[Update: The story has been updated with an official comment from Microsoft SA’s product and marketing manager]
Earlier today, the official Twitter account for Microsoft South Africa sent out a tweet claiming that “Almost 99% of local stores sold out of Kinect in the first day!”.
That’s a pretty darn impressive achievement indeed, or at least it would be if it was true.
In order to find out if there was any truth to the tweet, we decided to call up a bunch of random stores that stock the Kinect to find out what their stock situation was looking like.
In order to ensure that I didn’t mistakenly hit the 1% that didn’t make it into the tweet, I decided to call random stores from 3 different companies.
We called a Look and Listen and spoke to the bloke who hangs around the video games all day long. When asked about stock, he said that they definitely had units in store. When I asked how much stock was in the store or if someone should be worried about a shortage, he replied saying that “there are more than enough still in stock” and that I shouldn’t be worried. Lastly, I asked him if the stock in the store was still the original stock, or if they had ordered more but was told that it was still from the stock they had received at first.
So… Microsoft’s claims are already looking a little off. Next up, we called a BT Games as well as a Dion’s Wired store, of which both still had no issues with stock.
I called a different Dion’s Wired in a different City (the first was in JHB) and asked the same questions that I asked Look and Listen.
Lo and behold, the Dion’s Wired also told us that not only did they have plenty of stock, but also that it was the original stock and they had not had to order any additional stock.
So… what can we really say here? Microsoft made a public claim that just happened to be completely untrue. We are not entirely sure if the Twitter account is being run by a promotional / marketing agency on Microsoft’s behalf or Microsoft themselves, but they can’t just go and make claims like that without complete certainty.
All I can say is that, at this very moment, should you decide that you want to own a Kinect sensor for your Xbox 360, you won’t really have any issues finding one and you wouldn’t have on day two either.
We have contacted Microsoft as well as their agency for a comment on the matter and will hopefully be able to give an update very soon.
Update with comment from Microsoft
Microsoft South Africa have promptly returned our mail with an official comment on the matter. Product and Marketing manager Yvette van Rooyen gave us the following comment:
“I will investigate who placed this on the twitter account because it isn’t true…. My apologies that someone is putting the incorrect information out there.”
Thanks to Microsoft for dealing with the matter appropriately and with complete honesty, that’s definitely what we like to see around here. Hopefully they supervise their Twitter account more from now on, as you don’t want things like this being blurted out randomly.
Last Updated: November 11, 2010
Steve Hofmeyr
November 11, 2010 at 14:50
Jeez, wtf is Msoft SA doing. First the local XBL fiasco and now this? :angry:
eXp
November 11, 2010 at 14:53
This is such a PS3 Fanboy Site.
:angry:
ReAVeR
November 11, 2010 at 15:02
Busted!
Uberutang
November 11, 2010 at 15:14
Microsoft prolly called their own sales devision or a CNA… when asked:
Do you have kinect in store, the answer would be NO…
al360
November 11, 2010 at 15:21
hahahaha shame i guess we all grow up sometime
and don’t fall for hype and crap no more and well all i can say is well done to the public and standing up and making informed purchase decisions and not hyped decisions :biggrin:
Veen
November 11, 2010 at 15:23
Yeah, you guys always just sing Microsoft’s praises, what a bunch of fan boys. :tongue:
J
November 11, 2010 at 15:30
You guys are such journalists! poking poor MS like that :pinch: .
Loving it tho, lulz.
Bobby Kotick is a doos
November 11, 2010 at 15:31
Clearly they’re trying to build hype
J
November 11, 2010 at 15:32
You guys should start your own gaming related Carte Blanche, gel old Rudaaaaaa Landman! to help. That’d be sweet.
MieLLiePaP
November 11, 2010 at 15:40
i phoned the xbox supplier (Comztek) and it sound like they are the ones that are out of stock and will only receive stock maybe next year again. So what you see in store is probebly the only stock that will be there untill the next stock arives next year.
WeRRieS ZA
November 11, 2010 at 15:45
lol yeah awesome site spoiled by PS3 fanboi crap!Any way to hide comments?
Nick de Bruyne
November 11, 2010 at 15:47
Yeah but that is still far from what the tweet said.
Also, why on earth tell everyone that 99% of stores are out of stock, that’s going too far, it would make me think I missed my chance to get one and then just not bother trying
Nick de Bruyne
November 11, 2010 at 15:54
Yeah I spent this afternoon reading comments about us being Xbox 360 fanboys, while busy phoning stores about the MS tweet. LOL
spl0it
November 11, 2010 at 16:02
This site is SO PS3 Fanboi. Waahhhhh!!
onelargeprawn
November 11, 2010 at 16:09
The truth cannot hide from detectives De Bruyne and Tim.
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
November 11, 2010 at 16:34
BUSTED!!! HAHAHAAHA
Fox1
November 11, 2010 at 17:11
Elementary :ninja:
christo le grange
November 11, 2010 at 18:34
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
This is Hella funny!
Nick, If I didn’t find this post so funny, I would ask you where you get the time to do all this ‘investigative journalism’….
I’m seriously forwarding this to everyone I know.
Paulerbear
November 11, 2010 at 21:44
LOLBOX
MieLLiePaP
November 12, 2010 at 09:17
Yip true
Steve Hofmeyr
November 12, 2010 at 10:12
It’s probably a PS fanboy that hacked MSoft’s twitter. Must be. :w00t:
Who can it be? Lets look at the suspects:
lans – motives are there but lack the technical skill
bobby – too busy trolling Msoft news on lazygamer
Ac!d – locked himself in his room waiting for GT5
So, by a process of elimination the perp is… Playstation Cat! http://www.weareplaystation.com/images/ugc/large/3e99d70f5b7e4e87823f09702d97d530.jpg
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
November 12, 2010 at 10:40
LOL! Playstation Cat ftw!