Why is that every time a console is released it sells out?

Why don't the manufacturers just make more of them?

I don't even mean sold out on the first day.

They're always sold out for weeks after launch. Surely it wouldn't take much to create a stockpile of consoles to deal with launch day demand.

They pretty much know exactly how many they're going to sell.

It can't be just to piss people off as that's the effect.

The problem is that they could end up with far too many and make big losses like Microsoft did with their Surface tablets. Also if there is a shortage it creates the perception that it is more in demand which encourages further interest from potential buyers.

But they don't even have enough to satisfy preorders.

Even if you preordered it a week before launch you'll be lucky to get it by Christmas.

Just look at Tablets. If everybody made enough to cover the dem and of an iPad launch, most of the companies would be bankrupt a month later, when they have to pay their bills. Heck, MS had to write down nearly a billion.

The same goes for consoles. They know roughly how many they can sell in the first year, if it is a success. But what if it sells like a Wii?

Add to that the problems of storing the darned things. Shops and warehouses are not designed for that capacity. Everything is set up for just in time production. That mens there are a couple of million units, tops, in the supply chain.

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Add in the fact that most is subcontracted to the same big assemblers like Foxconn and they simply cannot make enough for everyone at the same time. It also depends on how far along the development cycle the components are? If they are new they might not have mastered the techniques to keep the numbers of components high and at the right quality. That takes time to achieve and as Big D said everything is now Just in Time manufacturing as it eliminates much of the overheads in storage and handling.

The designs actually get finalised very late as they are all playing a game of chicken to get the best spec. This generation for example both Sony & MS were thought to be making consoles with 4GB of RAM, but Sony upped their to 8GB late on as the cost of the RAM chips suddenly dropped. Its brinksmanship.

The design gets finalised quite late and they have a 'hard deadline' of Christmas. Missing Christmas would be seen to be major blow. As a result the lead time of manufacture isn't great so the amount you can actually make is always limited, not only by available production facilities but also by budget - there's only so much money you can throw at production of a console before it's sold a single one, there have been enough flop consoles for the bean counters to be wary about that.

The result is there are never a great number of any console at launch. So, to a degree, the supply shortages are genuine. But it's also undeniably true that product that is sold out is almost always seen as more valuable and desirable than one in plentiful supply in the shops, so they don't weep too much about only being able to sell as many as they can make.

In fact though neither console sold out at launch - you could have walked into Game or one of the supermarkets on launch day and bought one if you wanted to. Some of the story of shortage is actually just that - a story. There's a perception that consoles always sell out at launch, so sometimes the story gets reported as that, even if they haven't, because the reporter in question can't be arsed to actually troop out to some shops and check.

Ok, you're right. I could have bought one from Game on launch day... If I wanted to spend £600 on a bundle that included a list of games I wasn't interested in. Not £385 on the bundle I was after with the game I wanted.

It should be called the sucker premium. Considering the problems over DRM I am going to sit this out for months till all those problems are resolved. It will also eliminate the red ring of death problems. It might be a year or two before I opt for one.

It’s a great way to create demand - nothing like a “we’ve sold out it was that popular” to make people queue up for one.

We have a branch of CEX (https://uk.webuy.com), and they have a PS4 in their window for £520. You’ll note that it’s still there after two days.

I’ll be getting a PS4, but I didn’t want to be part of the initial rush. So I’ll probably plonk my name down for a bundle at Game and be ready for it after Christmas.

Some interesting theories there. Unfortunately the real reason is more prosaic and straight forward. If there are shortages for weeks or months after a product launch, there are only two ways to prevent that.

One is to stockpile for weeks or months, which means paying all your suppliers at the normal time, but delayed invoicing for your distribution partners, who will also bill you for using up all their warehouse space. On top of that the money train also stops for retailers, game developers and so on who have no platform to sell, which damages commercial relationships.

The other is to ramp up production by persuading a manufacturing facility to abandon iPhones, or routers, or cable boxes, for a month or two, completely retool it, then build [LIFTED] loads of XBoxes, then tear out and retool for other products again when you are back to normal demand levels. There are robots to program, people to train, temporary logistics contracts and God knows what else are required.

Both ideas are very, very costly. The first is an absolute non starter; the second is a long term ideal that will one day be the norm, but not for a while yet.