Slashdot Mirror
Where In The World is the 360?
Chris Kohler's Game|Life column wonders aloud Where is the 360? Despite assurances from Microsoft that more units are making their way to retail channels, it is still effectively impossible to get ahold of one from a store. From the article: "So, uh... where's the press release for Xbox 360? The congratulatory hype over how much cash they pulled in during the first 24 hours? Xbox dot com has nothing. Were it not for that Halo 2 press release, I wouldn't be asking, but... For that matter, where's the 360 itself? It's now been over two weeks since the launch of the 360, and that nebulous ether affectionately referred to as 'the retail channel' has not seen a single additional Xbox 360 unit. How do I know? As has been well-documented here, I had a preorder reservation placed at the downtown EB Games that was originally supposed to be a launch-day unit but got bumped back to 'second shipment.'" Kotaku has commentary on this as well. I'm in a similar situation as Mr. Kohler, since Slashdot is not cool enough to receive a review console.
Hehe, that's rich. After all those years of being so nice to Microsoft, you don't even get a single console to review... Oh, the irony. ;)
I'm in a similar situation as Mr. Kohler, since Slashdot is not cool enough to receive a review console.
This is very surprising considering all the positive press that Microsoft routinely gets out of Slashdot. From past experience I can safely say that most Slashdotters would have been rushing the stores after the guarenteed-to-be-glowing review of the new console produced by such a respectable company.
Count yourself lucky you don't live in Europe. The only way you'll get a PSP before christmas round here is to pay an extra £100 ($160) for a bundle.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Aside from the DIRECT quote in the article summary, the article consists of only three more sentences.
So trust me when I say that nobody seems to have any idea when that second shipment will even arrive. It was supposed to be a week after launch, then two weeks... Where are they?
A hybrid paper launch is what such amount of hype deserves.
Has anyone who had a malfunctioning 360 gotten their replacement yet? Just wondering since nobody else is getting a 360 right now. Is Microsoft still out because filling their repair orders first? Are there even enough repair orders for that to be possible?
Ok, so if the 360's second shipment slips past Christmas will all of the conspiracy theories that claim the shortages were intentional finally go away?
I'm not so sure who to believe but missing Christmas would be taking the whole "artificial shortage to increase demand" thing a bit too far and into the realm of stupidy (no, I'm not putting that past Microsoft, I'm just saying that it REALLY wouldn't make sense then).
"This is considered plagiarism."
In Microsoft's labs working out the kinks they should have solved before shipping it in the first place.
I.e. don't be sad you can't get the Xbox360, chances are by the time you get one, it will be version 2.0 of the device that actually works.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
...in the workshop, of course. I make no claim to the number of defective units and I've heard everything from EB employees saying "Everyone that bought one loves it" to another EB across town (literally) mentioning that they're waiting to exchange 4 of them and 5 other customers are just going to deal with an occasional scrambled screen of death.
From such a wide range of results though, I would assume that MS is doing what they can to ensure that the next batch will:
a) replace all defective units with less returns
b) have the staff rechecking current models for defects (I'm sure they were stashing them away to create hype)
c) have enough left over from the second wave of preorders and replacements to sell one or two extra
That's no meager task.
</tinfoilhattery>
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com
...second shipments this monday. But with hundreds of rainchecks/preorders per store, when the hell are people going to be able to even get one without hassle? Get ready for the losses Microsoft, there's gonna be a lot of unhappy kids who would have had your console and produced delicious money for you that end up with a PSP or Xbox 1 as a christmas present.
I'll probably have to pick up a 360 since my anti-sony mood is making me weary of even playing my PS2...
(yeah, on an unrelated side note, sad day when microsoft products seems like the lesser of two evils)
But why now? Why the rush? Sure, it's cool, and it's new, and it burns in pretty colours when the powerblock overheats, but... really... all the games worth buying "new tech" for will be released at the earliest six months to a year from now.
I'll wait until then. The added bonus of course being that I'll probably get a few games thrown in the deal for the same price as people eager to have the "latest and greatest" pays up now.
In the court?!?!a rticle_id=69610&cat_id=585
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?
http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-5984639.html
Does anyone else find it funny that microsoft wanted to have a worldwide launch so 'no one would be left out' and doing so is leaving out more people than ever?
If it makes you feel any better I work for a well known video game developer as a designer and we still failed at getting all of the xbox consoles we were promised. It's quite interesting to be promised X xbox's at release only to find out that our office would basically be holding a lottery to decide where the boxes that we did get would go. As a side note, each employee was originally selected by an internal promotion and lottery to be accepted to receive one in the first place. These employees then sent checks to pay the full price for the boxes. Then not enough arrived. Oh joyous day. But in lue of the anarchy resulting from Microsoft's fiendishly evil leap of faith in that their faulty system wouldn't anger people enough to sue I don't feel so bad that I didn't get one. I feel really bad for all those crazy individuals who blew 1k+ on a box because "they absolutely needed one for Christmas". How's it feel people to spend $1200 on a system which will most likely melt itself into your entertainment center. ^_^
So where's the XBox 360?
/., would any of them actually risk opening it?
On EBay, which currently accounts for 10% of all 360 sales. Looks like prices from $550 to $1000. I kept wondering why the XBox was being manufactured for shortages, when M$ wasn't taking advantage of shortage pricing, but instead pricing under cost*. One article raises the speculation that the secondary market might be intentional.** Maybe M$ decided it prefers an auction economy, perhaps to dodge allegations of price gouging, which are apparently all the rage, for better or worse.
So where's the congratulatory hype?
Here's some, though we're probably not seeing a huge amount of post-release PR because they can't meet extra demand such PR would generate anyway. And they probably gave their PR department a holiday after all their pre-release work.
Or maybe they fired them after all their ads got banned from TV.
Where are our promo boxes?
The other comments have covered this pretty well. Really, if M$ sent a big heavy box in the mail to the editors of
Or maybe yours just got smashed uh... "in the mail."
*Another estimate of XBox cost/unit, from BusinessWeek.
**I don't actually think M$ planned to sell direct on Ebay to capitalize on created shortages, but it's still an interesting idea.
As much as MS has tried to downplay the number of defective units the number is quite large. In a number of posts I have been trying to show how a poll I did of 30 EB\Gamestop's in the Northeast U.S. the number of defective units is about 20%.
/. troll feels compelled to spout off... but at just my small sampling of 30 stores is showing around 20% I'm pretty confident this is accurate. At this rate were talking a fair number of replacement units needed. One Gamestop had used three of it's initial shipment for replacements... two to the same guy. He had bought one of each launch title and a few accessories and then got TWO lemon units, the third one worked finally.
Everyone said I was full of shit and the usual crap that the average
MS was so sure of themselves boasting and hyping their new product:
* 10 Million by '06 - Not looking likely.
* Weekly shipments up to and after Christmas - umm, yeah.
* The total number of defective units is very small - uh-huh sure, tell me another story uncle Bill.
* Replacement is an easy process - Now customers are being sent the pre-payed carton but not being given any date/time to expect the replacement unit. Nice.
If this thing was such a top-notch massive sales bonanza, then why is MS so quiet now after the big release? Hmmm, could there be troubles? Nah... couldn't be. Everything is perfect, everything is fine, the 360 is fine, there are no defects, just pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
*cough*Bullshit*cough*
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Microsoft went to all this effort to push out something before their competitors that they put an inferior product out to market. I won't go into the whole 'yet again' thing because that's irrelevant.
The point NOW is that they have spent millions of dollars selling us the xbox 360 telling us it's great, telling us it's wonderful, and relying on being first to market to beat out Sony.
Also ignoring the fact that the original Xbox still has plenty of life in it.
Hell, some people have this notion that the Dreamcast is a current gen console...I think Microsoft have lost touch with what a game console is about -- GAMES! not money.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
Although I have purchased and received my XBOX 360, I can not play it...
because my wife plays XBOX Live Arcade all day long. (She's getting good at Hexic HD.)
-516
Among the launches in the US, Asia, and Europe - Microsoft is nearing 1 million consoles sold already.
PS had around 200,000 at launch and none more for 6 months.
Microsoft is dealing with unprecidented demand here. These consoles talk a little longer to build than your average electronics device. This question is ridiculous.
It may be too early to say, but put me in the camp that say this launch has been just short of disasterous, mainly due to the lack of good games and console availability. I'd argue that the PS2 had a similar lousy launch lineup, but sold a lot better due to MUCH more effective hype. I remember that the graphics on the PS2 were supposed to cure cancer and raise the dead, no such melodramatic hype for the 360. The 360 has all the hallmarks of a product that was rushed to market.
One of the biggest hurdles I think the 360 is facing is the essential need for an HDTV system, which still hasn't seen wide adoption. And that's because the cheapest servicable HDTV system is at least $650. Combined with the $300 sticker price of the 360, and the cost of games, it makes the 360 clearly a very expensive proposition.
I'd also note that the PS2 has a lot of big games coming out, like Final Fantasy XII. Overall I think that the 360 sales will be disappointing until cheaper consumer-level HDTVs become available. I think this is a bit of a shame, since the biggest draw of the 360 isn't it's graphics but the extensive online features, something that will be notably absent in the PS3.
Until this was put up on /. I hadn't really noticed that 360 coverage had gone off the radar, but now that I thik about it I'm curious as to why? Those first few days after its release I couldn't turn on the TV or jump on a tech site without seeing a news blurb or article on how the Xbox360 PWNED all! Now, its like it's last years fad in some regards. M$ usually likes to boast about how great they are and how amazing everything they create is, but there being hush hush. Strange...
Oh well, time to go laugh at some early adoptors. I would feel sorry for them, but then I remember how much money some of them have spent on there new, high-quality paper weights!
I picked my xbox360 up launch night (pre-ordered in May). I did not open in until Friday because I was oncall and had no time to play anything. When I did open it, neither Kameo or PDZ would play more than about 5 minutes without crashing. I was able to play Halo about 25 minutes before it crashed. It did not appear to be the power supply issue. I called support Saturday morning, they overnighted me a cardboard box on Monday, I sent it back to them about an hour later, and revieved a brand new xbox360 on Friday (exactly 1 week after I opened my original). Apparently they were not able to fix it. Pretty good turn-around on the replacement though to be honest. I still missed my big holiday weekend of gaming though and if that had been an xmas gift I would have been pretty let down. Imagine the people opening it on 12/25 and having that experience (not getting to play until January).
My brother-in-law pre-ordered his in early July, was #36 on the list and was estimated as getting it for launch. He slipped to 2nd shipment, and now to 3rd shipment. The EB he ordered it at has not yet received the 2nd shipment and has no ETA on the 2nd, let alone the 3rd shipment. They were telling him he would definately get one before xmas, but have now backed off that claim.
Microsoft knew they'd lose money on each one they sold at their own devised retail price so I have concluded that their business plan goes as follows:
1. Only release 10% of units produced to retail market to create huge artificial demand.
2. Sell Remaining 90% on eBay at insane prices that desperate parents and fanboys would willingly pay.
3. PROFIT!!!
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
And that's because the cheapest servicable HDTV system is at least $650...
Do some shopping. I'm typing this on a PowerBook hooked to a Westinghouse 19" 16:9 HDTV / Monitor purchased at Best Buy for $450 dollars. I'm just dying to get a 360 hooked to this bad boy.
By the way, it supports 1440 X 900 res which is higher than most of the larger LCD TVs.
Sure, Windows PCs dominate the market. But so do cheap toupees.
Every day, I go looking for an XBox 360 in Philadelphia, PA. No dice. I keep getting quoted arrival times like "maybe February?"
During this daily ritual of frustration, I see tons of 360 accessories and games sitting on the shelf. Actually, there are the exact same numbers of items on the shelves on return visits. Nothing is selling. Same number of WI-FI adapters on the rack. Same number of copies of Quake 4 as last week. And, so on. Are the retailers not pressuring Microsoft for more units? I mean, Best Buy and Wal-Mart can't be happy with the number of 360 related items taking up shelf space that aren't moving. They should be furious with MS.
I thought Wal-Mart would have put Bill's nuts in a vice by now. Or, at least, threatened to send the unsold games and accessories back to MS until more console shipments are forthcoming.
Sure, Windows PCs dominate the market. But so do cheap toupees.
December 17th is when more Xbox 360's will be in stores. About half of the original shipment soo if your store got 50 they're getting 25, well at least one major retailer said so. I would register here but... i really don't feel like it so i'll be an anonymous coward. The same retailer said it would be part of their sales pitch for the weekend. have fun trying to get one!
A rumor has been flying around that Xbox 360 will be available at Best Buy on the 18th. They should be getting the units a couple days before that and must hold them until the 18th. In addition, pictures have also been spotted on the Internet that show signs in Best Buys confirming the rumor.
That is totally not a Xbox360. Don't be fooled! I fell for it at work and now I'm getting fired asshole!