Videogame boneheads

I've gotta admit...I've never seen the XBox 360 except in advertisements in print and video. I never saw one on Black Friday, never saw one on its release day and haven't even seen any floor examples at any store I've visited.

What I have seen, however, are lots of accessories. Lots of games, add-ons, remote controls, hard drives and carrying cases, but no consoles. For people who are paid to be smart, the corporate planners, who put effort into getting the accessories out in time for Christmas but neglected the consoles, are doing a poor job of earning their money. Without the base product in their hands, consumers have no reason to buy the accessories filling the retail shelves. It'd be sort of like buying some fuzzy dice to hang on the mirror of your non-existent car. You're burning customer goodwill and killing sales of not only 360 accessories, but also regular XBox accessories for the holiday season (who wants to buy more regular XBox stuff when the 360 has been released...allegedly...anecdotally...mythically.)

It makes no sense. I understand that Microsoft wanted to beat the new Sony and Nintendo console releases, but why wouldn't you pour all your resources into console manufacture and leave accessories to be filled later? Maybe the release date just kinda snuck up on them?

With three weeks of shopping time before Christmas, and Ebay prices skyrocketing to two or even three times retail price, a lot of people are betting Microsoft is going to tank on filling orders for the holiday season. That's a shame, because NumberOneSon wants the console for Christmas, but I'm a little skeptical I'm going to be able to find one.

One thing's for sure - I'm not going to buy the accessories before I have the console in hand.