Xbox One X Might Have Stock Shortages, Microsoft’s Albert Penello Says

The Xbox One X seems curiously primed to do well this Holiday season; it’s curious because, at a $500 price, it should be a novelty more than anything else in the cost sensitive holiday shopping season. And yet, pre-orders have been the highest fro any Xbox system ever, and the system appears to have sold out.

Microsoft’s Albert Penello states that he expects this hysteria around the system to continue on for a while, saying that the system will be a ‘must have item’ this Holiday season, and that Microsoft may have trouble keeping it stocked,

“I don’t like to predict numbers,” he laughed, in an interview with VentureBeat. “We’ve seen incredible interest. Talking to people in the press, all the feedback we’ve gotten is that any news about Xbox One X drives a lot of coverage, a lot of interest. I get that pretty consistently from people I know in the industry. Every time they do a story on Xbox One X, it drives huge traffic. The pre-orders were, again, not only the fastest, but also the most for anything we’ve released. I’m feeling like we’re going to have stock problems. Over the holiday it’s going to be a must-have item. Knock on wood, but I’m confident in our ability to sell good volumes of this.”

Now, I do think it will sell well- Xbox fans have been looking forward to this one for a while, the hardware is great, and things always sell in the Holiday season and at launch (even the Wii U and PS Vita did at first). The question to me is whether or not the Xbox One X will be able to maintain momentum going forward, after the initial early adopter hysteria and Holiday season shopping frenzy wears off. What does Microsoft have to induce continued sales of the hardware, so it doesn’t taper off like the Xbox One S did? That remains to be seen- and I am curious to see how that turns out.