well aware that many gamers are disappointed to have not gotten their Xbox 360 on day one. We are working around the clock to manufacture as many Xbox 360s as we can and are replenishing our retail channel week after week."

This rumor needs to end, I think.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I believe it was actually MS's intention to specifically target Alpha_Wolf to make sure that he personally did not get a console.

Yeah, I heard that too....but I didn't put much credence into it until you brought it up.

I heard a rumour that Microsoft were intending to buy every single PS3 made, it's a cunning plan because we all know that companies take a hit on the hardware sales in order to make it back on software sales, but here's the cunning bit Microsoft don't plan on buying any games for the system!

Crazy as this sounds, I betcha it would really hurt Sony and M$ could just about pull it off!

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

Well strangely enough, I was in a Best Buy yesterday and a manager there told me the exact same thing: that production has halted and Feb is the new target date.

Now, when I heard that I just kind of smiled and acted surprised, because obviously I know more than he does. (y'know?) But now with this as well, it's maybe something to watch. We'll just have to see what happens with upcoming shipments. I still 'don't believe it,' but I am surprised at the coincidental nature of Alpha's experience - two forum posters having the same conversation with reps from two different companies on the first instance of their discussing the topic with reps from said companies.

Zing! So it spreads...

You guys may hate rumors, but they exist to keep companies honest. If this spreads enough, Microsoft will be forced to comment on the issue. I mean, they say they're sending out weekly shipments, but weekly shipments of what? They are weekly shipments to cover the returns as I brought out earlier. Perusing some gaming forums I found this:

Also, the drought of X360s is also due to the fact that Microsoft is giving priority to the customers who have defective units. And since there are a lot of defective units out there (mainly all those people on the East Coast), for every new unit that could have went to retail are now being directed to those people who have hardware duds.

Source
With XBD corroborating my story and a GAF poster saying the same thing that I said about replacements (of course I could have "stolen" that from him, but I didn't), this rumor has more legs than I originally believed.

 

[Qroach]

This sounds like some people have incorrect information to me. if there was a serious flaw in the consoles and htis caused them to stop production until january then they would be forced to recall all units imo. There's something wrong with what alpha spartans friend stated....

1. If they stopped production until february, then why would they produce/ship just enough units to cover returns? if there was a serious enough flaw to stop productiion and you say they aren't shipping defective units already created, then where would these "replacement units" come from, and why would they not be affected?

2. Also MS are still launching in europe and japan on the same schedules. If there was something that stopped production, these regions would not get thier consoles. After all, all the units are manufacturerd in the same places.

This rumor goes out the window when the next shipment arrives in December.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140371.html



This rumor needs to end, I think.

I half agree. It needs to end when there's overwhelming proof that substantial weekly shipments have arrived at the retailers.

I'm sorry, but 5 units at an EB in Tuscaloosa doesn't count.

 

[Carl B]

This rumor goes out the window when the next shipment arrives in December.

I completely agree - but eyes will be even more intently trained on that next shipment than perhaps they already were. It would behoove Microsoft to lay low if it *were* true, so except for the absurdness of it, there's nothing outright disproving it at this point. If they were going to do a recall, I imagine it'd be in February with whatever supposed relaunch - just lay low around Christmas.

It doesn't matter, we'll know it's false the moment a new shipment arrives in December. And if it doesn't arrive, we can revisit the speculation.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

If there was a "defect with the console" then you wouldn't think they would be launching in the two markets that are yet to launch knowing that. The Europe launch is all set to go tomorrow, and there's no indication of Japan halting.

They're using different factories per market, so it's possible that the launch batch came from a manufacturing problem at a certain factory.

 

[Dave Baumann]

If you watched the Money Program piece on the XBOX 360 launch you'd know that they are both flying and shipping consoles to the various locations - flying them is quick, but the volumes will be small and this is also expensive, so they are probably going to keep them to a minimum; shipping will be very big volumes, but this is going to be slow. Things are likely to remain trickle, until the shipping volumes actually start to come in to each of the regions.

 

[Dave Baumann]

They're using different factories per market, so it's possible that the launch batch came from a manufacturing problem at a certain factory.

Then they wouldn't be "stopping production", they would be stopping production at one plant.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

I believe it was actually MS's intention to specifically target Alpha_Spartan to make sure that he personally did not get a console.

If you went though what I went through a week ago, you would believe it.

1)EB Games launch shipment gets cut in half. I'm on second shipment.

2)Go to Walmart first in line for a 360 and two employees flat out lied about the launch plans. They said show up at 12, there will be no tickets handed out. Tickets were handed out 3 hours after I left. :|

3)Arrive at Target the next morning. Only two cores left. I could have had a 360 but rejected that milk machine.

4)I go to TRU and there's no line. So I went to Sears who lied and said they had 50 units. When the opened up we found out that the TWO Cores they were expecting hadn't shipped yet. To this day, they still haven't shipped. I go back to TRU and there's a line 15 deep. I go home empty handed.

So at the end of the day, I did feel that MS personally tried to shaft me and I've been trying to find out why this is the case. High demand? False demand? Manufacturing problems? We'll find out at the end of this week.

 

[Alpha_Spartan]

Then they wouldn't be "stopping production", they would be stopping production at one plant.

One plant or plants that supply a certain market. AFAIK, the problem is only isolated to the NA market.