How to score an Xbox

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At that point, the reality is that consumers will have to wait to buy one of the new consoles. But Microsoft hopes they won't have to wait long.

"Replenishment, replenishment, replenishment, that is the key word here," said Hufford. "We've got thousands of people working in China right now cranking out boxes. The minute they come off the line, we're boarding them up and putting them on 747s."

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Meanwhile, as countless thousands of Xbox buyers get their consoles at retailers, many others have pre-ordered from Web sites belonging to Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.

The advantage of pre-ordering, said Tate, is that those who did so were offered a guarantee (if they were willing to pay for express shipping) of getting their Xbox on Tuesday. But she added that pre-order supplies were limited. (Circuit City's online store experienced a spike in traffic, and subsequent slowness, on Friday afternoon minutes after the console went on sale. The supply sold out in less than three hours, Tate said.)

Jay Musolf, a spokesperson for Best Buy, also said his company had offered pre-orders--though only to members of its loyalty program.

"Our main goal is to give our customers a chance on the day the Xboxes come out to (get one) at the stores."

But while in-store customers will be able to buy the consoles in person and make their own decisions about accessories or games, many pre-order deals forced buyers to pay substantially more for packages including several games, extra controllers and the like.

Hufford said Microsoft had nothing to do with the pre-order packages.

"I think what you're seeing is retailers are all trying to differentiate their offerings from their competition," he said. "Retailers are going with huge offerings to lure in the most hard core of the hard core."

But while thousands will be lining up around the country, not all game fans are going to rush out on Tuesday morning.

Jon Gilkison, a 32-year-old software architect from Los Angeles, said that while he has been willing to stand in line for launches like that of Sony's PlayStation Portable, he has no such plans for the Xbox 360.

"It doesn't feel like a 2.0 upgrade," Gilkison said. "It feels more like a 1.5 upgrade. None of the launch titles have that next-gen feel to me, and that would be the point of upgrading. And even though I'm an Xbox die-hard, I'm personally a little more excited about Nintendo's (forthcoming) Revolution, and am waiting to see how that pans out."

Still, sentiments like Gilkison's aside, there is clearly no shortage of excitement about the Xbox launch, and most retailers seem primed to quickly sell out their initial allotments.

In fact, some Xbox enthusiasts worry that Microsoft is building up a buying frenzy by deliberately sending retailers minimal numbers of the consoles. But the company said that notion couldn't be further from the truth.

"I can understand that there's some anxiety around people wanting to get their consoles on the first day," Hufford said. "The truth is we're not holding anything back. We're going all out with the Xbox 360 launch to ensure that we put every product we're capable of making on the shelves on the 22nd."