Xbox 360 Sells Out, Somehow, In Japan

TOKYO -- It's official: Xbox 360 is completely sold out in Japan, with new shipments not arriving until next month.

Recent reports had suggested that it was tough to find Xbox 360 consoles in Japan following last week's release of the 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia. Microsoft made it official today, issuing this apology translated by Kotaku:

Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply. This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners.

Here at Microsoft, we are moving forward quickly with console production, and plan to ship the standard Xbox 360 model out this September. Furthermore, we will sequentially be shipping out the Elite and the Arcade models. We ask that you please patiently wait until the console is shipped.

Chris says: This is actually hilarious when you think about it. Microsoft's predicted sales of Xbox 360 were so low that all it took was a few thousand more sales than they'd anticipated and, whoops, they just ran through their entire stock for the next month. I wonder if more RPG fans are actually going to start buying Xbox 360 -- as Jean pointed out, Infinite Undiscovery and more are still on the way.

Photo: Jean Snow/Wired.com

Japan Out of 360 [Kotaku]