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Xbox 360 Launches In Europe
The Xbox 360 has launched in Europe, to similarly high demand as in the U.S. The BBC has details on the long lines and consumer reaction, and Next Generation has some information from Microsoft on how the launch is going. From the BBC article: "The technology giant has been forced to defend itself against accusations it has failed to provide enough consoles ahead of Christmas. Some 300,000 Xbox 360s are likely to be available for Friday's European launch, though demand is expected to far exceed this."
Well, when you buy the first run of anything there are going to be bugs, so those of you with your disc-molesting 360's, that's what you get. On the topic of 360's crashing, first run and it runs on a windows-based operating system....that explains itself. The supply will be kept less than demand so they can go for the '100% sold, sold out' marketing route to help keep demand up, shady, but it looks nice to see that 100%. I don't think the 360's launch will be very big in Japan, but Europe and America will remain M$'s strongholds for the 360.
I find it amusing that people are giving Microsoft an easy time because "they are doing something that has never been done before" - Referring to the launch in all the countries within a pretty close proximity timewise.
Sure it hasn't been done, but how does releasing in a ton of different countries make it much different than releasing in one at a time? Sure you *might* be able to get away with blaming shortages on that - but not stuff like overheating or scratching disks. The lack of reasoning in the present day and age is getting rather insane.
i wonder if the overheating issues will be less prevalent in the uk given the necessary voltage differences in the power supply
Just a little thought, early today I read this article at bit-tech as I wanted to see how was the Xbox 360 relase going in the UK. I find the review quite interesting. Specifically this snipet:
We hooked up via composite to a standard definition 20" LCD TV, a standard definition 30" CRT and a high definition 26" widescreen LCD panel. Frankly, the 360 looked atrocious with the composite. Colours bled everywhere, games were upscaled horrendously... the whole visual experience was frankly no better than the first Xbox. We'd go so far as to say that if you are limited to hooking up your 360 via SCART or composite in standard definition (eg with a 'normal' TV), don't even bother buying it. It looks bad.
Now, I am from Mexico and as far as I know, our buying power does not let the HDTV's be in the mainstream now (the Joe Average TV is a standard CRT 22''). I know that here in the UK people are wealthier but I was wondering in the USA how was it? does everybody have HDTV these days?
If that is not the case, some other parts of this same review state about the Project Gotham Racing were interesting as well:
The Gotham gameplay is still there and, to be honest, little has changed in that department. There's still the same races, the same Kudos Challenges, cone runs and the like - all the things we've come to know and love from Gotham. It's a little sad that there's no new gameplay mechanics, but then, I suppose we can't have everything.
So, no mayor changes in these games besides of the graphics uh? that means there is no REAL reason to buy the X360 if you do not have HDTV.
As for the Xbox, yep I think I may get one from Ebay after returning from vacations (2 weeks to Cancun and my country!! weeee). I was thinking it getting a GameBoy Advance from Ebay, as I will travel like 10 hours =oS, and they are very cheap these days (£15!!).
Personally I am waiting for the Revolution. I am no Nintendo fan, in fact my last console was a Xbox that I had to sell before coming to UK. But as I have no £££££ to spare in the 3 consoles, I guess I have to wait and see what will they do. And I am certainly waiting for the Revolution new controller, if not to play Nintendo's game, to plug it into my computer and make my game programmer imagination fly =o)
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
12. I think that ought to do it, especially since most folks in Japan see the 360 as completely undesireable.
With 3 close friends in Japan and a couple colleagues, I can honestly say they really could care less overall. Sure they have their fanboy's but it is nowhere like here in the U.S.
The other funny thing is that the 360 is basically the *exact* same size as the original xbox PLUS the massive overheating power brick. Do they think the Japanese will be thrown off by the color white?
Also, Microsoft has gone so far out of their way to pander to the Japanese, yet really accomplish nothing. No Japan specific launch titles, nothing. I personally can't wait for the sales numbers to be as poor or worse than the Xbox 1, and for crap like the Wonderswan and GBC to still outsell it.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
THe guys comment about the 360 not saving his call of duty 2 video game is true! Every single time i go to play that bloody game it NEVER saves my games properly.. I seem to always go back to the russian campaign and have to do that stupid training all over again..
My disc is fine, but the damn game WONT SAVE MY PROGRESS AND IT'S PISSING ME OFF!!!!
besides that, system has been awesome.. No cd's have been scratched, no over heating issues, no freezing, nothing.. Just been a great experience overall, actually it has been the best system i've used so far (and I've owned almost all systems since NES)
MrJynx