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Xbox Price Drops For Australia And Europe
wallitron writes: "Due to slow sales in Australia, Microsoft is looking to drop the price of it's XBox to $399 (around $200US). With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out, it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS. At that price it seems good value. Check out the article on the price drop." There are price drops in Europe, too.
> There are price drops in Europe, too.
Umm, yah, that is was in the title.
700mhz cpu.. gf3 cpu... anorexic ram..
I could build a better machine for pocket change.
AND run a real OS on it.
Which should I spend my money on?
I think their adverts are not that subtle either: one of them runs along the "nice way to die" line. Maybe a 240 volts escaping through a programming hole?
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
in terms of software, etc...
Of course, Australia uses PAL, but is that what the XBOX uses as well (most TVs in Australia can display NTSC as well.) maybe I should just import one from Australia.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Could the future bode ill for our intrepid heroes?
With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out, it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS.
If you are so f**king concerned with running Linux on your TV set in the living room, build a computer with a graphics card, ethernet, DVD, and TV out and hook it the fuck up to your TV set. Quit bitching about a what is in all reality A VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It's not meant to be a PC.
I still won't buy one unless there are cozy incentives. Something along the lines of smacking Bill Gates on the ass would suffice :)
-------------------------------
High-Res Beer Bottle Collection
I wonder if the components are integrated inside, or can you start ripping things out. At $200 It might be worth it to start selling the stuff inside for money. Anyone out there know?
Arathres
stainless steel
turismo is a little jug
gtisgay
Nathaniel Hewitt
"Having nothing, nothing can he lose." --Shakespeare
I thought I read that you can't dump a product on market in EU. That is, they can't sell it for less than the manufacturing costs. Apparently Xbox had at least an extra 100 on the price. For the new cost (299) it'd be almost worth it just for a DVD player.
Somewhat relevant Slashdot article
cache.
Can they really make a profit by lowering prices like this? I thought the X-box was on a thin margin as it was. Maybe Microsoft just wants to get a foothold on the market and then make re-adjustments.
Actually, J Allard the head of MS' digital entertainment division (in charge of xBox) stated in a wired interview prior to the unit's release that he wanted to move prices down fairly rapidly, "to get the retail price to $100 as quickly as possible."
This may be a little faster than they had hoped to lower the price, but MS knows it's gonna take heavy losses to get the market penetration required to start making serious money on the software.
Are those 399 of them newfangled Euro-dollars???
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
The users that were overkeen and bought one before the price cut (I think there were eight of them) wil be compensated:
"Those who have already bought the console at the higher price will, luckily, be compensated. Anyone who already has an Xbox, or buys one before April 25th, will receive two free games and a free controller"
The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made. (Marx)
Just another example of M$ doing whatever it takes to make a dent in the console market. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop the price further if this doesn't spurt sales.
Heck I wouldn't be surprised if they started giving them away free if it gets really bad, just so they can make a dent on their installed base! IE all over again
How to kill Microsoft
Step 1) Earn $400 billion
Step 2) Buy 1 billion X-boxes and use them as computers, without buying any games
Step 3) Watch as Microsoft begins to collapse upon itself since it loses money on each unit!
Step 4) Tell all your buddies that Microsoft is dying and that they should switch to the superior Linux OS
Step 5) Play Tux Racer
Step 6) Repeat step 5
You have completed the six step program. Microsoft is now dead! Have a nice day!
This is $100 cheaper than the US version. What's to stop Americans from getting a PAL --> NTSC converter and ordering one from Australia? Are there any other differences? Is the DVD playback just region [AUS]? If so, maybe there's a mod to get around it?
c-hack.com |
As far as I know they are not compatable.
The X-Box was only released here a month ago, and I remember reading some articles on what you had to do to get a US X-Box working here. Basically I think it was a major pain in the butt, and unless you were really keen not worth it.
On another note, this price drop has a this guy spitting blood. He purchased the X-Box at the full price. Now he has realised it was a waste of money and was going to try and sell it before everyone else worked that out. Seems he was too late. This price drop means he will lose a lot more money than he wants too. Now he's stuck with an over priced console he hates.
He hates MS even more now.
It would certainly make purchasing an Xbox a bit more appealing. Mind you, this would put a lot of Xbox hopefuls in the same boat when Sony announced they can make PS2 chips cheaper. Perhaps too little, too late. From several articles that are indicating waning Xbox sales and other hits against the Xbox, perhaps the price cuts will help people look past the Xbox's faults. A few more killer apps wouldn't hurt, either.
This
nathan you will always amaze me with yer blatant homosexuality
Nathaniel Hewitt is a homosexual.
The X-box is nothing more than a port system. Lack of original, exclusive games that people want, coupled with it's PC-lite interface make it a handy attraction to Edios and Activision and others looking to make a quik few bucks by porting some of their PC/PS2 titles.
;)
This is a last ditch effort to boost sales in third markets while ignoring the total lack of sales in Japan, and the poor sales here in America. After E3 when Sony announces the Playstation 2's price drop, Microsoft will either follow suit (only a few months after launch for a price drop sure would piss off a number of folks) or suffer the consiquences of being $50-$100+ above the cost of the PS2 and Nintendo's Gamecube. Wither and die, shitty port box.
--Reverend Raven
Desperate days demand dire deeds.
Just another example of M$ doing whatever it takes to make a dent in the console market. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop the price further if this doesn't spurt sales. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if they started giving them away free if it gets really bad, just so they can make a dent on their installed base!
I love linux, don't get me wrong, but when people want everything and the kitchen sink running it, they are fucking nuts. Yes I liked imdrema or whatevey it was called but that was designed as a linux running box in the first place. "Real Operating system" my ass. Doesn't the Xbox use the Windows Kernel or something like that? Windows isn't that bad. It has one major thing that Linux lacks, user friendlyness (somewhat). Most people are just so scared of it, they think they need help instead of figuring it out on their own.
> it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS.
Why would it matter what OS it runs? If it used Linux instead, it wouldn't suddenly have more functionality. It wouldn't suddenly have the ability to open your curtains or turn on your coffee machine. It already does what it's supposed to do: play games.
No console game player should ever care what OS their game system uses.
(I wonder if the Indrema never came to light because they expected gamers to manually mount the DVD drive before playing each game.)
This guy should know that if he has his receipt Microsoft will give him 2 XBox games and an extra controller for free. They're doing this for all early adopters who bought an XBox beore the price break in Austrailia and Europe.
A big Thank You to all Xbox gamers!
As a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who bought an Xbox before 26th April we are offering, until 1st July 2002, the chance for you to get 2 games and an Xbox Controller for FREE! That means you could be playing games like Halo, Rallisport Challenge, Project Gotham Racing, Amped, Oddworld or Dead or Alive 3 amongst other great games for free!
I'll bet the EULA for an X-box strictly forbids that you purchase them somewhere other than within a 50 mile radius from your house or some other draconian rule. This is so Microsoft can control their prices and legally bust people who don't want to pay $300 for an X-box and just go to to buy one for $200. It wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Selling below cost might not be such a smart move by Microsoft. The EU is currently investigating what to do on AntiTrust. The EU has fairly effective dumping remedies, that has been enforced quickly. The KOrean Memory manufacturers had to face this a few times. The Xbox is made in Hungary and Mexico that could face retaliatory responses in addition to MS fines.
Help fight continental drift.
He would do that. Except when he purchased it he already has the Extra controller, DVD thing and a couple of other extras. This extra pack they are giving out is pretty worthless.
They must be desperate to make sales, their already selling these things at a huge loss. It seems like
microsoft is beating a dead horse with this one; nobody's really buying them, and their's shit all for games
compared to the competition, even fewer worth paying for. I for one am glad to see them failing, the more
markets left open to fair competition the better. But, like most other markets microsoft treads on,
they'll probably keep trying til they get it right, and if history has taught me anything.. they will,
eventually; IE was a piece of crap until version 3, windows 95 was terrible, etc. Afterall,
they have billions and billions of dollars to throw at the problem.
I really hope the justice department can get their shit together and do something soon.
I've been planning on buying a GameCube for quite a while now, infact I pre-ordered (May 17th launch in Australia, I don't want one enough to spend $AU1000 importing, blah blah etc) several months ago.
As far as I recall, the launch price for the GameCube in Australia is going to be $399. Whenever I've told people that price, then compared to the $799 Xbox, people would be shocked. Then they'd realise they could get a GameCube and a couple of games for the same price as a gameless Xbox. I know first-hand of a couple of people that have held back and waited for a GameCube because of this.
All well, there'll be two interesting things to observe from this: Nintendo's reaction, and early Xbox adopters' reactions.
I wonder if Nintendo will drop their GCN launch price now? To be honest, I don't think they have much of a choice if they want to remain competitive. As for the Xbox owners: They get what they deserve! Err, seriously though, I bought a Nintendo 64 on March 7th 1997 (a week after the launch in Australia) for $399. 3 months later, the price dropped to $299. Nintendo had a very quiet promotion of "free game for early adopters". It's where my copy of Mario Kart 64 is from.
I wonder if Microsoft will do the same now?
If I were Michael Dell or Ted Waitte (Gateway), I would be on 'red alert', so to speak. Microsoft are literally giving hardware away and establishing themselves with a box in every living room. An XBox upgrade kit in the future (with a USB keyboard and mouse, maybe throw in WindowsXBox and a lite version of XBox Office) and suddenly you have proprietry hardware running a proprietry OS. Future versions of desktop Windows will have terrible driver support or hardware crippling commands for Dells and Gateway, making them seem slower, while uncrippled Xbox drivers will run at normal speed (which will seem very fast for normal users).
Microsoft are positioning themselves to be a hardware company, muscling Dell and Gateway out the PC business. The next M$ monopoly will be on PC hardware. A one stop solution, so to speak - Microsoft will supply the OS, hardware and software.
Revolution = Evolution
There's going to have to be better software to even get me to consider the Xbox.
Jet Set Radio future is the only thing I can thing of that makes the ShitBox worth buying.
Personally I'd rather play the original on my dreamcast and run a little Xmame if I get bored.
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
2 extra games are worthless?
Why did you buy a console then?
Microsoft are going to give $250 of Xbox "products" as a "gift" to early adopters. How nice of them.
I wonder if "products" are going to be full games/controls/accessories...
NOT!
-JAPAN: ol yor beys ar bilong tu as! -AH!
Reading the two links from slashdot, I couldn't help but notice the poor journalism and grammatical errors committed by the authors of the aformentioned articles. Identically, this has occurred multiple times on cnn.com's international correspondence pages, especially when reporting the violence in the Middle East. Is this where all of our beloved undergraduate English majors surface?
I have 50 karma, so I could give two shits and a fuck if you moderate me down. I'm just noticing poor grammar everywhere, so screw you.
No way. They make money off the consoles because third-parties write the code (no cost to them) and they get royalties (money makes up for what they lost on the hardware). I spent $300 on a PS2 and another $600 on games; that's the pattern in the console market. If they made the hardware *and* the software then there's no way they could afford to pull off the same thing long term. If they controlled both and boosted the prices across both hardware & software divisions then they'd piss too many people off and another company would jump in and smack them to the ground (it happens).
So what is required for running Linux on it? Is it possible at all?
Price drops won't save this product in Australia... the biggest customer-base for this sort of product consists of geeks - many of which are currently out of work, job-threatened, or just plain too damn busy to play games right now.
Kids (in Australia at least) don't tend to buy console systems in the XBox's price bracket. Even the PS2 didn't really kick off until it had a huge range of games available to it.
Is it just me, or did Microsoft screw up by not releasing enough games for this platform?
I'll buy one as soon as they crack it.
I live in WA and I haven't bought an XBox. I haven't even tried one out at Best Buy. If enough of us completely ignore the XBox then we should see the price drops too. This is a call to arms!
This price drop has brought up something that always made me curious as an aussie gamer. The hypothetical "what if" is about to be answered..
The problem for the average aussie gamer, is that titles/consoles that are sold here are basically sold in USD prices, converted to local currency.. i.e. That $40US game will be released here at ~$80AUD. However, the average aussie wage is the same (or less) in AUD than an equivalent job in USD..
So the aussie gamer is effectively paying "twice" as much for games with his hard earnt cash..
i.e. Two kids working at mcdonalds say, are bringing home their $8/hr local currency for 20 hour week.
The US kid, $160 USD buys them 4 games. The Aussie kid, $160 AUD buys them 2 games.
Of course the best solution for the aussie gamer would be if they sold the title for an equivalent local amount.. But if that was the case, then wouldnt everyone overseas just turn around and import/mail order stuff from these countries where the local dollar was weak. You'll already see people pondering about doing this exact thing in the comments.
Will this establish a driver for more "affordable" gaming prices in Australia, or will it just provoke a massive mail order business by US folks looking to score their gaming at cheap rates..
I'll be looking on with interest
Here in Australia, XBox is basically dead, I don't think the price cut will overcome the fundamental problem of the miniscule software library. I imagine the same situation in Europe if they're having the price cut too, and it's flopped in Japan too, where the games just aren't suited to local tastes.
It's only in North America where XBox has been even moderately successful (if that!). Is it worth Microsoft's trouble to keep the XBox alive? The raft of in-house game developers? The super-subsidized hardware? It will also be harder to keep those game developers, who are going to see tiny xbox audiences and be sorely tempted, contracts or no, to go back to developing PS2/GC/PC titles.
Sure MS can absorb the hit, even a substantial one like this, if there's any chance of Xbox3 or Xbox4 being successful (My take: probably), but Microsoft seems to be focussing on the short-term lately, and I don't think MS has the patience at this stage to stay the distance.
That said, Xbox has only been here in australia for barely 2 months, making it one of the most spectacular flops I've ever seen. The image of an 800 pound gorilla bellyflopping off a 1-metre high diving board comes to mind :)
Microsoft will start shipping xbox's with every copy of Windoze sold and claim that it is an integral part of the operating system and that it is to the users benefit to have xbox functionality be a part of the OS. A bunch of states will whine about it, but when push comes to shove, they'll "force" M$ to donate 1 million xbox's to schools ensuring a bountiful supply of users in need of software (which actually does show a nice profit).
.dll extension, changing the path seperator to the backslash, and creating home, professional, server, advanced server, way super duper advanced server, and ludicrous speed server versions of the OS (though through some packaging magic, all versions of the OS will ship on a single cd).
Also, M$ will announce that the next version of xbox will use their new operating system called Unix# (that's Unix Sharp, not Unix Pound, or Unix Waffle, or Unix Tic-Tac-Toe, or Unix Number). Unix# will be just like Unix, but much better for end users and developers as it will make their lives much easier. Differences include forcing all shared libraries to have the
In the meantime, Bill Gates, who is personally funding xbox from his personal "play" account, is forced, due to weak sales, to postpone the purchase of the country of Belize until the next fiscal quarter.
The price drops in the UK and Europe are the most important... there's like 300 million people here and like what, 5 in Australia?
This announcement comes only a few days after news reports came out saying it was obvious that Microsoft wasn't going to make their sales targets. I don't know WHAT the hell they were thinking at first putting the price up so high in Europe, the economies here are much, much weaker than in the U.S. Almost no one can afford 450 for freakin' game machine.
There was no real reason for the prices to be that high, especially since they're making the XBox's in Hungary, not a place known for its high labor costs, hey?
I read that Microsoft wasn't probably going to lower prices in the U.S. until Sony does, but it seems that Microsoft is looking at the numbers and not the competition (at least in the rest of the world) so maybe they'll get a clue.
Has anyone hacked this bad boy with Linux yet? Then to me it would be worth the price of letting a Microsoft product into my home.
-Russ
Me
Price drops in Australia? Across a small strech of ocean is New Zealand. There are precisely zero places where you can buy an xbox or xbox games. I can't think of a reason why they sell them in Australia, but not across the ditch. Too small? Not to small for Playstation 2. Ps2 is the winner by default.
Microsoft was already losing money on the gizmo at the original price. They accepted this as the price for breaking into a new -- and potentially -- very lucrative market. At the Australian price, they are taking a sitz bath in hydrochloric acid.
Somebody, please, find a friend in Australia, have them buy the units at AUS prices, set up an ad-hoc dealership here, advertise, to make sure everyone knows they can have the unit for almost half-off, and drain those bastards on margin till they fscking bleeding die.
I will donate time to whoever does this. Let their own greed kill them. Then we can all install *nix on the little xboxen, and reslant Netcraft stats.
Just a drunken daydream from a CG veteran...
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line. -- Oscar Levant
Week 4/8-4/14, Japan Hardware Sales
* PS2: 55,000 units (total this year: 1,323,000)
* GBA: 31,000 units (total this year: 969,000)
* GameCube: 10,000 units (total this year: 510,000)
* PS1: 3,000 units (total this year: 74,000)
* WonderSwan: 2,000 units (total this year: 11,330)
* Xbox: 1,800 units (total this year: 169,000)
* Dreamcast: 1,500 units (total this year: 12,000)
(from IGN)
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
What the reviewer meant is that at those prices the Xbox could be used as a really cheap computer (or maybe even a webserver). for those uses OS matters.
"With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out, it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS." what use would all that hardware be if it ran linux? you wouldn't be able to play any games on it.. then again with that fast CPU I guess you could compile your windows emulation programs faster.
...until they drop the price here as well. Think about it: let's say they don't immediately drop the price in the US. Anyone who actually reads the news (and can restrain their consumeristic but-I-really-want-it-now! impulses) is going to hold off on buying one because they're going to wait for a corresponding US price drop.
*Especially* if they're thinking "Gee, X-Box don't seem to be selling too well right now...maybe I should wait it out a bit to make sure this ain't the next Dreamcast"
free XBOX if you sign up for 5 years of MSN.... *shudder*.
-Happy with my Dreamcast, blind-dialable modem with ppp, and BBA.
sounds good.. though we know microsoft is an evil company... still, remember the Amiga? remember the MAC? those are pretty expensive computers. but they both manufacture the hardware and design the software what makes it a better computer. sounds kinda dumb to say that.. but hey.. i looooove amiga!
-JAPAN: ol yor beys ar bilong tu as! -AH!
As far as I recall, the XBox runs a cut down version of XP, which is of the NT family. In other words, it's not based on DOS. Although NT has a DOS emulator (NTVDM & wowexec), it's not exactly perfect.
/. moaning about Sony or Nintendo doing exactly the same. How many times has the PS2 had its price cut? Will there be such a fuss when Nintendo cut the price on the GameCube?
/.)...
And anyway, why is everyone bitching about this? Microsoft are out there to make money, and they know that they have to sell Xbox's at a loss in order to make a larger profit on software licencing. This is the console business. I don't see anyone on
Plus, for all the people who are talking about Linux being "a proper OS" - how many games are available on it? I dislike Windows OS's for many things, but for games support, and general ease of use for the less, ahem, able members of the computer using population, Windows fits the bill (pun not intended). All these "My OS is better than yours" arguments sound rather like the old "My Amiga is better than your Atari ST" and the classic "My C64 is better than your Spectrum".
For the record, my Spectrum was better than your C64. Now that's started a flame war (at least, for all the British posters to
No, Sony does not sell at a loss. Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft, however, do sell at a loss. Read the prophetic words of the Almighty Gord. http://www.actsofgord.com/Proclamations/chapter02. html
But they are working on it - and that's cool
xbox-linux.org
Alternate url (to the same site, though).
--
It's 19:11:42. Do You Know Where Your Meat Body Is?
Yeh, if I can't "backup" my games what good is it?
Its like an ethical issue or something..
Anyway, M.A.M.E. is in the progress of being ported.
(In desperate search for a cool
Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free......
And no one gives a toss about the XBox here..
Bring back God save the Queen.
Should have waited for the GameCube dude...
Who cares if the console gets cheaper? Even if I had an Xbox for free, the games are still ridiculously expensive, at least in Switzerland. PS2 games are CHF 89.-, some Xbox games (Halo) up to CHF 129.-! That's 30% more (into MS' pockets I guess), for games that don't look better and play worse than things available for the PS2 at the moment.
Heck, the PS2 games are expensive already, I'm glad PC games haven't caught up with them yet - except for Dungeon Siege, which ist the most expensive PC game I have ever seen, CHF 119.- instead of the usual CHF 79.- for PC games. It's an MS title that will also be availablr on the Xbox for a slightly higher price -- just a coincidence? *Twilight Zone music playing*
Why did he buy one if he hated it?
They have sufficient cash in the bank to practically give them away. Reports indicated that they expected to lose, what, a billion or something in the first year?
.NET and check "build XBOX exe"?
All it's gonna take is a couple really GOOD games, not Halo-good, but 'Legend Of Zelda' good. If they can hit that sweet spot, things will change.
The hardware is certainly there, as if the software/OS. What I think is holding them back is that developing for a PC takes a slightly different mindset. I doubt some companies already heavily invested in Playstation gaming want to move over to XBox. Given the length of release cycles in PC games, I doubt the big PC game makers (Blizzard, etc) can even reasonably expect to get the game out. Besides, most PC companies don't have the mindset, either; they seem to sell lately on the idea of multiplayer, and expansions. The console market seems small, I would suspect.
Dunno. What's it take to develop on the XBox? Can I just pick up a copy of Visual Studio
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
I've had two spam faxes in the office today (we never get spam faxes here, so thats significant in itself)
The gist of them is that if I sign up for an MSCE course I'll get a free X-Box
It shows every sign of a truly desperate company trying to shift stock, and certainly makes it look like the X-Box is a tacky trinket.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Microsoft continually loses focus and gets into financial embarrasments. Didnt they learn from Microsoft cordless phones, car stereos, MSN, remote controls, speakers, etc...
They need to just stick to their core money makers, Office and a mediocre OS that costs consumers every year or 2.
Telcos should be a sign that Monopoly doesnt necessarily mean you cannabilize yourself.
Hot off the press
They need to make the games cheaper. What games are cheaper the ps2 or the xbox, or the nintendo one when it comes out in europe? disclaimer: I don't have a console
I think that is a really great market cornering strategy. Highly risky but M$ has always done the 'BEST' job when it comes to marketing (in comparison with other companies out there). /. ers should do a little bit more complaining about other companies...you know, the companies that make it too easy for M$.
It's hilarious to read all the complaints about M$ regarding this. Give it a rest you all sound like broken records.
You wonder why M$ can corner the market with much that they sell, even though it always sucks? It's cause the other companies don't know how to market their products the same way.
Quit bitching about M$, and start complaining how the god damn PS2 hasn't come down in price much at all.
If it did I would buy one for sure, but seeing as xbox is gonna drop in price, thats what I am getting.
They get a sale, I get a game console. Don't see nothing wrong with that.
I think maybe
I think you will find it was the US that invaded the USSR, and it is spelt scarred, not scared as in frightened, and C is renowned amongst those researching better programming languages as being no better than a universal assembly language. And the NRA is a bunch of paranoid losers used by the Gun manufacturers to justify making money out of devices to kill people.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
Microsoft couldn't do anything else.. it has to fight it's way up to Sony which is number 1 overall. People who own PS1 consoles now will probably not buy the Xbox just because their current games aren't compatible with it. If they buy the PS2 they have a new gaming console, new games AND they can still use their old games without having their old console.
Microsoft can only aim for those who do not own a console allready or those who want a new console and their is no "upgrade" for their current cosole and it's games.. and those are few. The people who did not buy a gaming console in the past are most likely not going to buy one now just because Microsoft is the manufacturer. Those who do will most likely ask around their friends to see what they use so they can swap games etc..
Microsofts best bet is "giving away" the console at very low prices hoping that people with less money to spend will choose their Xbox. Not because of the games, not because of the Microsoft tag and certainly not because of the fact that it is "superior" to other consoles..
"With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out"
A game console with tv out? Amazing, it's bound to sell like hotcakes with innovation like this.
People are saying its cracked. That's the big news on irc tonight.
1.) The idea that the Microsft would turn the Xbox into a PC? Do you know how hard they have worked to make sure people _DONT_ perceive the Xbox as a PC? Not only would this piss off hardware vendors but it would land them in legal trouble instantly. I don't care what arguement you may have - you will _never_ see the XBox performing as a PC.
2.) XBox as a DVR (or TiVo type device). Well, considering there currently isn't a TV input for the XBox I dont think this will happen. I suppose they could feed video via ethernet over broadband but this would be insane. Again, the changes of MS doing something like this is next to nothing.
3.) Chances are if the XBox does fail - its dead. Yes Microsoft has put tons of money behind the Xbox but that doesn't mean they have to keep supporting it if its a loser. Look at UltimateTV - Microsoft put a lot behind that and while they are still providing support for their existing customer base they certainly aren't pushing the product anymore.
I own an XBox, a PS2 and a Dreamcast. In every market some products win, some fail - not everyone can win. The Xbox hasn't even been out a year yet and everyone is expecting its demise - I would have to give the product at least a year from now to more properly speculate what its life will be like. Only time will tell. The best we can hope for if the Xbox fails is that by some grace of god M$ gives regular users what they need to 'hack' the box. Fat chance.
As for the MS Hate talk:
While Slashdot is website built for a community -the boring, redundant "M$ Sucks, M$ is Evil" rhetoric gets really boring, redundant and repetitive. Yes everyone has an opinon but the "Me too!" posts suck - Everyone knows you hate them so shut up already.
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
Hoorays for lowering the price of the Xbox unit itself, but what about the games? As a PC gamer enthusiast, the relatively high price of Xbox games at around 100 euros makes me think twice before buying this...thing into my living room. Sure, it's also a DVD player, but most of all, it's a game console, obviously.
I mean, what fun is it, if I have to think about my budget for the whole month when buying a game? I don't want my game buying decision to be a well-thought, rational financial decision, but instead I just want to think whether this game will be entertaining me enough in order to justify the amount of money I'm giving away for it.
The high price of the games takes that fun away, and atleast for me, the Xbox remains on the shelf at the local store, waiting for those game prices to come down.
And really, don't start with that piracy thing and how it really justifies the high price. It doesn't.
__
Zarathustra.fi
Modern man has no goal, no aim, no ideals.
According to some the XBox is already dead. Hasn't even come out in NZ yet. Really sucks living in the third world :(
Where to our partial beloved undergraduate English majors surface?
According to this news report, Microsoft expects to sell 3.5 to 4 million units of Xbox, instead of previously planned 4.5 to 6, by end of June this year:
Microsoft said on Thursday it expected to ship a total of 3.5 million to 4 million Xbox video consoles by the end of June, a drastic scaling back of previous expectations of 4.5 million to 6 million units, due to weak sales in Japan and Europe.
Sigged!
America:
get off the oil.
get off the 'doze.
To save your $100 youd have to get around region coded games, incompatable tv color standards, different voltage, lack of locally redemable warranty and the cost of international shipping.
Actually why don't you go ahead and do that. It sounds like the smartest thing you'll ever do in your life, you damn karma whore.
_________________
EBAY SAFETY TIPZ!
Lo and behold, as the M$ bashers, bereft of the excuse of a high pricetag, drop all pretense of politiconomical involvement and rush to buy the former devil's instrument now perfecly acceptable since they can afford it.
*sigh*
In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
Just imagine the initial margins the bast..ds had to be able to cut the price by almost 30%! -- Le Nounours
If the also brought the price of the games down to A$29.95 then I'd cave in and buy one. It's easy to resist a cheap console when the games are so damn expensive. I think I'll drop by a pawnbroker on the way home from work and see what the average price for a secondhand Xbox game is at the moment...
" If IE's Windows integration is a monopoly, then I'm all for the removal of Konqueror from KDE."
Yep, I would too - if I wouldn't have a CHANGE to run something ELSE on top of that BINARY COMPATIBLE PLATFORM. Having no change to run MS Office or for example CorelDraw! without having IE is monopoly.
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
"1.) The idea that the Microsft would turn the Xbox into a PC? Do you know how hard they have worked to make sure people _DONT_ perceive the Xbox as a PC? Not only would this piss off hardware vendors but it would land them in legal trouble instantly. I don't care what arguement you may have - you will _never_ see the XBox performing as a PC."
;)
Of course they don't want it percieved that way, there OS distributers(getawat, Dell, etc...) would drop a brick. No tts a game console. that will, coincedently, be turned into a computer, once it is in a few million homes. MS will be like "Hey we sold a game console, now are customers want a more robust operating system, we're just meet customer demand..."
Even if this wasn't there original plan, In a desperate move for somebody to save their ass, I can see it going that way.
"2.) XBox as a DVR (or TiVo type device). Well, considering there currently isn't a TV input for the XBox I dont think this will happen. I suppose they could feed video via ethernet over broadband but this would be insane. Again, the changes of MS doing something like this is next to nothing."
I wonder if they could use the USB 2.0 port to do that(with adapter, of course)? I tend to agree with you, but if your a company, and your contracted to produce a million units, and your not successful you:
a)go out of business. Not going to happen with MS
b)Buy out the contract
c)Find another use for those products sitting in warehouses costing you money.
If then X-Box failes, which it is, I would think thet'll go for C.
As for the MS hate talk, hate talk, if you don't ignore it, it will just ruin your day. Beside someone has to tell the newbies that MS sucks.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This must be the first time in history an american has considered importing something from australia because its cheaper. What, with our banana-republic currency status, we usually ask friends going to the US to bring back hi-tech goodies.
Note - all the major governments and corporations (who tend to own the former) are into the idea of globalisation, until it comes to giving the benefits of it to the populations.
"I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
But that's not very likely because there's like what 5 of those in the world....
Here's a tip: Xboxes are NOT required for the survival of you or your family. If you do find you NEED one.... GET A FSKING JOB!!!
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
It will be interesting to see what Sony does in response. It's seems clear that they will drop prices in response but the question is how much. The way I see it Sony basically has 2 options. First they can drop their price a bit. Keep their profit margins and try and wait it out hoping the X-box doesn't get too big. Or they can respond with their one big price cut and try and hurt MS bad enough to force them out of the market for good. If Sony is able to force MS out of the consol market that is a huge boon for them because that destroys their major competition, right now Sony is very established in that market and I dno't see them giving any ground without a big fight. MS on the other hand has a lot of cash in the bank (I heard someone say it could run for another 10 years without another dime of revenue?!?) and they have a lot of other interests involved with the sucess of X-box (MS in the living room), it will be interesting to see how far MS decides to stick it out. I think the question is how far will this price war go, I can't see MS dropping the price much more but they are ruthless. If Sony doesn't do something big I think X-box is here to stay, MS ain't cashing in their chips at this point and there will be some very heavy competion in the consol market. It will be very interesting to see what kind of response Sony makes to this price cut. We could end up with anything from a Sony-MS split in consols to a corporate game of chicken.
I stole this Sig
XBox was originally going to be a settop box. They focused on gaming when nobody believed that they could make a game console and tivo all in one. I expect that the very next generation of XBox will have some Office Light, web browser, and VCR as well as games.
USB Keyboard and mouse? count on it.
Still seems to be alot of sets out there that dont support PAL. I know the TV we purchased 18 months ago (still pretty decent though) doesn't support NTSC, however our VCR does so I just play any NTSC N64 games I've got via the video player.
So I think it'd be foolish for MS to release an xbox on the assumption that everyone has TVs that can play NTSC. It's a PAL market, it'd have to output in PAL.
Glenn
The Smrt way to trade CFDs on the ASX
In the UK, the XBox is £299, now dropping to £199. So if I buy an XBox at £299 now (the price drop isn't until 26th April AFAIK) then I get a 2 free games and a controller (worth 2x£45 + £30 = £120). Therefore, by buying at the older price, I've saved myself more money :)
:(
Now... Just need to find somewhere that doesn't sell them in bundles
How about the Texas Instruments 99/4a :)
I guess XBox are sponsored by Microsoft, like every gameconsol the company normaly loses money on the consol.. but gain the money from selling games..
I wounder if these things would be good in a beowulf cluster. I meen, even tho its microsoft.. they do look kinda cool..
How come sony dropping the price to edge out microsoft is a huge boon, but microsoft dropping them to beat sony is them being ruthless? You see this constantly on slashdot. Sure MS dont stick to standards, dont have the most superior product, etc etc. In the end though their loyalties lie not to "the industry" but to the share holders. I dont think at any stage microsoft should be sitting back going "what is the best thing I can do for the IT world today? oh not release a new OS because this one is just dandy!" they should be going "get a new OS out faster, we need to keep our share holders happy". Yes it's not ideal, but it's simply intelligent business practice and they deserve every cent they can squeeze out of people. Nobody has any right to complain, we drive the market. Dont like the product, dont buy it. If it's a success, bad luck you were in the minority. Want to do something about it? All the whining flaming trolls on here who hate MS should buy up as many shares as they can and influence the direction of the company. I sincerly doubt many of you would maintain your stance were the outcome going to affect your own back pocket* *please dont take as a dig to the initial poster, just a criticism of the ever increase MS hate fud on slashdot of late.
Glenn
The Smrt way to trade CFDs on the ASX
It's significant that the XBox price cuts were announced just before Microsoft's first quarter sales figures yesterday, which were worse than expected, thanks to the XBox. Quote from the Financial Times: Microsoft missed earnings forecasts for the quarter to March 31 and issued lower than expected revenue and earnings predictions ... The world's largest software company blamed the warning on modest prospects for information technology spending by business and disappointing sales of the Xbox console. The price were partly to keep Wall Street happy and the stock price up as much as boosting sales.
The article says MS has cuts its sales forecast for the XBox to 3.5-4 million by the end of June 30, instead of 4.5-6 million. And it might have given up on cracking the Japanese market: The company said Japan had been challenging for the Xbox. "We have not had much traction and sales have not been as large as we had hoped." The full article is here
The same article links a very interesting FT article on where exactly Microsoft makes its money, and - surprise, surprise - despite all its efforts to find profits outside the PC software market, it's still Windows and Office that produce almost all of MS's money.
I'm working in Switzerland and saw the Xbox advertised for 399CHF today in a shop called X-point (in Zurich). That's about 160 GBP, which I thought was even pretty cheap for a DVD player. Don't know if it's a special offer or an across the board price reduction though.
(big thank you to the person who did this)
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Now you get their systems too. 3 systems for 200 dollars... Score!
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
People who have already bought an X-Box (or won one in my case - I'm not that stupid) can get two free games plus an extra controller (see http://www.xbox.com/uk/news/0025.htm)
Trouble is, of the games on offer, you're certain to already have at least one and the others might not really appeal (speaking as someone who took Amped back to the shop and got his money back).
The games are:
Halo
Rallisport Challenge
Project Gotham Racing
Amped
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Dead or Alive 3
Bloodwake
Fuzion Frenzy
Still, it's probably worth getting them just to use as coffee mats - it costs M$oft money and that can only be a good thing...
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
You're right, but by lowering prices for the XBox, they lure people to a new platform - once it's established they start cashing in on the games.
Compare to pirated Windows copies that helped to establish the platform for MS Office.
I know you Americas like it big (big cars, big houses, big Apple) but us Euros like things a little smaller. So, anyone tried to mod their Xbox into a smaller case? Presumably as the hardware is similar to a PC it shouldn't be that difficult.
I recently bought for £346 ($484) a complete system: AMD Duron 1GHz, 128Mb RAM, 20Gb disk, 1.44 floppy, on-board modem, keyboard, mouse, speakers, 52x CDROM, 15" monitor. I put in an ethernet card & installed Linux straight off.
The price of Xbox in the UK is now £199 ($287).
Yes, the Xbox is cheaper but doesn't come with so much RAM, a keyboard, monitor, floppy, speakers. But does have a onboard ethernet. Now: if they were to bring the price down to £70 ($100), that would be worth considering as the basis of a desktop workstation - anyone know were I can get an SVGA card to plug in to the Xbox ?
All prices include VAT.
X-box peripherals are regionally coded so you can't use a controller bought in Japan in an American X-box etc.
I live on Campus at a university in Brisbane. Here, in Brisbane, you will see XBOX bill boards, signs, bus stop posters, bus ads, newspaper ads etc. But that's not all. The constant, continuous, uninterrupted supply of XBOX posters all over the university. When the XBOX launch happend in Australia, Microsoft hired out an entire lecture theatre here for a few weeks just to demo these things to the public. They put posters all over the university; but never have we seen any other commercial advertising in the same place - on notice boards for faculties/schools, outside theatres; but that's not all. Typical commercialised Griffith Uni... ooops did I say that... Like I said I live on campus. Microsoft jerks *actually* came around to all the floors in the building I live in (and probably all the others too) and wrote on our message boards, dropped pamphlets everywhere, chalked demo times/dates on the concrete for us, put up posters (not just one here and there, at least 3 at a time) and it was just a constant stream. I've never seen anything like it. So me and some friends made pirate hats out of the XBOX posters and showed up to a public campus demo. Without our consent, they took two photos (one wide, one closeup) of us and said "now you're going on the internet". I don't know if we really are on the 'net. If they did, they would probably say "hey look at these XBOX fans". It's so gay... Some folks went around and put stickers on ALL XBOX posters saying "This company has performed an illegal operation. If this problem persists, stop using their software". If you look close at the photo (if you ever see three dudes in pirate hats on the 'net, please let me know), you should see on at least one of the hats one such sticker. I can only conclude MS spent far more on advertising than actual development... too bad it still smells. - Paul
The real plot here is to distribute those boxes (and others to come) into households and keep low noise at the beginning. Give them out practically for free and make all kind of devices from entertainment boxes to toasters and microwave owns. Behave pretty and people buy them (and if they don't - lower the price, it's irrelevant at the beginning).
But you didn't notice the one thing - the network. Yes, Xbox has it already and nobody talks about it, nobody uses it.
The early software releases will be bug free until the penetration is widespread enough. The next step is to return into business as usual and release buggy software and often. People purchase more frequently new versions (increased cash flow) and because The Great Xbox has the hard drive it establishes patching.
Having said that, you need to connect your box into net. And download what they call service packs. I case you didn't notice who's purpose it serves, look back into their instant messenger (and others, you tell me, I'm not hooked into their systems and never will be) which stores all your privacy information into net. And when patching, they install tons of software as new features what they forgot to tell you.
Also, they will hook Xbox and forthcoming Ybox and Zbox into passport, so nobody is able to use your microwave or open your fridge without your permission. Or you to do so, without MS knowing about it.
Having done that, they start collecting information about you. Having done that all day in your work, they are doing it also in your free time and building a perfect profile from you. What would be more interesting information to marketing (read spammer's) point of view? Again, increased cash flow.
In their visions, they look at future where they know what TV programs you watch, what video on demand movies you order, what music or radio channel you listen, what kind of food you eat, when you wake up, how much band width you use, VoIP calls, others...
Even the Xbox looks pretty game box, works pretty well and has no big bugs - I wouldn't believe that company. Been there, seen that, done that. The same evil people are behind that, doing the same evil plot to cash you.
And this time they are selling your privacy.
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
In reality no one but MS and its suppliers knows how much the Xbox costs to produce. Its been bantered about as being as high as $150 and as low as $0(at $299). No one knows but MS and Flextronics. The Xbox has done better in its first 6 months in the NA market than the PS2 did in its first 6 months. The Xbox is doing extremely well in the US, better than GC, not as good as the PS2, but thats because it has MORE games.
MS has a full deck of cards up its sleeve, E3 is going to be interesting...
Peripherals and certain games such as Championship Manager look to be region locked so you can't mix and match hardware and software bought from different parts of the world.
Here in Denmark, its only been a little more than a month since XBox release (initial price 4000 dkr), and now on the 26th the price drops to 2500 dkr.
If I had bough at box at the launch price, i'd be pretty pissed, so I guess thats why MS has instigated a compensation gift for the people that where so "unlucky" as to go out and buy an XBox fast.
You get 2 games (own choice, I think), and an extra controller, if you react before 1st of July.
M$ goes on and on about how open source won't work as you can not give something away for free and expect to make money from it. Companies built around open source expect to get money from services, support, etc.
In a way, M$ is after the same thing, give the hardware away, and expect the money from other review channels (games, upgrades..). So at the end of the day seems, that M$ is embracing the "open source" bussiness model, sort of....
just a thought....
/V
hopefully M$ will give away a copy of LixBox, a version of Linux specially optimised for the box, so you can install it and get rid of current win2k or whatever it is os...., the we will talk about the xbox experience............
:)
For the record, my Spectrum was better than your C64. Now that's started a flame war (at least, for all the British posters to /.)...
You can't start a flame war by stating irrefutable facts!
Why did he buy one if he hates them ;-)
He didn`t, he hates them becouse he
What do you mean the games don't appeal to Japanese? Kabuki Warrior has an oriental japanese theme, so why don't they like that it is just like their japanese kung fu martial art games.
The answer is no, it's not compatible. Games have different encodings for different regions.
They cant give them away.
I heard on TV yesterday that to appease those annoyed at having paid the original price, MS offer a "Thank-You Package". If you bought your console before the 26th April and you apply before the 1st July you can get the package which gives you two games and a controller for free. Sounds good. UK only, AFAIK.
My life is one big siesta in which I'm dreaming I wished my life was one big siesta.
XBox, Australian for: (your choice)
1. Footrest
2. Space Heater
3. Beer
I am quite certain that you are not allowed to sell for less than manufacturing costs in the EU.
A few weeks ago, I read an article about MS wanting to cut the prices on xbox, but that EU threatened to take them to court if they did. Now, just a few weeks later, they do it anyway and not a single word about that law is heard. I smell some heavy lobbying.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
And my Atari STF was much better than those horrible Amigas.
And GEM and TOS are still much better than Windows.
C O M P A T I B L E
L O S E
This is obviously a paid advertisment for microsoft products. How much did Bill pay them to get their price drop posted on slashdot anyways? :-)
here is australia:
playstation 2 is currently $399
gamecube is set for $399 on release
so really at this price it is only the equal of the other consoles
(guess there are some advantages of living in australia)
This is what they get because of their illegal monopoly ways, if the condition happened BEFORE the anti-trust happened, MS might have destroyed Sony and Nintendo a long time ago.
As it stands, people IN GENERAL ARE aware of MS bad ways and are burned by their constant securuty holes, endless service packs, etc.
TRUE, xbox IS a great product, most multi-platform games end up with XBOX having the best version. but because of the MS label, people instrictively consider their decision to buy one.
xbox is also a "Me Too!" console, from the start their goal is to DESTROY PS2, which they are'nt doing now. they should have concentrated with just bringing GOOD QUALITY titles instead of worrying what the others have been doing.
oh and by the way, once Mario Sunshine and Legend Zelda comes out expect carbon copies of these games from MS, Bob Sunset and Smelda's Legend everyone?
IMHO, I dont want MS invading my living room, I've had enough of their evil ways and maybe this is my way of saying I dont condone to their ways.
The reason for this (price drops) is that they sold not as many units as they wanted, especially in Japan, Europe and Australia. Now if just you Americans could also stop buying Microsoft products...
Are you suggesting MS's biggest (only?) competition is underwear gnomes?
Hm, Gnomes...perhaps it's time for an underwear theme for Gnome...
So what if the console is cheaper(not is the US) what games are thier that I would want to play on it?
Microsoft is interested in producing consumer hardware, but only to establish these devices as new platforms for them to sell software on. In this respect, they're simply interested in creating a market for new products. They also know what they're good at, and what they're not. Microsoft isn't a hardware company, they're not particularly good at building hardware, and they don't want to build hardware. Why are they carrying the X-Box, then? Simple business: they loose money on each X-Box sold to keep them competetive with PS2s and Game Cubes, but while Microsoft is willing to carry this loss for the promise of large future profits for them, it's much harder to convince independent hardware manafacturers to carry a loss for Microsoft's future profits.
I mean, hell, their original plan was to release a reference design for the "HomeStation" sometime later this year as a device that encapsulated functionality of both UltimateTV and XBoxes, and to let the hardware manafacturers produce these devices, just like you see now with PocketPCs.
GNU/Linux to run on this thing?
I'm not super programmer, but I'd be quite happy if some kid (or adult) somewhere figured out how to make one of these a nice little computer system.
After all, a $200 computer for the parents and a happy smile (for taking the cost out of Gate's pocket) would make a happy, happy man. (Is there something wrong when you feel joy at another man's loss?)
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
That's strange: every mobile phone shop in the country must be breaking the law by selling phones for less than their manufacturing cost. You are talking absolute nonsense. Why would the european union sue MS for selling Xboxes cheaply? What european industry would be protected by such a move?
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
From 479 Euro (two days ago) to 299 Euro again. There was a drop to 399 Euro at the launch but the price was at 479 Euro a day after that. I heard rumor that people who bought an XBox this week in Europe for 479 get a free controller and two free games, but I couldnt find any confirmation on that.
There was no such law. Resellers were dropping the XBox price and MS forced them up to the suggested retail price. Here is what happened:
At the launch day the big chains dropped the price from 479 Euro (419.63 US) to 399 Euro (349.52 US) for two days, which resulted in utter chaos, because smaller resellers were unable to go that low. (and most of them bought their boxes from the bigger chains - "Media Markt" and "Saturn" - for reselling) The price went up again soon after that though.
Here's the numbers from MCV-online [German]:
Germany - 10.000 units in the first three days (compared to this, the PS2 sold 70.000 units in Germany after two days when it was launched in November 2001)
France - less than 10.000 units in the first three day.
Great Britain - 48.000 units, the best results in Europe.
Microsoft only verified the numbers for GB, but the method for surveying them was the same in all three countries.
X-Box is still $400 in the U.S., you can pick up a decent computer at Best Buy for $300 with a real monitor, keyboard, and mouse included.
*yawn*
Live web cams
Because Americans give Friendly Fire a whole new meaning.
a) The graphics are near perfect, with NO jaggies
b) There was NO slowdown
c) Most importantly, the physics and sense of realism was outstanding and intelligent, including the way the vehicle you move around in responds if it hits something or you drive it off a cliff. It was like a radio controlled car! d) Attention to detail, such as looking up close at artifacts and items left by dead enemies. I know PC games do all this, but at the new price, the graphics this machine generates are a bargain.
I mention all this because what counts is that if a product is compelling enough, people will save up and buy it. This happened with the Palm Pilot. Sales were slow initially as people tried to understand it. But once word of mouth spreads and bank accounts fill up, sales will begin. A price cut too early on can frighten the consumer (who does NOT read /.) into thinking that the product is on the way out, meaning the end of a future supply of games. After all, no matter how good Halo is, once the mission is complete, one wants more!
BTW, the graphics on Gamecube Waveracer were jaggy, althought the water effects are very releastic. Star Wars is ok, but reminded me of a 1980s game, a little distant and on rails in a way. No jaggies though. Oh, and the controller on the Gamecube is the best I have ever used. Lovely big FIRE button. Xbox controller too large. We need compromise! (PS3?)
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
In the mobile phone case it's the operators who are subsidicing the costs of the phone not the manufacturer of the phone.
/. AC "Concrete lifejackets could get certified under ISO2002"
I agree. Something strange I've noticed is that people who had Spectrums always had ST's, and those with C64's always had Amigas. I guess that we thought the C64 sucked so badly that we couldn't face buying an Amiga. But this is rapidly veering off topic.
I don't know in your country, but here in Spain a you can find a NoBrand [tm] DVD player for only 120 EUR (105$ US). And a Samsung, LG, etc. (mid-brand) one costs 180 EUR (150$ US). Of course, you can also get extra-expensive ones.
It's still the best gaming experience money can buy, and the graphics hold up quite well in the face of PS2 & xbox (with the only regret that Sega never released a proper soccer game). Shame that these wretches who call themselves game distributors don't get it and stop taking kids for complete morons with lame games (yes, that's you, Oddcrap) when for a fraction of the price of that 1970's VCR with a green X on it, you can play 4 player Power Stone 2 or Rez or Bangai-O. Ah, but you have to like games more than ripping people off... tough choice!
I still don't get it... was that one or two o's?? and are the spaces in between compulsory?
if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
"I've SVHS into a 36" TV, looks lovely and sounds good. Only one DVD/Audio-phile friend notices the
difference."
Speaking of picture, it should be better looking since the cable called SVHS is always better than composite because it uses 2 cables in fact, a Yellow and a Cyan signal. Thats why electronics and TV guys call it Y/C.
The RGB, for Europe, do they use Euro Connector? If so, it only has a composite signal, not seperate RGB signals as PC monitors have. If it had, it would be great way to connect our gfx cards to TV.
What I mean is, especially on these DVD days, go for SVHS equipped connections if you have chance. You won't have "mega" resolution increase but mostly cleaner/realistic/sharper colours. Er, for people who doesn't know what it is, its the connector looks like exactly a PS/2 mouse/keyboard connector.
Oh btw, I am not into console gaming so sorry if I confused something and/or there are evil/lame tactics those companies "invented".
While I like the price drop, I haven't seen any really good games advertised for the system - BloodWake? Please.
Until there's something else besides Halo, it's not worth it.
BM
Developer
RECRUITLogics.Com
This works for me:
127.0.0.1 images.slashdot.org
In the host file
I don't get the pictures but I don't care....
> about Linux being "a proper OS" - how many games are available on it?
That's an interesting perspective. The success of a gaming platform is usually inversely related to the capabilities of its OS.
Clearly the Xbox is not doing so hot. Mindshare reigns supreme in such things. From my own (long, sordid, embarrasing) experience with console gaming, all it takes is for gamers to start with the 'ConsoleX is dead' talk. Which is infuriating from a certain point of view (just ask a DreamCast owner), but that's the way things go. The game market is like the stock market - perception is everything.
So now we have MS losing over $100 US on ever Xbox, and Sony has announced PS2 on a chip, which will significantly, drive the cost down. This has got to drive MS nuts, as they're not used to competing on these terms (i.e. brutally efficient hardware manufacturing. Really, who wants to compete with the Japanese here.) They know they need control of the living room. It's the beachhead for the next battle. And Sony is entrenched like a mntherfncker.
Didn't Microsoft's slogan used to be "a computer on every desk and in every home in America", or something to that effect? Always thought that was odd for a software company... well, before they started putting their OS into phones, consoles, and Things With Buttons.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
As for the MS Hate talk: While Slashdot is website built for a community -the boring, redundant "M$ Sucks, M$ is Evil" rhetoric gets really boring, redundant and repetitive. Yes everyone has an opinon but the "Me too!" posts suck - Everyone knows you hate them so shut up already.
Who's redundant again?
quite correct. In which case I point to inkjet printers and razors as other examples of products that are sold as loss leaders in order to gain a captive market for the refills. Which is the same as the Xbox - MS want market share so they sell the hardware as a loss leader in order to create a market for the games and accessories, and to get people used to MS hardware.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
No, Sony does not sell at a loss. Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft, however, do sell at a loss. Read the prophetic words of the Almighty Gord. http:// www.actsofgord.com/Proclamations/chapter02. html
This a fairly recent developtment... Sony began making a profit on the PS2 console only within the last few months, after being in production for almost two years. MS, OTOH, has a console less than half a year old, is still losing money on production, and is now cutting the price in two territories. Doesn't look good.
Nintendo, also, loses a miniscule amount of money compared to Microsoft. If they lost the same amount, the Gamecube would be selling for no more than a hundred. AND... This is the first console Nintendo has ever sold at cost.
random
The DVD is probably all proprietary stuff - since it supposedly can spin both ways.
This urban legend has been applied to several video game systems. It's probably not true. It originated from the fact that some of the systems start from the outside of the disc and go in, as opposed to regular CDs and DVDs that start from the inside and go out. The PS2 and Xbox both have their boot sectors on the second layer of the DVD, which is typically written starting at the outside.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Has anyone managed to get a port of LTSP running on this thing? At the prices it would make an expensive but amusing X terminal and I'm sure the port of Linux won't be far behind ... and when they *really* have to slash the price it would save me having to cobble X terms together by dismantling old PCs, take out the hard drive, cut the fan lead in the PSU and so on.
:)
Just a thought
well if there are only 2 good games, and you already have them... 2 extra games ARE pretty worthless.
-rp
"it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS."
.WMA base (I assume, since it is Microsoft, that it uses WMA and not MP3).
It's a console, not a PC. The last thing I want to see on my purely entertainment device is a "real" OS messing up the works. What did you have in mind...? LINUX !? Go buy a freakin Gateway or something if you want a real OS. Dude, yer gettin' a Dell. For cryin out loud. MAKE yer own for $300.
I would like to see some of the other hacks for it though... I so desperatly want to change that 8gig HD into a 60gig so I can turn the thing into a
You need a FREE iPod Nano
When XBox was first released, they were selling it for $100 less than the parts alone are worth.
And thanks to the person who first mentioned Act of Gord, absolutely the funniest thing I've read in a long time. (I really like stories about stupid people.)
Karma? Karma? I don't need no stinkin' karma.
I'm just making this post to clue you in: if you were even half the troll you seem to think you are, you wouldn't be posting at -1, receiving only 1 reply to your comments, and jumping in to your own threads to keep them alive. You are definitely a case of a troll who's dumber than his biters.
The EU commision on competition
When the things sit on shelves unsold, they cost Microsoft still more.
This is because not giving Microsoft any money to offset their costs, hurts them more than giving Microsoft money that doesn't completely offset their costs.
But if you want to organize people to go out there on a large scale and give Microsoft money, why, you go right ahead there. I'm sure they'll find things to do with it! Maybe they'll use the money you give them to come up with a plan to really hurt the (GPL) software license I like best and use. After all, it is not okay with them that I should just mind my own business and write code without paying attention to them. If you give them money maybe they can develop and fund programs that FORCE me to deal with them, such as using Passport for US national ID.
Okay, so I spoke too soon. When I said 'why you go right ahead there', cross that out and write 'are you fscking crazy?????' :P
or insinuating that Australians do is a worse insult than misquoting the population stats.
The Japanese launch line-up was not very inspiring, particularly compared to the stuff out on PS2 and Gamecube at the same time. The strongest title, HALO, isn't even out in Japan. XBox didn't have the all-important out-of-the-box DVD compatibility that boosted initial PS2 shipments. It simply wasn't an attractive purchase.
The second problem is that there have been glitches. The Japanese are very unforgiving of such problems. MS cocked up when they denied there was a problem, then said there was a problem - but it didn't matter and so on. They could have learned all this from Intel's handling of the Pentium bug - but MS didn't.
XBox needs Japanese content fast if it is to survive in that market. Hopefully Sega will do the job and other major coding houses will follow. But MS don't have much time to dissociate XBox from its problems.
And yes, I've been to Japan and I have an XBox. It's a nice piece of kit, but the upcoming titles aren't the most inspiring out there. I might have to get a Gamecube to supplement my gaming intake. Best wishes, Mike.
What ever happened to the XBOX hackers out there? I haven't heard much since they decoded the HD password.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Anyone else noticed that the planned pricedrop is just one week before the GameCube release in Europe?
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
Does anyone have an article that does confirm that Sony is really making a profit on their console? I can't seem to find one.
>I own an XBox, a PS2 and a Dreamcast. In every market some products
>win, some fail - not everyone can win. The Xbox hasn't even been out a
>year yet and everyone is expecting its demise - I would have to give
>the product at least a year from now to more properly speculate what
>its life will be like. Only time will tell.
>
Don't blame us for your stupidity in buying an Xbox. You were warned not to by the vast majority of the people who actually own and play console games. Only the PC fanboy gamers and some disgruntled Dreamcast fanboys ran around hyping the Xbox. Any console gamer would've told you flat out that the Xbox didn't stand a ghost of a chance of being accepted by people interested in console gaming basically because it didn't offer anything they wanted or were interested in. You have to laugh when the Xbox fanboys start ranting about the Xbox's supposed HDTV compatiblity. Here's a perfect example of the disconnect bettween PC gamer/XBox fanboys and the majority of people who buy and play console games. Your typical PC Gamer/XBox fanboy has wet dreams about HDTV. Your avergage Console gamer doesn't give a damn about HDTV.
I can tell you exactly why MS has dropped the price of the XBox here in OZ.
They are shit-scared of the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo has been running a HUGE marketing campaign here in OZ. There about about 4 or 5 commercials for the GameCube every night on all three major TV stations. Not to mention Print and Radio. I have seen a total of ONE TV commercial for the XBox. The GC isn't even due til May 17th!.
Guess how much the GC is going to be when it is released. Yep... AUS$399. Funny that.
(This is also completely ignoring the fact that the XBox is so damn big, and the controller is just wrong.)
To be perfectly honest, I would love to see Sony and Nintendo drop their prices to AUS$199. This would basically wipe the XBox off the face of the planet.
& Have dual input 110v/240v powersupplies, where you just need one of those travel-mate adaptors that just change the physical plug layout.
Its simple economies of scale.
Doing it that way is cheaper than doing different runs for different countries.
I assume that on the back there'd be a tiny hole that you can fit a screwdriver through that lines up with a tiny sloted mini-switch for switching PAL to NTSC, etc. Or some other switching method.
My brother's DVD player has a little hole that lines up with a sloted mini-switch on the circut board - you just stick a swrewdriver in & turn it different notches for different DVD regions, or all the way arround for the region free setting. His DVD player auto switches between PAL & NTSC (it has 3 settings - 'PAL', 'NTSC' & 'Auto')
Of course I'm just assuming this, but from my experiance here in Oz, it seems all the contempory electrical gear seems to be world compatible.
If the XBox was going to be custom made for different countries, you'd be looking at 5 or 6 different regions of DVDs, 2 different powersupplies (110v for Nth America, 240v for everywhere else, & about 8 different powerplug types) & PAL, SECAM & NTSC video outputs.
Now just about every telly, VCR, DVD & TV card in Oz outputs all 3 types at the flick of the switch ('PAL', 'NTSC', 'Auto', I assume SECAM can work under either the 'PAL' or 'Auto' setting). I don't see why the XBox would be any different.
While just about every DVD player in Oz can be set to change regions & 'region-free' (earlier ones), or change regions & 'multi-region' (later ones). Either via an internal microswitch that's oftern externally accesable (as ealier mentioned), or via a coded button sequence on the remote, or by the salesman working some magic on the guts at purchase time. I don't see why the XBox will be any different.
Now with powersupplies, it gets more complicated. There's no reason the XBox can't have 110v/240v dual imputs, however there's the problem of about at least 8 different mainstream wall-plug formats across the world.
The XBox could deal with this problem in 2 ways -
- It could have a dual input 110v/240v built-in powersupply with a standard cassette-radio type 2 pin plug on it, or a 3 slot PC powersupply plug on it, & MS just supplying it with different powercables for the different countries.
- The other option is for MS just to sell the XBoxes with external briquette type powersupplies that match whatever country its sold in.
Which means using a Oz XBox in the US would hopefully be as simple as either changing the powercable or the briquette powersupply (whichever is applicable).
Read the fine print on those phone deals. In this country, at least (Australia :) they're required to include minimum total cost of the plan -- and I refuse to believe that A$1200 (about US$600) doesn't cover the cost of the '$5' phone that they're selling you.
deus does not exist but if he does
The scary fact is that this could be enough to kill the machine. Bad word of mouth and ignorance did for Dreamcast. Those of us who had one loved it, but the average person, if they had even heard of Dreamcast assumed that PS2 would be a much better console - simply by virtue of being later.
Dreamcast was out on the streets while Sony issued blatantly false 'screenshots' from PS2 and hyped the emotion engine. When the games arrived, they looked much worse than Dreamcast.
People want to see the games before buying - had Sega shown just how good Soul Calibur was on Dreamcast they would have sold machines left right and centre. Instead we got army barbers...
Yet Microsoft is using the same advertising tactics as Sega. We have the 'Play More' campaign of a baby aging into middle age and then into the grave, the pubes on the bar of soap - but next to no game footage.
Of course what XBox really needs is Chu Chu Rocket. Then all of its problems are solved.
Best wishes, Mike.
--ducks-- ;-)
Cheap Xboxes are good, but the games are still mega expensive (about £42 each in the UK, AFAIR).. however, doesn't the Xbox have some sort of leet mp3 player built in?
It's cheaper than the iPod, and I heard you can put CDs of mp3s in, and it'll copy them to its hard drive.
The Xbox is nowhere near the size of the iPod, but for the amount of cool things it can do, it might become a useful toy in the future.. kinda like the Dreamcast.
mogorific carpentry experiments
I wonder, does the 12 year old parent poster even know why no one is responding too him?
The parent article is not a troll!
But seeing the level if criticle thinking skills demonstrated in yesterday's Voodoo Scince articel, I'm not at all surprised the mods have declaired the parent a troll.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Yeah I agree that all the anti M$ talk on slashdot is getting boring, mostly because it seems to take the line that even if they fail they still win, ie yeah the XBOX is a failure but they are still getting into the lounge room etc etc.
But seriously, if M$ pissed off there OEM's who the hell are they going to go to?. M$ have a Monopoly there is no alternative. At least in terms of a consumer OS, unless apple ports OSX to intel, which ain't going to happen. It is true that you could argue that linux is an alternative, but then what do you say to person X who just whats to run Office?. The only way that would happen is if they all did it at the same time, something equally unlikely, and for joe public that experience would just be painful.
If M$ made an OEM contract that every maker had to kiss bill gates on the arse, Then they would have to do it, in fact the standard OEM agreement isn't much further from that deal.
As for landing them in legal trouble, the government alreadly tryed to split the company and M$ more-or-less ignored that decision and just brought themselves out on appeal, could another lawsuit really scare them? even an American lawsuit.
Having the XBOX as a windows box is somthing that would save the thing overnight, and is probally be what ever the sequal to it will be, say the homestation. M$ wouldn't even have to do the marjority of the work themselves, just a few leaks to some hardware hacker groups, out comes a windows mod, and five minutes later the XBOX is breaking all sales records again, mostly because people are just buying a cheap pc for the living room (which is what the fsching thing should have been in the first place). It is true, that they would take a hit on licensing fees for the games, but then, could things get much worst then they are now? hell just sell the thing with a games bundle (like they did when the thing was launched) and all your bases are covered.
I agree with you on your other points, I just have a problem when you say that M$ would _never_ try to turn the XBOX into a pc, because, as far as Im concerned, it is the only hope in hell that they have any chance of selling it.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
One thing I find interesting is that I've repeatedly heard the argument that Microsoft can just throw money at XBox until it succeeds. The whole first-iteration-sucks but the third-one-will-be-good thing Microsoft is famous for.
I don't buy it.
The XBox looks likely to fail. It's getting its ass whipped everywhere but America, and even here the GameCube has started to outsell it despite no strong releases on the GameCube side. When Resident Evil, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Eternal Darkness, and Star Fox Adventures hit the GameCube (supposedly all this year), Microsoft will need to have some damned strong support on their side to survive just in North America. And, barring some big surprises being revealed at E3, it doesn't look like they have too many great games coming, at least not that will stand up to Zelda and Mario. In any case, no matter how they do here, I think it's very likely that Japan, Europe, and Australia are lost causes.
Suppose they do fail utterly -- they have to discontinue the XBox because people aren't buying it. Now, this is Microsoft, so of course they go back to the drawing board and release the even-more-powerful XBox 2. Twice as powerful as the Playstation 3, say, and a bit cheaper. Sounds great, right? Microsoft can just keep shoveling these things into the market until one of them sticks, the same way they've done with everything else.
Well, no. Firstly, Microsoft's first-party games won't support the XBox 2 by itself. Nintendo is the only game company in the world that can pull that trick off. So the XBox 2 will need third-party support in order to have any games at all, and without games nobody will buy the system, no matter how powerful it is.
Even after the XBox failure, many PC game companies might be willing to port their stuff to the XBox 2 for a quick buck. But can you imagine *anybody* developing exclusive software for the XBox 2, after the complete and utter failure of the XBox? Well, it's not impossible, but the XBox 2 would have to have a lot going for it in order to attract any third-party game companies. The Japanese third-parties, in particular, would be unlikely to touch the thing after the obvious failure of the first. They're leery enough dealing with the first one, and only tremendous work on Microsoft's part got any Japanese support at all.
I'm well aware that Microsoft has deep pockets and can afford to buy game companies outright in order to force them to develop for the XBox 2 -- but that's not the point. They've already bought Bungie, and shovelled money at others, and it doesn't seem to be making a hell of a lot of difference. They need to fix the problem *now*, or it will be far, far more expensive to try to salvage the XBox 2. Microsoft isn't stupid -- they are perfectly well aware that unless they succeed now, it will be *really* expensive to try to make a comeback.
In my view, if the XBox fails, it's all over for Microsoft's game console business. It will be really tough to buy back consumer and third-party confidence after the fiasco that looks to be shaping up.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
It seems to me that most of these comments are coming from people that don't even own an X-Box.
/. and sourceforge tomorrow, no strings attached, that most everyone here would be in an uproar. It's a damn shame that no one can see the bigger picture here. I'm happy that a US company has the edge over the others. The strength of MS is a piece of what makes the US a superpower. It's funny, the death of the US is going to be the fact that we are slowly cutting our legs out from under us. Senator Disney and all this MS hate make me sick. Wake up kids, if it keeps up, China will rule the world.
Fact:
Xbox has superior graphics
Xbox has just as many good launch titles as PS2 did. PS2 had SSX and not much else. Xbox has Halo.
Everyone just jumps to hate MS for everything they do. I'm sure that if MS decided to give $1B to
I've read many allusions to this all over the web and I have one question: What the h3ll are you talking about?
It's a GAME CONSOLE! Here's what you do with it: 1) plug it in, 2) turn it on, 3) insert a game disk and 4) start playing.
Exactly what is it that you want to do with this thing that requires a 'real OS'? If your answer goes beyond steps 1 through 4 above then I think you're a bit confused; you don't want a game console, you want something else entirely. It's called a computer.
You've got a point, but if they don't sell, they won't keep making them. Then they stop losing money. I'm looking far a way to steadily drain cash out of the bastards indefinitely.
As a friend of mine used to say, "In the long run, it's the long run that counts."
Anyway, I was kind of kidding, pal. But "kidding on the square", as my dear old mom would put it.
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line. -- Oscar Levant
Week 4/8-4/14, Japan Hardware Sales
* PS1: 3,000 units (total this year: 74,000)
* Xbox: 1,800 units (total this year: 169,000)
Thats not what I would call outselling.
You know if Microsoft released a disc that contained the SDK, toolkits and more tons of people would buy the Xbox for the simple fact that it'll be more than just a gaming machine, and more than a pc. With the SDK in the hands of the development community, we would start to see a LOT of really cool stuff. Stuff that doesn't even necessarily have to be "games". The XBOX, unlike any other console, HAS a hard drive, and a big hard drive too boot (pun intended). I really think Microsoft should leverage this to their advantage. And leverage it soon before their console dies.
And Zarathustra.fi has a great point about Microsoft's game pricing. Some games like Halo, Max Payne and Madden 2002, I would say are worth $50. But games like Arctic Thunder, Azurik: Rise of Perathia, Blood Wake, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fuzion Frenzy, LOONS -- The Fight For Fame, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Shrek, TransWorld Surf, Unreal Championship and Whacked are definitely a few titles that are worth $40 and under.
grep >= ! == $your
With the high level of integration here, I honestly can't see them losing too much on each box. I take the word that they cost $425 a piece to build with an enormous gain of salt. At $299, if they're selling at a loss it isn't much of one. The only big ticket component in the box is the DVD-ROM drive.
...MS knows it's gonna take heavy losses to get the market penetration required to start making serious money on the software.
It is amazing to me how much money Microsoft is bleeding out with the XBox. It's an insane strategy if making money off game software royalties is their goal. However, I don't think that they ever intend for XBox to turn a profit, at least in this generation. Rather, they are protecting their monopoly.
Microsoft has the monopoly on the PC OS. But what if, 5 or 10 years from now, nobody used a PC? What if everyone used a TV set-top appliance that played games and DVD's, was a PVR, surfed the web as an internet appliance, wrote letters and resumes and balanced the checkbook. This theoretical "convergence box" is the direction that many pundits see the industry heading. So if, in the future, everyone uses this box instead of a PC, Microsoft would be out of business.
Unless that box had a Microsoft logo on it instead of a Sony one. I think that this is the real reason Microsoft got into the console business, and the reason they are willing to lose so much money. They want to protect the monopoly, plain and simple. If they lose a billion dollars on X-Box over 4 years, but keep the industry stranglehold that earns them tens of billions of dollars annually, then it was money well lost.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Buying jewelry from the nazis was "a good buy" too, but it certainly wasn't a good idea.
I don't care how much they have to reduce the price of their box - you should vote with your dollars for a company that plays well with others.
If you lower the price on a piece of crap, you just end up with a cheaper turd.
X-Box is a p3 733 with Nvidia GPU and special (eh, tweaked firmware etc) hardware.
That is NOT a console IMHO. We speak about 128bit Sony PS/2 in consoles.
However, MS would -of course- tweak DirectX for that "console". Also its normal for them.
But its NOT a console, the "gaming" console I understand is a much more advanced machine with the features we don't see/need on PC's.
Like a 128 bit processing unit (whether its a gpu or cpu, I don't know)...
So, X-Box... People dreaming of 2Ghz P4's running on RDRAM's won't give a sh*t to it. Especially if "gaming" that they understand is "counter strike". Counter Strike uses Modified Quake II engine of half life... Eh,that "console" has OpenGL?
Harvey Norman in Australia are refusing to stock the XBox as Microsoft asked them to give the XBox preference over the PS2.
Harvey Norman instead stocked more PS2 combo entertainment packs... suck on that M$
On the other hand, the other console was released a hair over 6 years ago, has no advertising, is essentially overpriced considering the 100 million! previous sales are heading to the used console market, is way past the tapered end of the sales curve, and people are buying it knowing that it has no future and may in fact be best suited for use as a lawn ornament.
With that in mind, I would say, YES for the love of bug-fuck 3000 for an end-of-life box is more than 1800 for a new, hyped, growing box. What, you're complaining about the totals? Bah. Look at the sales curves: normally, you see the opening week spike, sales fall to a fraction (but still sizeable) for the next month or two as the early adopters get their gear; as they taper off everyone else gets around to buying. Slowly the sales figures grow and level off at 1/4 to 1/3 of the launch, where they stay for another 3 years or so. The Xbox curve: opening week spike, gradual fall, complete plummet following broken hardware snafu; their curve is now below a relic and still falling. And for a finale, there is little to no historical precedent to show that a company can pull out of a dive like that.
ciao, Xbox. See you in 5 years.
That's what we would call 'a freakish divergence of plotted sales figures'.To sum up...
They started running ads for the thing in september when the thing wasn't going to be released in another four months (late march), why would you bother to advertise something which wasn't going to be released until well into to next year?
They started a viral marketing campaign, which basically means they paid some dudes to spray paint green X's everywhere, pissing a lot of people off. To just pay people to vandalise property doesn't make you cool
They spammed local universities with adverts for the thing, putting ads on community boards for months (some of which still haven't been taken down). Like your average college student in Australia (univerisity in this country is publically funded) has the money to buy the thing in the first place and would just because they covered up the play lists and for the local pub. IE, they posted XBOX ads over the enrollment timetables at my local university you can imagine how that went down.
Instead of running locally produced ads on the tube they just ported American advertisments. Which had the effect of alienating people in this country, and there still running the fscking things, I sware if I see that ad for HALO again I'm going to kick in my TV
In short,, the advertising campaign in this country was just crap, in fact it had the effect of pissing a lot of people off, who would have brought the thing. It was simply too much for too long, too badly done. To illustrate, my 56 year old man who knows nothing about computers even went on at me for hours about how he hating seeing ads for the thing everywhere, since being a nerd I was somehow responsible.
IMHO, If you what to advertise a product the best way to do it is to have a campaign starting a week before the local launch then give the punters a rest before starting to advertise the games, like nintendo are doing.
M$'s attempts at marketing in this country have been really substandard to say the least, they clearly give the impression that M$ does not give a flying frill about this country and consquently no one here could care less about their console, I imagine that the same holds true for other countries expaining it's poor showing there.
The best example would be that ad for windows XP with all those people flying around, M$ run the same ad here completely ignoring that the exact same concept had been used by the telephone company One.tel who had recentally gone broke in this country leaving a lot of Australian stock brokers out of pocket. Clearly, M$ couldn't care less about there public image anywhere out side of North America.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
Suposedly MS was losing 100$ bucks for console when the console was priced at 400.
Sorry I don't believe, hey guys we are talking of a Pentium 733 with 64Mb. Does it cost 500$?. Yeah sure, XBox factory price is around 1000$ and the Pope is a woman.
Now perhaps they are losing this amount.
It was a huge steaming pile of crap for several releases, but they kept throwing money at programmers, buying up competitors, and generally forcing it in places it did not fit. Well it is the de-facto standard now and quite nice. Whether this was the strategy M$ intended or not, it is the road they generally take. Give them another year for game developers to catch on and I see a real competion. That said I am NOT buying a console, that can't interface into my PC system, period.
:)
As to you "PC gamers"...My PC system BLOWS away any console system for overall gaming experience, no contest, plus it has the added value of being useful for a mryiad of other tasks, and UPGRADEABLE to boot
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
NTSC TVs can't stomach PAL. I Tried it and the TV started hurling. Most PAL TVs handle NTSC fine though. Besides, unless the XBox has a switching power supply, you couldn't do sh*t with it in the US, since PAL uses 220V @ 50Hz.
The PS2's backwards compatibility alone made it the better buy, I could play all my old PS One games on better platform and I still buy PS One games because I can pick them up for about $15 a pop, PS2 had a larger game selection (not counting the near 1000 PS One games) a more comfortable game controller, and was released with DVD capability around the same time DVD was just hitting main stream. Next gen game consoles may seem expensive but not when you subtract the cost of a DVD player. Not to mention that Sony has already proven itself in the industry. The Xbox was released at around 400+ for the console and only about 10 games all priced near $60 each. Thats $1000 for the box and 10 games after the PS2 had already been released on the market months earlier. Some may have thought the Xbox would have given the PS2 a run for its money, I wasn't one of them.
It does run a real OS. I see it blue screened nearly every time I see one in the store.
ac
well, I have traded my XBox for a PS2. Not because I didn't liked the hardware. I mean, the graphics are amazing on the Xbox compared to the PS2, but I got so fucking frustrated one evening playing with the BIIIIGGGG ms controller (hands burning, aching...) that I threw out the fucking thing. Now I have a PS2, graphics are not that bad, I have great games to play with, I have a controller half the size of the ms one, plus I was able to hook my PC Logitech Wingman Force Wheel to it and it worked perfectly with GranTourismo. The games for the xbox are just boring except Amped and beleive me, I bought every game that came out for the xbox so far. What i waste of money, I know but you never learn without hurting yourself the first time. We will never teach japanese how to make a game console, never.
Five million!!!
There are more then that in sydney alone.
I know that even 21 million is a fairly puny population, but five million. That's pathetic. maybe your talking about New Zealand?
Australia kicks Europes arse, but we are united in one respect. Neither of us likes those unstable, fuzzy pieces of potentially monopolistic sh** X-boxes, and in that respect I am proud of both our continants. And Japan, they hate them too
The difference between holding an X-Box and a play-station controller is the difference between picking up a cinder block and caressing the sencual curves of a beautiful woman
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
MS was already losing $100 per XBOX sold. Yet *in spite of this*, they're still raking in $1,000,000,000 profit a month. Do you think Bill Gates put up the $100 loss out of his pocket? No, it gets paid for directly by sales of Windows and Office. So when you buy Office or Windows, you are *directly* paying for some kids XBOX, somewhere.
"Ha", I hear you say, "I pirate Windows, so thats not me". Well, consider this - your *work* still has to buy hundreds of licenses for all the Microsoft software. That money also has to come from somewhere, since your company also, like Microsoft, can't create money out of thin air. So your company's profits gets eaten into - or, to put it simply, your Christmas bonus this year will be lower than it might have been, and/or your salary is lower than it *could* have been if your boss didn't have to go around subsidizing a bunch of XBOX's (and MS's 40% margins).
When will people learn that companies and governments can't create things out of thin air? Internet Explorer used to be widely touted because it was "free" - I didn't see Microsoft losing money, did you? So obviously it wasn't free - it just means the cost gets shifted onto some other product line, i.e. Windows.
As ppl have commented, there are several problems:
- Most CD or DVD games for games systems are Region Encoded.
- PAL equipment uses the PAL system, and NTSC systems use the NTSC standard.
- SOME (repeat SOME) PAL systems can decode NTSC and direct a 'type of Standards conversion' to the display circuits.
- I don't know if ANY NTSC systems have this kind of capability, but I doubt it exists outside of TV and Cable stations.
- MULTI-Standards TVs and VCRs exist - what do you think is used on yachts?
- MULTI-Standard Systems have PS' switchable from 110v to 250v, 60Hz to 50Hz. Heck, they probally do 12vdc and 24vdc too!
---------
AU$1.00 currently equal to about US$0.55
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Amiga owners are familiar with these issues as the machines handle NTSC and PAL as standard. We had MANY NTSC games on PAL systems in the early years. These games displayed on the TOP 5/6 of the screen in a squashed format.
NTSC owners playing PAL games missed out on the LOWER 1/6 of the display - it was below the margin of the screen and often had the Scoring infomation.
Importing Amigas between 110v 60Hz and 240v 50Hz countries simply requires acquiring the correct PS, or converting it!
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
I was finishing the obvious South Park referencee.
Surely, the real profit margins of the Xbox are going to come with the DSL-only networking options? How much do you bet that once (if?) the online killer apps are released then users will be poleaxed with a whopping subscription fee? Getting the box into your home is one thing; getting you to get it chained to the phone socket is quite another, and believe me people will do it. Don't underestimate the Xbox, it still has the potential to become a market leader if M$ is prepared to make a long term investment and slash the price before they start raking it in.
They have computers, and they may have other weapons of mass destruction.
Look- Microsoft Office, Word etc. have long been copied. Really large people have 'stolen' these products, not EVEN paying Microsoft money for them, much less paying hundreds of dollars. So, since Microsoft clearly lost money on all those Office copyings, and weren't even paid AT ALL, clearly it's done them loads of damage, and that is why Word and Office never became successful products and we have the thriving office-software competitive market we have tod..
doh!
Get it?
Anyhow, see the point? Let's not be doing this with game consoles. Consoles are about having fun, and nothing about Microsoft is fun. Unless you're into BDSM, I suppose :)
Nintendo's undercut microsofts efforts already, A$329 for aussies and 199euro for europe, say goodnight xbox.
t em &id=2907
http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=i
Nintendo responded by dropping the GameCube's launch price to $AU329.
Hurrah, etc.
"Sorry I don't believe, hey guys we are talking of a Pentium 733 with 64Mb. Does it cost 500$?."
No, but the Nvida GF3+ (it's a little more than a GF3) with the chipset, plus the hard drive, plus breakage (which is probably higher than other console makers due to the relative fragility of a hard drive), etc. all point to a unit cost of somewhere around $400 at the beginning of the console's life. And a unit cost of $400 means that M$ would be losing more than $100 when selling it retail (remember, you need to consider the store's cut too) for $300.
They may have gotten costs down further since then, but I doubt that they have it below $300 (still selling at a loss, mind you).
BlackGriffen
Also, a lot of Japanese made TV's support a multitude of TV formats, including both NTSC and PAL. So if the manual says that your TV supports PAL-B/G (as well as the local format) it would work. I suspect that PAL capable TVs would be more expensive in NTSC countries, since NTSC requires less hardware. Feeding 240V into the X-box may be a pain, if you don't already have a transformer that will do this you will end up spending more than you would save. If the region coding of the games is true then that would suck mightily - I suspect that the only region problem would be PAL games vs NTSC games.
As for importing a TV from Australia, it would be cheaper to get one from a country where there actually make the things.
I find the lameness filter annoying.