Xbox Joins PS2 on Most-Wanted List

This weekend marks the biggest shift the handheld videogame industry has ever seen. We take a look.

If you ever wanted an example of the knock-on effect, head on down to your local videogame shop. A week after Sony confirmed that the PlayStation 2 would be hard to come by this Christmas comes word from Microsoft that it is running out of Xbox stock.

This hardware sales disaster can all be traced back to a boat from China stuck in the Suez Canal, with a shipment of PlayStation 2s on board. Russian cargo planes have been brought in to fly PlayStation 2s to the UK, where the biggest shortages are, but it's simply not enough.

It is Christmastime after all and customers want a videogame machine, and in the absence of the PlayStation 2 many have instead picked up an Xbox - too many, in fact.

"The market share has been incredible - demand is much greater than we expected," Microsoft's Neil Thompson told trade paper MCV. "But it's upsetting as I want to fulfil demand and wish I could deliver more - I am totally committed to getting in more product just as fast as we can."

After a period of high demand and ever-dwindling stock, Microsoft has confirmed that it won't be able to supply any more Xboxes this year, so what's on shelves now is all there is.

"There's no plane I can send anywhere - we've done all we can," said Thompson.

There is a winner in the situation though. With two of the three consoles now hard to get hold of, Nintendo has been gifted a chance to push both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance this Christmas.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games