The Xbox One is selling out at numerous retailers, but Microsoft Game Studios vide president Phil Spencer maintains availability for the next-gen console should "feel better" than that of the Xbox 360.
"We feel great about our hardware yield. We feel great about the number of units we're going to have at launch. Our pre-orders are going really well; better than they did for the 360," Spencer told GameInformer. The site believes this is a "calculated effort" to avoid retail shortages following the system's launch, similar to what Nintendo faced with the Wii, while also trying to avoid a surplus like Nintendo had with the Wii U.
"You want people to be able to walk in the store and buy one on day one, so you're trying to manage the inventory that isn't pre-sold," Spencer explained. "It's not a yield problem, it's us trying to manage the hardware side. I want parents who don't think about pre-ordering electronics to be able to walk in and have a chance to find a box. There might be a line, but I don't want it to be that if you didn't pre-order in September, you can't get one. That doesn't feel like a great consumer experience."
"Availability should feel a lot better than it did for 360," he added, not revealing specific pre-order numbers. Sony, meanwhile, recently boasted about the PS4's pre-orders which have topped one million units. "If people want to pick up more controllers and games, they'll be there. We feel really good about our pre-order number, and we're managing it through allocation rather than demand. [Pre-order] isn't the business. It's way more important to me what happens when people walk in the store. The business is selling consoles."
Have you pre-ordered your Xbox One yet? If not, are you hoping to just get one after it releases?
