LONDON - This Friday marks the arrival of 300,000 Microsoft Xbox 360s in stores across Europe. A fallacious statement if ever there was one; most of the platforms will be unloaded from trucks straight into gamers' hands--those that were shrewd enough, nay, rich enough, to pre-order.
Microsoft's regional vice-president, Chris Lewis, augurs the next-generation console will be sold out from word go. So Forbes did a spot of investigating itself. First stop, Richard Branson's Virgin Megastore chain, Piccadilly Circus. "We've had plenty of advance orders, but there should be a few in store come Friday," the assistant told us. And will there be folks camping down for a night on London's freezing pavements? "We doubt that," sniggered the assistant. Undeterred and unconvinced, Forbes slogged up Oxford Street through the Siberian chill--they call it "brass monkey weather" in these parts for some reason--to Branson's flagship emporium on Oxford Street.
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