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July 5, 2007 2:44 PM PDT

Xbox 360 shipments fail to reach target

by Ina Fried
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Microsoft acknowledged on Thursday that, in addition to experiencing an unacceptably high rate of hardware failures with the Xbox 360, the game console has also failed to reach its sales target.

The company had said it would sell 12 million of the consoles by June 30. Instead, it has shipped a total of 11.6 million units, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said on a conference call

"That is slightly shy" of its projections, Liddell said, but added "we're happy with that number."

Earlier Thursday, Microsoft said it was extending the warranty on the console to three years for certain hardware failures, a move that is prompting a $1 billion charge.

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
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Who cares.
by Springmuffins July 5, 2007 3:19 PM PDT
Nice freaking news update. How about something worth reading? I
mean, I would rather take a 360 over a PS3 any day, and a Wii over
both too. At least it's selling and has good games worth playing.
Reply to this comment
yeah right!!!
by doggystyle805 July 5, 2007 5:00 PM PDT
I would take a twice used ps3 anyday over a brand new,soon to be defective,loud,overheating,dvd scratching,xbox360 any day! But hey, thats just me.
Channel Stuffers
by MaLvaDo39 July 5, 2007 3:22 PM PDT
Microsoft stuffs the channels with their crappy system.

They can count that as a sale for themselves while the unit sits on
a channel's shelf still unsold to an end user. That's why you see a
glut of 360s all over the sales floors.

And STILL they can't hit their target! What a sad company.
Reply to this comment
Yeah, ok
by salmagnone July 5, 2007 6:17 PM PDT
At >1BB/month pre-tax profit they must be pretty sad. My 360 is just fine.

My guess is that this XMAS Sony will hit rock bottom. Price cuts in the 360 combined with added offers and HALO 3 (maybe) will pretty much knock it out of play.

Sony is seriously behind now in the production cycle. They will have to reinvent their games division if they want to stay in the console business.
View reply
It's not a good design...
by onlyauser July 5, 2007 4:01 PM PDT
It sad to say that is just not a well designed consol. I was in a Game Store chain the other day and the guys were talking that some people had to return their XBOX 360 due to hardware failure over three times!

It is stunning that a company as powerful and rich as Microsoft does not wake up and say gee maybe quality is more important to our users than some type of warranty extention. Psst, what about reputation.

People want quality game consols that are simply correctly, and well designed to FUNCTION (and it is not fun returning an XBOX because the hardware is rotten).

People also would like a built-in HD-DVD at no extra charge. You Microsoft guys got that, right?

Well, at least there are competitors (Wii) that cost much less that are trouncing these guys (Sony too) in sales! I am a Microsoft fan but Microsoft has no excuses here and needs to care about providing better quality.
Reply to this comment
Microsoft has fans? ;-)
by anarchyreigns July 5, 2007 4:26 PM PDT
<eom>
View all 2 replies
only 3 times...
by dateman July 5, 2007 9:11 PM PDT
The record I've seen on the net is one poor bugger is on his 13th xbox...
What is the deal with the Wii?
by Dachi July 5, 2007 4:05 PM PDT
I can understand not keeping up with holiday demand etc. but come on now, this is July!

The console was launched November of last year and stores are still out of stock.

I hope they resolve their supply problems before Christmas.
Reply to this comment
Can't even meet repair target fast enough...
by doggystyle805 July 5, 2007 5:04 PM PDT
It's hard to meet a large target of sales when you have such a large volume of repairs for whats already been sold!
Reply to this comment
Somewhere in Redmond...
by qwerty75 July 5, 2007 8:28 PM PDT
...A chair is lodged in a wall.

Consider this:

The XBOX project is a perennial money loser.

The Wii is eating its lunch(and sonys).

Shipments are "slightly off"(400,000 is slightly?).

They have to sink another billion dollars(at least) due to incompetence(big surprise here).

Yet they claim that they are happy?

I doubt this will fool even the most idiotic MS fanboy.
Reply to this comment
more than 400K
by shane--2008 July 5, 2007 8:46 PM PDT
they shipped 11.6 million. they haven't sold that many. MS is
notorious for stuffing the distro channels.....

i bet they are a LOT more than 400K off their target.
View reply
Yes it is slightly
by amadeus8608 July 8, 2007 3:09 PM PDT
Compared to TWELVE MILLIONS 400k is slightly. It is very easy to criticize, but I think Microsoft is doing its job about the XBOX. They will take their share of beating about the BILLION dollars for the warranty but I think that only benefits us, the XBOX 360 users. Way to go MS!
Reply to this comment
Yes, way to go
by qwerty75 July 9, 2007 10:35 PM PDT
They managed to ship 11.6 million units to distributors. Many, if not most of those units are still in the warehouse. What this means is that couldn't produce as many crappy units because their production sucks. Not that they sold anywhere near 11.6 million units.

Yes, way to go.

Meanwhile it is being pulverized by the wii.

Yes, way to go.

Their lack of quality control will cost at least another billion dollars.

Yes, way to go.

XBOX is a money loser and now is going further in the red.

Yes, way to go.

These problems have been well documented since day 1 basically, and they wait how long before acting? And not for the benefit of its customers(that is incidental), but to avoid lawsuits.

Yes, way to go.

Microsoft, you are inspiring!
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