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Xbox 360 Launches In U.S.
Well, it's here. Braving long lines and launch parties, and even jail time, those that were willing to pony up the time and money have their hands on the first player in the next-gen war. 360 impressions are available all across the web, with [H]ardOCP and Gamespot offering exhaustive experiences for the interested gamer. The BBC, as always, offers a bigger perspective on the launch, and Gamasutra confirms that Microsoft is in for the long haul in the games industry. From the BBC: "Sony and Nintendo are planning to unleash their next gen consoles during 2006, giving Microsoft an edge over its rivals. The software giant is virtually tied with Nintendo for second place, way behind Sony, in a games market worth $25 billion globally. Microsoft has ambitious plans for its new machine. It said it expects to ship up to three million 360s worldwide within 90 days. But the company has admitted that the worldwide launch of the console could mean shortages in the run-up to Christmas. The console is due to hit Europe on 2 December and Japan on 10 December and some retailers are also warning about limited supplies."
I wonder how many of these will actually go straight from the store to eBay
2734 when I checked. That might be one or two percent of the entire US supply so far.
My Dad works at the Fry's Electronics in Downers Grove, IL, and there was a line around the building when we got there at 7am this morning. I thought there was some kind of early Black Friday thing going on until I remembered the XBox launch date.
Apparently some people are willing to pay over a thousand bucks for one.
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For those that haven't gone blind yet (article minus the blinding blue theme): http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/22/17462
A friend waited in the hype cue at a Wallmart for 8 hours and picked one up last night. Apparently they had 32 to sell and and a line of 50 people. At 10mins before midnight a guy shows up walking the line waving 300 bucks for someones spot in line. Needless to say someone thought having his xbox mostly paid for a little later, rather then tonight, was worth giving up his spot.
But thankfuly not my pixel junkie mate and I got to play it. Overall it seems really solid but out of the 4 games he got, nothing grabbed me. His long wait for a native title that can push this new system to its limit has begun.
Lord a'mighty, have you seen how much these fuckers are going for on ebay? Check out the listings... one even sold for over 5,000 dollars (yes, five thousand).... Wow.
Joseph?
I just got mine, haven't slept yet since getting it, actually.
:( )
But I have to admit it probably isn't worth the price for everybody except the hardcore. It's waaaay pricer than what I payed for my original Xbox on launch day.
I payed:
$400 XB360 Premium bundle.
$50 Extra controller
$100 WiFi adapter for Xbox (my TV is not where my router is setup; had to buy it
$60 Madden
$60 Quake 4
In total I payed around $700 including tax. That's basically with 2 games and an extra controller. If tt wasn't for the WiFi it would have been closer to $600.
Personally, I think I payed too much relative to the enjoyment factor. Quake4 is great but there is some MAJOR frame rate issues with that game, but my friend got PGR3 and it is absolutly beutiful, but the gameplay isn't my taste (personally prefer the Burnout-style gameplay to this "Kudos" system).
While I'll say that I'm happy with my XB360, I wouldn't recommend buying one to anybody else until PS3 comes out and MS drops the price of the console. Also, there is no killer-app that's worth the price, and graphics aren't any better than what you would get from a well-equiped PC. But I know Halo 3 will be out for it someday, so it's good enough for me.
It seems that at least some of the Xbox 360 consoles are faulty... No clear problem is pinpointed at the moment, but one strong cause could be overheating; http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s=c04af2866 ed9534607ad98ce292b6a3e&showtopic=462099