Consumers may be curbing their spending in some areas, but they apparently don't mind splurging on the two newly released video game consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft, according to new research.
A Goldman Sachs survey of U.S. retailers found that 73 percent had already sold out of Microsoft's Xbox and that 47 percent were sold out of Nintendo's GameCube, less than a week after the two systems were released.
The survey was conducted among 49 retail chain stores in large cities. The report speculated that the difference in inventory levels could be traced back to the amount of consoles the stores initially received. Microsoft was estimated to have shipped 300,000 Xbox units, and Nintendo is estimated to have shipped more than twice as many GameCube consoles, about 700,000
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