Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s President of Entertainment & Devices Division, sees the Wii and Xbox 360 as the domineering forces in the game console industry; with concerns about Sony’s continuing problems. And as far as the 360 Elite is concerned, he says it will continue to be in short supply.
Bach feels that Nintendo has a niche market which spotlights its unique controller. But as for everything else, he believes the Wii is less than spectacular. "It’s a very nice product, but it actually has a relatively specific audience and a fairly specific appeal, frankly, based on one feature, which is the controller itself. And the rest of the product is actually not a great product — no disrespect, but … the video graphics on it aren’t very strong; the box itself is kind of underpowered; it doesn’t play DVDs; there are a lot of down-line components [that] aren’t actually that interesting."
Sony finds itself in some deep problems, according to Bach’s assessment. "…They’ve got a pricing problem, they have a cost problem, they have a content problem, and they don’t have an online service…."
Elites are going to be hard to come by and the supply line won’t be helping much to meet early demand. "Well, initially I think the demand is going to be based on how much we can supply. So, I’ll tell you that right out of the gate. I think we’ll sell — I mean, I had friends who tried to buy it this weekend, and they were all gone, and I think you’re going to see that for a number of weeks, just because it’s a new product…"
The shortage situation of the Elite 360 is questionable at best because Microsoft must have had an ample enough amount of time in planning for its release and could have stockpiled enough of the machines to meet demand. Surely, Microsoft must have learned something from the Xbox 360 shortage problems it experienced in 2005, right?
[via eWeek]
