Rampancy

In the wake of Nintendo's claim to have doubled the Xbox's sales, Microsoft is lining up retailers with positive experiences selling the Xbox this past week.

In this ConsoleWire story based on a PR Newswire item, GameStop President Dan Matteo called the Xbox launch the best he'd ever participated in:

It was the first time in recent memory we didn't have to air-ship product to meet the launch date. The momentum continues even after launch. We continue to sell everything we can get.

VP of Electronics Boutique, Peter Roithmayr, said that the Xbox's launch date, November 15th, was the single largest sales date in the chain's history. (No word on whether those sales figures include GameCube consoles, games or accessories, which Nintendo allowed to be sold in advance of the Cube's official launch date. I don't know if anyone is seeing GameCube items in Electronics Boutique stores, but EBGames.com does sell both.) ToysRUs VP Wayne Yodzio said they are selling every unit they can get and that customers are coming back to buy games like Halo and DOA3.

ConsoleWire is also running the same story about the Goldman Sachs survey that just about everybody else is. And there are still no hard sales numbers out from either camp, nor numbers on how large actual retail shipments have been since launch date. Microsoft is sticking to its prediction of over 1m units before the end of the year, so we've yet to see how the two consoles will fare in head-to-head sales once availability numbers are more equal.

Jason MacIsaac has written a Halo review for the electric playground, and it's glowingly positive. In fact, they even liked the controls:

Halo has the best control of any console shooter I've ever played. I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe it's the responsiveness of the controls, maybe it's the joystick placement on the Xbox controller, I don't know. In just about every console shooter I've played, I've always been conscious of the controls, because I was always fighting with them. After about 10 minutes with Halo, I forgot all about it. I could track enemies with ease, picking them off from different elevations. The only challenge in tagging them came from their slippery moves, the control always remained precise. I could easily switch weapons, toss a grenade, reload, jump, crouch, zoom in with a sniper rifle... I have never, repeat never, felt this level of comfort with a console shooter.

The reviewer gushed over the vehicles, the graphics, the attention to detail; about the only thing he didn't like was the lack of bots. Still, the overall rating was only 89%. Tough grader.

Will White at Cloudchaser Microsoft has reviewed Halo, and while they admitted that the graphics were gorgeous, they found the story less than innovative, the controls sometimes frustrating, and the water effects unrealistic. In addition:

In the end Halo is, without a doubt, the Xbox game to own and will be for quite some time; however, it does have its flaws and therefore is not as wonderful as the hype has made it out to me. Plain and simple, Halo is Perfect Dark taking place on a different world with a slightly modified story. The lack of multiplayer gaming over the internet with Halo makes the title even less desirable.

The review itself is extremely positive in some parts, and extremely negative in others, but overall they gave the game a 9 out of 10. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO for the heads-up.

The Financial Times is reporting from Tokyo that Nintendo intends to increase US GameCube shipments, and is confirming the estimated 700,000 units shipped so far:

Microsoft put its long-awaited Xbox console on sale in the US last week, three days ahead of Nintendo's launch of GameCube on Sunday. The US software giant expects to sell between 1m and 1.5m machines by the end of the year.

Nintendo said on Wednesday it expects to sell 4m GameCubes in the US and Japan combined by the end of next March. No sales figures were available for the US launch, but the games group confirmed it had shipped 700,000 units.

Meanwhile, Blue Yonder has seriously misinterpreted the Goldman Sachs survey, apparently thinking that the percentages of stores sold out of each console directly translated to percentages of shipped units sold, and concludes that the GameCube's lead over the Xbox is much smaller than reported elsewhere:

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.

Blue Yonder also disputes the figure of 510,000 GameCubes sold in Japan claimed by FT.com, suggesting the correct figure is 350,000. There's no information on what the source for that estimate is.

Furthermore, they say some planned Xbox shipments are being delayed:

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.

CNET.com also quotes the Goldman Sachs report, which seems to confirm these shipment problems:

Toys R Us is well stocked with GameCube consoles, according to Goldman Sachs' research, but it is only a matter of time before Christmas demand consumes this inventory. Wal-Mart and Toys R Us both lack Xbox inventory and do not know when shipments will arrive, the report said, adding that (at the time of the survey) Electronics Boutique stores had both systems in stock.

More on the console war as it develops.