The Xbox 360 Launch Examined

A few days have gone by now, and more details of the 360's launch are becoming available. Gamasutra reports that, as expected, there were far too few units of the new console to meet demand. In one place, in fact, a pitched fight broke out when it became clear that not everyone waiting in line would get a unit. Additionally, the occasional glitch or crash has been reported in several locations online. This primarily seems to be the result of an overheating power supply. Despite these issues, and mixed reactions to launch titles, overall consumer reaction seems to be generally positive.

Comments

Re:Consumer Reaction?

[Anonymous Coward]

For me the 'Never' choice was not correct but represented the best of the options; with the XBox 360 I am not planing on getting one unitl there are 5 games that I want on it and the price is $200 or less; I would say the same thing about the PS3 except that (if backwards compatibility being is as good as they claim) I only want to wait for a price drop because I never owned a PS2 and there are dozens of PS2 games I would like to play.

In fact the only system I am planning on buying at launch is the Revolution (assuming the price is reasonable which, knowing Nintendo, it probably will be). Being that I no longer have my NES,SNES, or N64 (and there are still games I would play on them) that alone almost covers the potential entry fee, throw on top of that the unique gameplay experiances that Nintendo (and some key third parties) will deliver and you have reason enough to buy it.

Re:Yawn.

[rAiNsT0rm]

Not being rude, but have you turned on a TV or radio today? The 360 hardware problems have been covered ad nauseum on just about every media outlet including print. The average person knows.

I personally have been asked by 3 people at the office today if they should worry about the 360 they bought for their kid for Christmas is affected. These are average joe's not /.'ers. No one wants to spend big money on a highly in-demand product that may turn out to be a massive disappointment on the big day. And if there is a problem, there are no replacement units. This is the type of concerns the average person has, and they are well aware.

With all of the negative press by day 2, imagine how much more will hit on Christmas when more are first used! This is a PR nightmare, and is just one more area that was purposely ignored to rush the product. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a complete recall at some point after Christmas.

Re:generally positive?

[Iriel]

While I may have been rash to immediately rule out the possibility of exchanges for systems that others failed to pick up, some of the claims online are still sounding rather shady while others seems all too plausible. At first I wondered if MS was keeping the other 3/4 of the shipment in stock just to build hype and frenzy over limited supply, but the crash reports have made me wonder if they were really doing a controlled test for recall rather than deal with it (if it happened) in a giant mess with people feeling like it was putting the hurt on their holiday gaming. This way, if they have to recall, they can excercise damage control.