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Xbox 360 Launches In U.S.

Posted by Zonk on from the omgbbq dept.

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."

18 of 551 comments (clear)

  1. Edge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just like the Dreamcast had, eh?

    In short, people will wait for the next-gen offerings from Nintendo and Sony.

  2. Re: Microsoft is in for the long haul by sidb · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. To the edge and beyond by Dobeln · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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... ;)

  4. I don't know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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.

    1. Re:I don't know... by Richard+Frost · · Score: 5, Funny

      ... president Iwata... [has] gone on record saying not free. You'll pay. You won't pay much, but you'll pay.

      This Iwata guy has got to be the nicest super villan ever.

  5. It launched? by BushCheney08 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  6. Re: Microsoft is in for the long haul by xero9 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, I bought an original Xbox not to play games on, but to use as a media device. It really worked great for all the TV shows and movied I snagged off usenet. Simply put all my files in a shared folder on my computer and fire up Xbox Media Center on the Xbox, and watch what ever I wanted on a nice 35" TV instead of my 17" monitor. It wasn't until I discovered Rainbow Six 3 that I actually started to use it to play games.

  7. Re:So...... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    ....... When will we see a LINUX distro for it?

    Just before a chair is hurled through your window with a Cease and Desist letter attached to it.

    do it and we'll bury you, love steve

    So is there a sight for posting pools on the interent as to when the first article will appear on /. announcing a successful 1) Linux install 2) Mod chip ?

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  8. Actually if you read the HARDOCP review by Shivetya · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Actually if you read the HARDOCP review by HanzoSpam · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      That's the point I think is being missed. After everything is said and done, the thing is still, design-wise, pretty much a glorified PC. Microsoft has come out with a proprietary platform which they're using the gamer market to propagate. They can gradually add other functionality to increase it's market.

      Don't be surprised when it eventually evolves into what amounts to the Microsoft version of the Mac.

      --

      Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
    2. Re:Actually if you read the HARDOCP review by badasscat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's the point I think is being missed. After everything is said and done, the thing is still, design-wise, pretty much a glorified PC. Microsoft has come out with a proprietary platform which they're using the gamer market to propagate. They can gradually add other functionality to increase it's market.

      What, you mean kinda like this?

      The fact of the matter is every console is pretty much a "glorified PC" (or a "dumbed down" PC, depending on your perspective), and every single time - yes, every single time a new console is released, the manufacturer claims that it's going to do this, that and the other thing eventually, or that it's going to converge a whole bunch of devices into one. This is true going all the way back to the Odyssey II and Atari 2600, which also promised PC functionality. The Sega CD and NEC Turbo CD were the first (or among the first) to then promise home entertainment functionality once optical storage became the norm.

      The reality is people just don't care. A few do, and those are the kind of people that sued Mattel when they never actually released their promised keyboard component from lack of interest (they only had something like 4,000 orders, which meant they couldn't get the component cost low enough to make a profit). Those people can be very vocal. They're the real hardcore. They're on the internet complaining when companies don't release promised add-ons, they're the ones that always have to be the contrarians when someone like me points out that they're the minority.

      But they are the extreme, extreme minority. I agree with the parent poster who said as soon as the next hot console comes along, gamers will abandon the Xbox 360, because it really is about the games and only about the games, and it always will be. This is not going to be some great window into the living room. It is simply the console of the moment, and in five years it will be forgotten like every other console of the moment. MS is not creating some sort of home entertainment "standard" with the Xbox 360.

      It never ceases to amuse me how people say the exact same things every time a new console is released. "It's going to do all these great things besides playing video games! It's revolutionary!" Ha! So in other words, it's just like every other console ever.

  9. Played It by NetFusion · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  10. eBay by billybob · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?
  11. Out first=Clear Advantage? by Puhase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
  12. sony audio cd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  13. Re:Zero Hour by Saige · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I realized after a bit of play last night and this morning that Live is what's going to make or break the 360. The better graphics and more power is nice, but it's the amazing ton of features on Live that make it such a next-gen experience. Being able to voice chat with my friends while we play different games and even switch between them. Streaming my music from my PC to my 360 as a custom soundtrack in any game. Achievements and Gamer scores. Xbox Live Marketplace offering amazing games for $5.

    I feel about 10x more connected to people on my friends list than I did on the original Xbox. It's no longer this separate "play online" section - you're ALWAYS playing online in one way or another, with scoreboards or directly against opponents.

    I really think that anyone with a 360 and broadband needs to at LEAST make sure they're connected with a silver account, even if you don't want to pay the $50 to play online. It adds that much.

    --
    "You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
  14. Some of the consoles faulty ?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  15. Re: Microsoft is in for the long haul by stonedonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, at $399 a unit, I'm absolutely shocked that Microsoft is still losing money on the thing. The CPU and the GPU are the two expensive components. In bulk, I'd have a hard time believing that they cost more than $150-$175 together. The rest of the hardware is relatively inexpensive stuff, costing maybe $50-$100 at most. That leaves me with a total of $200-$275 for manufacturing, making me wonder where the inefficiency is. Is Microsoft really that BAD at hardware design that they can't sell a $399 integrated PC at anything less than a loss?

    Yeah, they'll make a killing since they didn't spend a penny on advertising, manufacturing, research and development, haggling with developes, distribution... nigga, please.