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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."
Microsoft is in for the long haul
This is where it all falls apart. Killer this, great that, awesome the other thing. Really, the only hype that matters is this:
Microsoft touts this as a brilliant center of home media and that's probably true for anyone who doesn't already have a home entertainment center of some sort. But what the distillate is you're not going to buy it to watch DVDs on, you're going to play games with it. You're not going to surf the internet, you're going to play games with it. It won't transform you into some actuallized renaissance man (or woman) through shear wonderfulness of the Total Microsoft Experience, you will play games with it.Microsoft is under some crazy dellusion that this is some hook into the household which will bring more fish in. Really, it'll just bring gamers who are only loyal until the next gotta-have game pops up on the next revolutionary console.
If you've guessed by now that I'm not getting one, you would be right. My Athlon64 PC with top of the line video and sound cards plays this game just fine. I see no reason to switch.
"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."
Argh, the hype! Must resist... must resist!
Oh. That wasn't so difficult.
I wonder how many of these will actually go straight from the store to eBay because money is more attractive than having one.
It must suck to live in a rural area and have to get your fix this way.
new for xbox 360: uncle steve's chair toss and monkey dance combo! limit numbers, buy today!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Just like the Dreamcast had, eh?
In short, people will wait for the next-gen offerings from Nintendo and Sony.
....... When will we see a LINUX distro for it?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
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.
"Some gamers have gone to even greater extremes - like the man who robbed an Electronics Boutique store in Stafford, Virginia in the early hours of this morning. According to US website GameSpot, he held the store manager up at gunpoint and ordered him to hand over two Xbox 360s. Presumably ones with hard drives."
;)
Gee, Microsoft are really taking viral marketing to new heights here. Move over iLoveBees...
...I would like to see a TCO report between this, the PS3 and the revolution. I'm seriously thinking of investing in a game console.
I saw Israelis and Palestinians settling their differences and playing a nice game of Perfect Dark Zero together.
This is truly a groundbreaking new system!
/Got Gamertag?
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
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
It launched already??? Why haven't I heard anything about this yet?!?! The slashdot editors need to get off their asses and help hype this thing a little bit...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
Wow those guys really must be going without food
you will see that this machine really is well done and offers lots of useful features. It is very well thought out and if you opt for the harddrive you get even more options.
I was actually impressed with its ability to work with other devices to include an iPOD and PsP. The nice thing about this machine is that it really is expandable as wireless gives them many options. You will probably see an addon keyboard/mouse combo one day.
There are many of us out here who don't need our PCs to program on, we have them for games, other entertainment, e-mail, and surfing. Give me an insta-on box with those features and I may just consider it. The XBOX360 is actually the first console I am seriously considering because of the potential.
Playing DvDs is a bonus, if it means one less component I have to hook up or keep up with all the better. People harped on the PS2 for the same reason yet I know many who have one for that very reason.
Just because its Microsoft doesn't make it wrong which seems to be your whole beef against it. (who made it)
(allow me to run some IBM style emulator/vpn over the net with a wireless keyboard and I really really need a PC even less)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
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.
Microsoft touts this as a brilliant center of home media and that's probably true for anyone who doesn't already have a home entertainment center of some sort.
Yup. Its perfect for college students and the like who have to pick up and move every few semesters and share stuff with other people. Why stock up on a lot of equiptment when a XBOX will function as your multimedia center?
-everphilski-
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'm still unclear about why the fact that 360 is out first is a definitive advantage. I guess they get a chance to take a first crack at the market, but...there seems to be some extremely dark clouds on the horizon due to this early arrival.
1. No HD-DVD or Blu-Ray- whatever happens with this media format debacle, the people with the new 360 out now wont have it.
2. Future Version Product Confusion/Backlash- Because of the above, when they begin to release future updated hardware versions of the 360, the market will be confused as to what they should purchase. Its not a new system, but it has new features this time around. Will there be expensive add-ons to accommodate current owners? Because those who have the old and not the new are gonna be pissed that they didn't get the finished system. This isn't the slim-downed PS2 I'm talking about here. That was a cosmetic change or downgrade option(imho), this will be a complete technical upgrade.
3. Debut game lineup-What lineup? If I don't like sports or shooting Nazi's... not much left, maybe Kameo. Much of the "meat and potatoes" was delayed past X-mas, creating a weird kinda of late winter "secondary launch".
4.All they are competing with is heresay and conjecture-The hard and fast realities of the PS3 and Revolution are still out in the open. So a decision by the consumer is hard to make, because no real comparison can be made. This will inevitably create a bubble of "undecided". Although with how rabid gamers can be, there will always be those too impatient to wait.
I'm no fanboy, I own all three of the current generation and agree all have things about them I like. It just seems to me that we've got a situation here where the 4th grader has rushed to finish his test first and hand it in to the teacher so he can look back at the class and say "I'm done first". Even though he did a sloppy job, didn't fully answer each question and in the end didn't get a great grade.
I am and always will be a stereotype, because who in their right mind prefers mono?
Disappointed lot of gamers. Release was very poorly managed with just 20 pieces for every store. Whether Microsoft made money or not, eBay and speculators are making money. The latest Winning bid: US $2,225.00
partly to offer some kind of counter offense against Microsoft's Xbox 360 blitz, partly to rehabilitate itself from the DRM rootkit mess.
Sun and Fun
PS3 - BluRay DVD. That'd be the big one.
if you play a sony audio cd in it.. does it install it's rootkit?
what a tough decision..
we hate MS because their evil..
we now hate sony because their evil..
nintendo games suck because they're not evil..
what's a geek to do.
My sincere hope in that the console makers are moving to PowerPC arch is that this will increase the pace of Linux dev for 64bit PPC architectures. There has been a lot of good work done, but the pace has been a little slow. I'm not much of a gamer, but this is one of the many benefits that gaming brings to other markets.
...still holds true for the Xbox360. I am not a graphics whore, so Microsoft isn't offerring anything of interest to me. I own a DVD player, I already have a computer, and I don't plan on getting HDTV to have prettier games. At least Nintendo is attempting to innovate. And if their innovation doesn't pan out, they have a fallback plan - in that there will be an "accessory" for the Revolution that will allow you to use the new controller in some sort of an "old fashioned" controller shell. As for the PS3, it is going to be awfully powerful - and that is really all I know for sure about it. The problem here is not me, as a gamer, saying "Make me a prettier game!". It has come down to me saying "Make me a game that will take longer than a weekend to beat. And don't do it by requiring me to power up characters for no other purpose than to burn time or placing impassible FMV sequences in the fifteen minute or more range (are you listening Square Enix?)."
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.
While the intended effect is to create a buzz that encourages a christmas buying frenzy, it could backfire just as well. The original Xbox launch had an enormous supply. I wasn't really looking to buy an xbox at the time, but I happened to be in Best Buy 2 days after the launch, so I decided to give it a shot.
Today, Xbox 360's are selling for nearly $2,000 on ebay. Not even a package, just the system. The "shortage buzz" will certainly keep casual purchasers away and I'm sure quite a few people might decide to wait a few months for the ps3.
Where are all these people that have $500C for a game system with no games? Do they have no other forms of entertainment that they must buy a bleeding edge Microsoft game console? Might I remind them politely that they can get a computer for the same price, and it can do games and everything else the XBox 360 can do, and not be locked into Microsoft only Xbox 360 games and software?
Why not buy an XBox original and get oodles of games for it if you don't already have a system. You get way more entertainment bang for your buck. I guess keeping up with the Joneses is more important these days than it's ever been in the past?
The media coverage this thing is geting makes me nearly sick. It's on the radio, the TV, and in print. I've only heard one reviewer say they wouldn't buy their kids the system because it's going to be at least $150 less in 6 months. Don't these parents realize that their heating bills are going to be about 50% more this year?
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
1. "Microsoft sooo does not belong in the game console market. They make Office software, for Christ's sake."
Lest you forget, they also make an Operating System. They also make media apps. Why are you upset about greater competition in the console market? That should benefit all of us.
2. "The first X-Box was just a PC in a box."
Ata fraction of the cost. Tons of people won't spend $1k to buy a new computer, but $300 for a console is fine.
3. "The name is stupid and personifies what I hate about this machine and its community"
What does this have to do with anything? Is the Dreamcast, or the Revolution, any better? Who cares what it's called.
4. "The game library will mostly just be PC ports and Playstation ports"
See above comment re: PC-in-a-box. Also, as a social activity, gaming on a PC with a few friends just sucks. Much easier to sit on the couch.
5. "At least with the Playstation 3, it has the appeal of being the absolute top hardware"
Hah. It's not so different from the 360. By the time the PS3 launches, it won't be near the top, compared to first-class gaming rigs.
6. "Instead of letting the product sell itself based on its own value, as other companies do (a cliched example, but see Apple and its iPod...all Steve Jobs had to do was hold up an iPod nano to the camera, and everyone was SOLD on it)"
You really crack me up. Apple spent millions and millions to market the iPod brand.
"this thing is just a shareholder-driven profit grab"
Now, a profit grab would imply that MS is making a profit on these. They are building a long-term business with the 360, not grabbing profits.
"not a genuinely fantastic product from a company that actually makes games and game consoles and belongs in that market
I won't claim to know if the 360 is fantastic or not, but like it or not: MS makes game consoles and they also make games. By your rationale, shouldn't Sony stick with audio equipment, and get the hell out of the game console market?
It's obvious you hate MS. That's fine. By why are you upset that they released a product YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY? Or are you just upset that it gets press?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The original Xbox is without a doubt the WORST console lifespan of all time. Even ill fated systems hung on for longer and continued active development. 4 years for a system is not a good value, and just ensures that programmers have YET to even fully tap into the system. When console makers *cough* Sony/MS *cough* only pump out systems based on horsepower, hype and profit, they go stale much quicker. I can't see the 360 or PS3 making any lasting impact either due to the massive development costs and time investments.
Getting back to the games, and opening the doors of the target audience to the average family and regular folks is the real path to success. If Nintendo doesn't drop the ball, they have this one in the bag. There has never been so much demand for a decently priced, family game system. The ages of older NES/Atari gamers are out of PS3/360 demographics and they generally have budding families... could be time for a Revolution.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/macproto/ Pippin.html
- nuff said
b00tl3g
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
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.
I was at Gamestop during the Dreamcast launch, and if employees got machines it was because they pre-ordered one just like the rest of the world. Games and accessories are usually available before the system launches (I saw those for Xbox 360 at Target this past weekend), and the supply problem is usually localized to the system itself. I can't remember if there was a ban on discounted games and accessories for Dreamcast, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Employees don't get discounts on systems anyhow since there is virtually no markup on them. AFAIK, this holds true at other retailers.
I was at the Xbox Zero Hour release party last night (in Palmdale, CA). It wasn't that crowded at the event. I didn't have a problem playing every game on the show floor. I'm sorry to say that I'm not all that impressed with the release titles. (Yeah, I know first generation.) I also had a chance to buy one last night, but I didn't (however, hundreds of others did).
I am impressed how well Live is integrated with the console. When we got there, they gave us a free memory unit and helped us transfer our Live account on it. Then we were able to play on Live wtih the number of games that were available. I think Live will dominate over whatever Sony has to offer as far as online integration with the console.
Despite being not overly impressed with any of the titles, there was one that my buddy and I played for over an hour. It was from Live Arcade (a number of small titles you can download from Live). The game was called Geometry Wars. Yes, strangely enough, it wasn't the multi-million dollar developed games that won my game of the show, but this small independently developed game you can download from Live.
I'll wait around like I did with the original Xbox before I get one. Same thing goes with the PS3. Comes back to what we said many a time: good games make good consoles.
is a major problem with this society today. I find it truly annoying that we don't celebrate more the success that many people do have. Instead we have many people who attempt to bring these people down.
STOP IT.
Damn it, we are a society of achievers. It is what drives this country. Yes it can be excessive but damn if we keep up this "loser" mentality then we truly will fall behind.
It is the lack of celebrating the winners that is affecting our schools. We have systems which now "play games" with grades so as not to embarras those who don't strive to succeed. Schools go out of there way to minimize the success of a few and wonder why the students stop trying? If we want to know why our schools are falling behind in math and science we have only to look at why we stopped celebrating those who truly were outstanding. If you punish success you will get mediocrity.
You ever think that many of the people buying these things don't have to care about their heating bills; which btw are not going to be that hideously different from last year. My price per therm hasn't budged, don't believe all the BS hype
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Just spotted this little bit of news at Gamespot about how half of surveyed "active" gamers said they would wait until they had choice before buying in to the next generation.
;)
Well at least I know I'm not alone.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
If you examine an XBox-retail-box (at least the one that have been available in stores for display) you can hardly find the Microsoft logotype anywhere. There are just a few small insignificant ones. Obviously Microsoft wants to let the XBox trademark live on its own without too much Microsoft association. Why? Are they not proud of the XBox or fear it will be another commercial failure? Do they think Microsoft makes people think of boring low-quality products? Does their MS logotype not appeal to children? Do they plan to sell the XBox in the future or split the XBox division from the company? Do they think that the XBox as a toy should not be connected with their Server/Business products? Any ideas? Anyone who knows?
all these people that have $500C for a game system with no games?
Chicks want useless shiny rocks, guys want useless shiny electronics.
You can't take the sky from 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
Way too loud, Way too hot!
I had it outside my stereo cabinet, I couldn't take the noise. So I put it inside, and it gets far too hot with the door closed, and with the door open it's as loud as outside the box and even hotter! And I even made sure to put the enormous power supply outside the cabinet.
This stinks. I didn't expect to have to mod my living room to play this thing.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
When I checked this auction, with 2 minutes to go, the Xbox360 premium package was bid up to $2550. http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Xbox-360-Premium-Pac k-Game-console-NEW_W0QQitemZ8234635572QQcategoryZ6 2054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I'm in complete and total shock. I would have never pictured myself saying this, but I wish I had pre-ordered an Xbox360... so I could sell it on eBay and more than quadruple my money in one day !
WTF?!? I mean... they're going to make more... you have to pay $2000 extra to have it *now*?!? That doesn't even include a fricking game!!!
Maybe I just don't get the appeal of a console, but being policed by a DRM protected system, spoon fed expensive content/games and restricted to a TV or forced to buy a HDTV with a lower resolution than my monitor doesn't appeal to me at all.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65990154 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65990156 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65990158 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65990159 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65995966 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80491849@N00/65995967 /
Lest you forget, they also make an Operating System. They also make media apps. Why are you upset about greater competition in the console market? That should benefit all of us.
How long do you think this "competition" will last? The console market is not currently profitable at Microsoft, but they have their sights at the long term. And do you know what the long term goal is? Allow me illustrate to you their goal with evidence from Microsoft's hisotry of business practices:
Microsoft will keep throwing money at the problem to gain market share. And once they get rid of Sony, they will eventually out-last Nintendo as well. And when they do, do not expect Microsoft to provide any innovation.
They are notorious for taking over markets and then stop putting any Research and Development money into their monopolies. In other words, since they are saving money on R&D once they have a monopoly, they make profit for years to come. At the same time, Microsoft stifle innovation because the money that consumers give them gets no return in terms of R&D.
As consumers, we lose when Microsoft takes over a market. Microsoft's entry into the console market DOES NOT benefit us in the long run.