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

Consumer Reaction?

[Avacar]

Sure, consumer reaction will be positive... they're the people who bought the system. I sincerely hope that those who paid for it are enjoying it, otherwise they've wasted a lot of money.

For the rest of us, though, the current Slashdot poll alone shows that most of the voting slashdot community, at least, will not be getting an Xbox 360. I'm sure my reaction to spending $400+ would be to say I'm pleased with it too... I just don't plan to do that. So, consumer reaction? Generally Positive. Overall Xbox 360 Public Image? TBD.

Re:Consumer Reaction?

[rednuhter]

I am not sure the Slashdot community is respective of the console buying community judging by the percentage of posts on GAME marked articles vs the main stream geek culture topics.
That said how many people are going to vote (in a fun poll) for "NEVER" just becuase its Microsoft ?
I am most did but I definitely getting one early next year after the price drops.

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.

Congratulations

[warmcat]

Congratulations are in order to the Xbox 360 PR folks.

A quick search on "360" in Slashdot shows over 150 stories generated in the prime demographic of Slashdot readers.

How we all held our breath for what worldchanging events the Whoragin 360 website "suck in the suckers" campaign might have heralded. And how we were all disappointed -- it was just a PR campain with such vast amounts of money behind it that just for a moment it seemed that a Myst-style tree with Latin -- OMG LATIN -- on it might have held some revelation that would change all our lives!

But no. It was just people in suits selling 'products' for money, same old same old. Customers are just customers, slumped slackjawed consumers that can never contribute, except with their wallet and their time. After a while the customers will evolve into the Eloi while the suit guys are already the Morlocks.

Noting a surfiet of bread, Microsoft cannily decided to provide the circuses.

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:Yawn.

[ratboy666]

"I would wager that most of the non-hardcore crowd (the crowd that wouldn't know what a 'slash dot' was) hasn't even heard of any of the problems with some launch quantities."

And you would lose.

Last night (Thursday) on the drive home (5:30pm); "special interest" lead story on the All-news radio (you know, the most popular station, especially with the drive-time folk) was about Microsoft and the potential for an XBOX 360 recall due to problems. This would be Toronto, Canada; figure 2 million more people now "know" about the '360 and its issues. I don't know how many times the piece aired -- but since the station works on a 10 minute cycle, could have been 40 times. Fortunately, we were ALSO in the grip of a storm alert, which may have pre-empted a few (but also meant that there may have been more listeners for the other airings -- who knows).

Ratboy

Not worth the cost...

[BeatUpJalopy]

With the way console gaming is going these days, it seems ridiculous to shell out even $400 for a system that will fall behind PC gaming power/graphics in a short amount of time. Besides, most games for consoles these days are either sports or PC ports, and rarely do the ports "port" well. So, why not just put that money into a cusotm-built PC? The game catalog is HUGE and you can "legally" use it for more than just games! Just my opinion...

Re:Not worth the cost...

[Liquidrage]

For $500 you can get a midrange Mobo-CPU-RAM and Video-card. You still need a case and power supply, hard drive, CD-Rom/DVD drive, input devices, and OS. And yes, since we're talking about *games* you're going to be paying for that OS. I'm not even going to bother talking about *pirated* OS saving money, though if you want, there's a few more dollars saved if you don't pay for Windows.

OK, so you have that, I'll assume you have a monitor just as for a console I assume you have a TV. You're probably into the range of $700, and congrats, you've built yourself a mid-range gaming rig that most likely doesn't match the quality of the 360 or what the PS3 will. Your rig will also be outdated in a year or two. Sure, it'll still play the games. Just like the 360 and PS3 will. Just like the Xbox and PS2 do now. But you're not going to be running the current games in all the high-res texture, all graphical options on, big resolution. Let alone doing that for games in a year or two down the road.

I'm all for PC gaming. I play more on my PC then on my Xbox/PS2/Gamecube. And more then the 360 I'll eventually get. And the PS3 I'll eventually get. And Revolution I'll probably get. But the better bang for your buck if all you care about it games, are the consoles. Not the PC's. Hell, the sell you consoles at a loss, and you get games that have been optimized for a very specific set of hardware. The prices drop on them as the technology loses it's "cutting edge" factor. Just as video cards and CPU's do.

Re:Not worth the cost...

[Liquidrage]

The fact that spending half that amount on a new video card will give you graphics that the 360 will never be able to, should not be overlooked.

No, your problem that is that is not a fact. In fact, that is wrong. The complete 360 is actually $400, not $500. And half that is $200. $200 buys a x800 Pro. The x800 Pro is not near as powerfull as the ATI card inside the 360. In fact, to get one as powerfull, you're basically paying $300. Which, my gawd, is the price of the 360 without the harddrive. I should'nt have to do your research for you.

Also consider, how many of these people, standing in line, with $500 to dump on a 360, made the decision that you describe "Well, its either an Xbox 360, or a PC". I'm guessing none.

Wrong post. You obviously meant to write that in regards to the post I originally replied to and not my reply, correct? I mean. I'm not the one that brought "get a PC instead" into it.

Lets not gloss over another important point, the 360 is fixed in time. Upgrade CPU. Nope

Let's look at freaking cost. For the cost of ONE SINGLE UPGRADE of a CPU-Mobo-video card in the *mid-range* you buy a complete console.

When BF2 (or HL2 or whatever new game you like) came out, did you have to throw away your old PC to play it? I didn't

No. Just like when BF2 came out my Xbox and PS2 still played it.

But can we stop with this whole "you couldn't build a rig for less" garbage. It only plays out if that rig you built is all bound together in such a way that no changes are possible, ever.

No. Next time get your facts straight. The fact is a $300 console is cheaper then a computer upgrade of mobo-CPU + videocard worth playing games on. You buy it once and that's that. A computer you're spending more then $300 combined on a quality upgrade.

My current PC is a combination of about 4 different configurations from the last few years, swapping out parts as needed to keep up with the games I like.

And I'm 100% sure you would'nt be honest about total cost on your PC expenditures.

You know what is a fact? A console is a cheaper way to get high quality gaming. When they initially come out they are the equivalent of a high end gaming-PC but they cost much less.

Not just a fight...

[PhilHibbs]

someone got shot in the chest!

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.

Re:Yawn.

[Khuffie]

And this 50% return rate figure comes from where exactly, you? I could go around and tell you that everyone I know who purchased a 360 (thats about 10, including me) have never had a problem. Heck, by your 30% return rate figure, at least 3 of us should have had problems, no? Oh wait, guess what, the 4 stores near me that sold 360s have had 0 returns after asking them. Does that prove my argument? I could very well be making that figure up. Last I checked, no store has announced any defective rate, so you can't really go spouting that as hard fact. And wait, launch titles that can be counted on one hand? How many fingers does your hand have exactly? 18? Because that's how many launch titles there actually are, and that's not including the Arcade games you can buy/download/try out. See, if you're trying to make up a figure about the defective rate, at least get the figure people can actually count correct first.

Re:Yawn.

[The-Bus]

What happened at your local EB? Out of the dozens of Xbox 360 owners I know, no one is having any problems. One even had "a two-year old dancing on it" when the toddler (possibly now deceased) decided it was a dance pad instead of a console.

The Japanese launch is still a few weeks away. I can't imagine that the 360 would be less well received than the original Xbox, considering the original Gameboy hardware often outsold the Xbox system (this was after GC Color, Advance, and SP were already on the market).

Game library-wise, this launch is far from perfect (Oblivion has moved to March) but when was the last time a launch had so many titles? Sure, most of them appeal to the "regular" Joe Six-Pack gamer (sports titles, racing, FPS) but there's a LOT of games.

I find it difficult to believe that Microsoft will trump Sony in this console war (which is basically just between the two of them), but I don't think this means the end of Microsoft either.

Re:Yawn.

[Blakey Rat]

This has really flopped into a yawner for a lot of folks. Launch titles that can be counted on one hand,

What kind of freaky-ass mutant hand do you have?

Add to this the MASSIVE problems, not small scale as MS is stating,

It's only "massive" because everybody with a defective one is posting it to their blog and every messageboard they can think of. Now I'm not saying that all the consoles are in tip-top shape, but you have to realize that any new product is likely to have a failure rate from 2-5%. The only difference with the Xbox 360 is that there's so much more communication via the internet than there have been in previous years, and so you hear about it more.

The average return rate right now of defective units from EB is almost 30% and in some stores nearing 50%... that isn't small scale problems. At a Gamestop near my house they have 7 defective units back right now.

Citation? Article? Reference? Or are these numbers coming right out of your ass?

The funny thing is that no one is touching upon the fact that the Japanese could care even less about the 360... that's a nail in the coffin right there.

1) It's not even released in Japan, how could you possibly know how they will react to it?

2) Why is this a nail in the coffin? Sure Japan has a lot of game consumers. So does Europe. Why does everybody assume that Japan has to be into a game system for it to be successful? The Atari 2600 was pretty successful, and I'm not sure that was even released in Japan. If anything, I'm glad Microsoft has broken the Japanese chokehold on the entire industry... finally I can buy an American console from an American company with primarily American-developed games. You might not care about that, but I do.

Also the average Joe is staying away like the plague now with all the coverage of problems.

Source? Or is this just more ass-pulling?

If the average Joe is staying away for any reason, it's that you literally cannot buy one for less than $1200 right now.

Next time you write a Slashdot post, you might want to consider putting some facts in it. Or at least labelling your suppositions as such.

Generally positive according to who?

[techstar25]

From the article...
According to Xbox senior product manager Molly O'Donnell,"The vast majority of Xbox 360 owners are having an outstanding experience with their new consoles".
Well, if you can't trust her opinion to be fair and unbiased, who can you trust? The article linked has opinions from three people. Two negative, one positive, and the positive works for Microsoft.

Plenty out there

[fishbowl]

There's not such a shortage as long as you're willing to pay upwards of $1500...