Conducting the battle

Goldman Sachs have been busy surveying retailers in the United States about the popularity of Xbox and GameCube systems a few days after their respective launches. Sachs revealed that 73% of Microsoft's Xbox allocation of 300,000 had gone, while a massive 47% of Nintendo's 700,000 units had been sold. Perhaps it's a bit early in the morning for all that. That's roughly 219,000 Xboxes versus 329,000 GameCubes. The survey was conducted amongst 49 retail chain stores in large cities. Microsoft aims to shift another 100,000 units to retailers per week until Christmas, while C|Net is reporting that Nintendo aims to replenish supplies where needed. Better to give the retailers what they want rather than to create a surplus. However, a conflicting report from the Financial Times suggests Nintendo too will flood the market, producing between 1.1 and 1.3 million units for the festive season. That said, the FT also thinks Nintendo shipped 510,000 GameCubes in Japan in its first two weeks of sale, which it did not. Extrapolated figures this writer has seen suggests 350,000 sales so far. The verdict from our roving reporters in the States is that it's much easier to get hold of a GameCube, but that with more than double the number of Xboxes available, nobody finds that surprising. Microsoft were due to ship another 100,000 units to retailers on Monday, but if that shipment did go ahead, nobody has heard of it. A source working for Virgin Megastores in the US suggests this shipment has been put back, and that units are being prioritised based on demand. Related Feature - GameCube sells to the tune of $98m

Source - C|Net and FT.com