subject: Xbox Kinect - Playing Games Or Selling Games [print this page] Xbox Kinect - Playing Games Or Selling Games
Here we are once more, one more Christmas and one more deficiency of a novelty. This moment it happens to be the Xbox Kinect. Not only is it lacking but it's absolutely sold out. You can't get it in any place. Or can you?
If you absolutely have to have it you can easily get it on ebay. The downfall of this angle is that you're going to be paying between 50-100 dollars more than it's indexed at. The closer it gets to Christmas the worse this will become. I furthermore comprehend that you can get them on amazon but once again you are going to be paying excess more than the list price.
If you're anything like me than you choose to be familiar with how this is even possible. How can an abundant company such as Microsoft fumble a product launch so bad?
For the last month or so you couldn't go anywhere without observing something about the Xbox Kinect. It was on billboards, bus stops, radio, internet, celebrity, magazines, and even mini men parachuting down from the sky with Xbox Kinect written on their foreheads. The amount of bankroll they put into marketing it has to be into the tens of millions.
Why would a company spend that much money and run out? Well I can give you a few reasons. Keep in mind that this is only my private opinion however.
First notion would be that they haven't run out at all. Like I said at the beginning of this column, this happens each single year with the top rated game. The defense after this means of marketing is genuine. If they can forged an inadequacy than the hype for their brand will advance. This hype will continue to evolve as long as they command the supply. Unfortunately for us they do control the reserve of goods.
The down side to this approach is that it also drives prices up on sale by bid sites. I kind of view these guys the same way I view ticket scalpers at the ballpark. Have you anytime met a ticket scalper at a ball park? They are a very economically challenged group of individuals. They act as if you are acquiring a pound of the last blow on the planet. They also look like they should be on the last pound of coke on the world.
The other justification, and this reason is a long shot, is that they truly underestimated the demand of this product. I can comprehend underestimating the demand for a brand. I mean, this is only the most breakthrough gaming system in the planet. I don't think many folks will desire it, especially not right before Christmas.
So what can we, as the person who buys merchandise, do about this? Nothing, we are pawns in a very complicated game that eventually comes down to coin. When you have three very abundant companies, trying to be the number one gaming provider in the world, you're going to see some crooked strategy.
If you were to ask me, If I were the CEO of Microsoft, would I do anything in a different manner. I would have to say no. I wouldn't change a thing. It may be frustrating to the consumer but at the same time we play into it all too well. As long as we proceed to do that, companies will resume to use this against us.
