Gamers left frustrated by shortages of Xbox 360 console

Many American electronics stores sold out of the coveted console on the first day it went on sale and many who queued overnight were left empty handed. Microsoft’s next generation console officially went on sale at midnight on 22 November but many who queued to make sure of grabbing the gadget did not manage to buy one.

Shortages were made worse as many gamers did not want to settle for the lower-priced version of the gadget that lacks a hard drive.

Some enterprising Xbox 360 owners cashed in on the scarcity by instantly re-selling their console on eBay. In a statement eBay said that the average price of the consoles was $660 (£385). By comparison the full Xbox 360 bundle is selling in stores for $399.99. Some packages of the console which came with a selection of games were selling for prices as high as $2,500 said Ebay.

Microsoft is selling the Xbox 360 in two bundles but few gamers seemed happy to settle for the cheaper version of the unit that does not have a 20 GB hard drive.

Up to half of all the machines allocated to electronics stores were the cheaper bundle which only helped to worsen the supply problems.

Analysts expect the sell-outs to continue for days and some did not expect the supply problems to ease until well into December. The situation is likely to be repeated when the 360 goes on sale in Europe on 2 December and Japan on 10 December.

Amazon.co.uk don’t expect to be able to forfill all orders before Christmas 2005, and electrical retailers Dixons and Currys have also stopped taking pre-orders for Christmas.

Happy shopping!

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