Xbox One Availability at Launch to be Better than Xbox 360

Record pre-orders won’t stop Microsoft from bringing a better retail experience to its fans at launch. At least, that’s how the company would like this November to go, as Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer believes that Xbox One availability should be better in 2013 than what we saw with the Xbox 360 back in 2005.

"You want people to be able to walk in the store and buy one on day one, so you're trying to manage the inventory that isn't pre-sold," he told Game Informer. "I want parents who don't think about pre-ordering electronics to be able to walk in and have a chance to find a box. There might be a line, but I don't want it to be that if you didn't pre-order in September, you can't get one. That doesn't feel like a great consumer experience.

"Availability should feel a lot better than it did for 360," he added. "If people want to pick up more controllers and games, they'll be there. We feel really good about our pre-order number, and we're managing it through allocation rather than demand. [Pre-order] isn't the business. It's way more important to me what happens when people walk in the store. The business is selling consoles."   

The official launch date is Nov. 22, which is a full week after the PS4’s North American release. How that will impact sales, as well as how many consoles we’ll be seeing on store shelves will be fun to watch. Get ready for a packed November.