Kurt Shintaku's Blog

“Where can I get an Xbox 360?” is a question that just about everyone has on their mind nowadays.  As you know the new console was launched on Tuesday, November 22nd.  People lined up at local retail stores more that 24 hours in advance in hopes of being one of the first to have the newest and coolest toy.  Most of those who were brave enough to face the elements and crowds were rewarded with an Xbox, but those of us who decided to wait a day or two for the chaos to subside have been faced with empty shelves and “out of stock” notices since then.  Why hasn’t the retail channel been re-supplied?  When will I be able to get my hands on a 360?  Read on and I’ll try to shed some light on the mystery of the missing Xbox 360…

The first thing to understand is that the Xbox 360 is an amazingly complicated piece of hardware.  It consists of thousands of parts from hundreds of manufacturers –  putting all of these together has resulted in what is probably one of the most impressive supply-chain management projects of our time.  Rumor has it that another factory to build these consoles will go online next year, but until then it appears that our ability to pump new units out quickly is limited.

The second thing to consider is that, contrary to the original Xbox launch, we launched the Xbox world-wide simultaneously.  This means that the units that were built before launch were shipped around the world vs. just the US like last time.  This has also limited our ability to re-stock US retail channels.

While the Xbox team is being very, very quiet about details they have stated that new units will be on their way to retail stores continuously from here on out.  That means if you keep checking your local Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, CompUSA, etc. you may get lucky in the very near future.  Also in the rumor mill is that Best Buy will be advertising the 360 in their Sunday circular on December 18th, and as a result has been stockpiling supplies until then.  Finally, there are a few tools that have been built to make easy for you and me to stay informed of what online retail sites have availability.  Take a look at:

Xbox Sighting Tool – http://www.thexboxfiles.com

Xbox Tracker – http://xbox360tracker.com/

Good luck, and happy hunting!