Reports that Play, Amazon, and other retailers in the UK are selling out of Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 are big news on the web. But what about at home?
A quick websurfing does show that online retailer Newegg is sold out of the standalone device (stock# N82E16874103199), the 4GB Xbox 360S bundle (stock# N82E16868105044) and the 250GB Xbox 360S Bundle (stock#N82E16868105045). However, Gamestop, Amazon.com (not to be confused with Amazon.co.uk), and most other major retailers are still offering pre-orders.
What does this mean?
While it’s fantastic news that the Kinect sensor is doing so well in the UK, this most likely means that the number of Kinect units that have been allocated to the UK was significantly lower than what has been allocated in the US.
Newegg is not a huge retailer of Xbox items in the United States. And thus, they have most likely not received a large portion of the units allocated for the launch. So they most likely have just hit their limit. However, the larger retailers who make up the bulk of Xbox console and software sales should be granted the largest share to hand out to the consumer.
A twist!
However, after surfing BestBuy.com. I found this:
Updated 1:18PMEST
I called Best Buy and verified that they have indeed stopped taking pre-orders for the Kinect 250GB bundle, and the standalone unit. They did say that they have gone to Microsoft and requested additional units to be allocated. So while this is not likely a long term issue, it does look like for the time being they are out of stock. However, the 4GB units are still available.
Continued checking does show that Gamestop is still accepting orders. More news forthcoming.
While I was going to say that it’s most likely just going to be the smaller retailers that would sell out, it would appear that Best Buy has thrown a monkey into my wrench.
Update 7:04PM – Best Buy now has the standalone unit available for pre-order, however the 250GB consoles are still sold out.
Will Anderson's Personal Blog 
Thanks for the info and updates. MS and analysts think it will sell millions of units. I’ve heard 4 million through the holiday season.
I’m pretty much in agreement with that one. Initially I thought it’d be about 3-3.5 million. But the fact that some large retailers are going back to MS and asking for more tells me that it could very well be in the 4-4.5 million range. Possibly 5, but that’s pushing it.
I’ll be doing some numbers predictions for console sales at the beginning of November for the holiday season. Stay tuned. 😉
This happened with Gamestop as well… Microsoft I think may have been cought a bit flat footed with demand. My local Gamestop said Kinect bundles of all kinds were dropped off their pre-order list and then put back on… likely a reallocation or Microsoft ramping up production to meet demand