The only console I stood in line for was the Nintendo Wii. I do believe that scarcity was organic, and not manufactured.

But the PS5 and Xbox Series X scarcity. Completely manufactured. If they were on the shelf and easy to get then people would say "look they are not selling, maybe I should just wait till they go on sale"

Console scarcity for the past 3 iterations has always been manufactured. I remember when the PS2 came out, I could walk down to the store a week after the debut and there were plenty available. That stopped with the 3.

Manufactured console scarcity. I'm not questioning the veracity of the concept, but how do Microsoft and Sony benefit by not having enough consoles available before Christmas? We'd like to get a PS5. Our relatives have bought a controller and a couple games for my kids as Christmas gifts. That stuff gets returned if we don't get a console. No additional games get purchased, no subscription services get purchased, and we have three disappointed kids at Christmas. How is that a good plan for any company?

I've had two consoles in 52 years on the planet, an Atari 2600 and an Xbox 360, so I really have no experience with console scarcity before Christmas.

I'm sure there's some study that marketing people rely on to justify manufactured scarcity. Likely drives demand above and beyond what would happen naturally.

If you knew 10 people wanted a widget and you built 11 widgets, the 11th widget would just sit on the shelf. Everyone got one when they wanted it, and another one is on the shelf when someone needs it, so never a second thought.

On the other hand, if you only built 9 widgets, the 10th person would talk about how popular the widgets were and how hard it was to get. Shopper 11, hearing about how desireable these widgets are, gets one as soon as he can. Shopper 10 and 11 drive demand, and soon Shopper 12 is waiting to get one.

It's the same thing for bars and night clubs. The most desirable spot in the city is the one you can't get into.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Aeteocles,

Walmart will have some of each tomorrow, Thursday at 3pm Eastern time, via the website.

got one in my cart then the website went wonky and all gone. guess it's not in the stars

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
got one in my cart then the website went wonky and all gone. guess it's not in the stars

Same. Was logged in, got in cart, then oh deer shit.

Same here. How did they get sold out if you couldn't even get into the cart? The all access financing is completely non functional on wal marts site.

Was lucky enough to get the Xbox at a local Walmart on release day. 2 left in stock when I ordered it online for same day pickup. Told me they only got 6 in on release day. Online only.

I got all the way to place order and got nothing.

Overslept and got up at 9:15 but was able to score an X on Walmart.com. Everything went out of stock afterwards

Nice! We didn't get one again, but we stopped trying at 9:10 because the site kept saying out of stock try again Black Friday. That and multiple "Oh, deers".

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Nice! We didn't get one again, but we stopped trying at 9:10 because the site kept saying out of stock try again Black Friday. That and multiple "Oh, deers".

That’s pretty much everyone. Bots and scalpers are just truly incredible. The average Joe cannot compete with them.

I'll pick one up in the Spring after they become easily available.

Shortages are generally planned, but this year is worse than most. There are legitimate shortages in the chips used in the GPUs. They'd love to have moved more units than they are going to be able to this holiday season. High demand product, plus shortages, plus scalpers equals no available product.

Hopefully by Spring i'll be able to find the new X Box, and Nvidia 3080, AND ammunition on the shelves again.

Try again on Black Friday. HA!!! How about Nooooo.

I will wait till next year this time both to not deal with the BS and to see all the bugs and issues and fixes if need be.

Has anyone reviewed a game like the new COD side by side on the One X vs Series X? It just doesn’t seem like there would be all that much difference.

Existing games? I wouldn't expect much difference. COD would probably give you a more stable frame rate (I think I saw the new consoles would hold a steady 60fps). Normally it takes about a year for developers to really start taking advantage of new hardware.

The new cod looks better on my son’s series S then it does on my One X Project Scorpio.

Now he wants the X since we can’t hook up an external drive for him to play his old disc games.

picked up my Series X today at Walmart. After leaving the store my 14 year old said wow, that walmart is shady as all f&&&, which it was.

sold my second series s to a coworker who was looking for one for her kids.

at cost.

gave my son my project scorpio (one x) so he can continue to play older disc based games since you can't hook up an external drive to the series s.

Last night just before midnight the Microsoft store had a few xboxs in stock. I got all the way to actually paying then it said there's a problem with payment on our end. A few minutes later they're out of stock. Same old thing, Its stupid to have so few of them available at any given time.