Gamers with an Xbox 360 on their Christmas Wish List better hope that Santa has already placed his order for Microsoft’s newest gaming platform. Promising an unsurpassed gaming and entertainment experience for power gamers, the much anticipated Xbox 360 has been heavily marketed and was expected to be a top seller this holiday season.

Unfortunately, it may already be too late for gamers to preorder the Xbox 360 bundles in time for Christmas. Top gaming retailer EB Games has announced that inventory of both the company’s Ultimate Bundle and the Core Bundle is expected to be severely limited. In fact, such high demand for the system has resulted in EB Games’ website announcement that preordered bundles placed after October 26 may not be shipped until 2006.

This is bad news for gamers and game retailers alike. November and December are peak shopping times, and limited Xbox inventory may mean that consumers will be forced to spend their dollars elsewhere this holiday season. Previous new platform releases have enormously benefited from a timely release just before the end of the year and the fact that the Xbox 360 bundles will be delayed may result in lower initial sales of the gaming system.

Even those customers who were lucky enough to get their Xbox bundle orders before October 26 will be getting a surprise. Last minute developmental problems have delayed the release of Dead or Alive 4, one of the Xbox 360 games that was to be included in the bundle, until the first week of December. This has resulted in a last minute change in both the Ultimate and Core bundles to replace Dead or Alive 4 with another new game, Call of Duty 2.

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