The '360 Arcade' Made Official

The Financial Times (via Gamespot) is reporting that (after having already been in stores for about a week), the Xbox 360 Arcade sku is now official. "The $279 Arcade will include a wireless controller and casual games including Pac-Man [Championship Edition], Uno and Luxor 2. Its launch has been widely rumoured but Mr Bach's comments were the first official confirmation. While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi and a Blu-ray drive."

Comments

PAC MAN?

[y86]

Wow, 10 years ago when I was playing Super Mario Bros. I never thought PAC MAN would be relevant again. I was wrong, DEAD WRONG.

Re:PAC MAN?

[LordNimon]

You're not wrong. Pac Man is still not relevant. The games provided with the Arcade are all crap.

Re:PAC MAN?

[PrescriptionWarning]

some of my family enjoy luxor quite a bit, and the new pac man is different in a good way for those who enjoyed the original, though I will say that coming with a measly 3 games is pretty pathetic.

I think they should have given the buyers of those units say 5 choices from the full catalog of xbox live arcade titles. There are some pretty decent ones up there, such as Small Arms (think super smash bros), Geometry wars (most excellent), Doom, Castlevania, and Assault Heroes just to name a few. Oh and why doesn't this version come with the small hard drive again? i mean you can't seriously tell me that the 20Gb HDD costs 80 bucks still? puhlease.

Re:PAC MAN?

[antic]

They should throw 10-20 games on it, otherwise, what's the point?

Re:PAC MAN?

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I heard, via Ars, is that the included arcade games are demos, so there is no point in buying this system.

Re:PAC MAN?

[LordNimon]

Exactly. In fact, I would suggest that they put every game on a disc and include that.

An arcade controller?

[tacarat]

I know it's not likely for the price point, but a joystick being included is what would make that "arcade" for me.

... and a spot for my quarters.

Re:An arcade controller?

[Tetsujin]

I know it's not likely for the price point, but a joystick being included is what would make that "arcade" for me. ... and a spot for my quarters. Yeah, I was thinking it'd be nice if that joystick also came with a big wooden cabinet to help keep it steady, and keep the XBox and monitor nicely contained...

Re:An arcade controller?

[tacarat]

Come to think of it, what about trackball games? Hmm... this could get expensive.

Re:An arcade controller?

[Tetsujin]

Come to think of it, what about trackball games? Hmm... this could get expensive. And they're bundling Pac-Man - that means they ought to include a 4-way stick in addition to the usual 8-way...

Re:An arcade controller?

[tacarat]

I can live with an 8 way mimicking a 4 way. If they added a feature to randomly simulate a broken button or stick, though, I'd say it's a bit too realistic.

Re:An arcade controller?

[donaldm]

Well if you can connect a trackball mouse (they are not that expensive) to the Xbox360 (you can with a PS2 and PS3) via USB then providing the game supports the peripheral then it would work. Still if the mouse does not work on the game you want to play you could always use it on your PC :-)

Fuck SKU

[Anonymous Coward]

I will never accept the clear effort from a handful of online opinion-makers to force this term into the mainstream.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Applekid]

I will never accept the clear effort from a handful of online opinion-makers to force this term into the mainstream. Tell me about it. The funniest is when some of my friends try to use it in verbal conversation. "es-kay-you". Well, SKU you, buddy! >:O

Re:Fuck SKU

[njfuzzy]

Just another SAPO.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Kalriath]

What are you talking about? Provided it's used correctly (as an acronym for Stock Keeping Unit) then it's quite appropriate as a reference to a line of products. However, the term is not really relevant to end users (very much relevant to stores, however, who use it as the primary ordering identification mechanism).

Re:Fuck SKU

[Anonymous Coward]

I will never accept the clear effort from a handful of online opinion-makers to force this term into the mainstream.

SKU isn't just some randomly made up acronym to create a new 'buzzword' like Web 2.0 or AJAX. It's a commonly used term in retail and manufacturing to refer to clarify what product you're talking about when there are small differentiation's in a product that is otherwise the same. Ie. It's an Xbox, but it has a different color. Or it's an Xbox and it has a larger hard drive. Those are different SKU's. It's an important term as it's signifies that there IS a difference in the product, even if it's just that it comes in packs of 10 instead of 1.

Re:Fuck SKU

[the_tsi]

What, "UPC" or even "model number" weren't good enough? SKU is the Boba Fett of consumer lifestyle. People want to sound informed and elitist, and that's the only time it gets busted out.

"Oh it's not the same thing" you're going to say, "a SKU is a particular combination of widgets and gizmos that make it separate." I don't care, it sounds like when a 14 year old first finds out about the stock market and tries to use EBITDA in casual conversation.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Grave]

It's not the same thing as a UPC or model number, and no, those are not good enough. UPCs are fairly long, as they must uniquely cover just about every product sold in retail. Model numbers are totally useless, as manufacturers can overlap each other with those if they so desired. A SKU however is a much shorter (typically 6-8 digit) number that is plenty large enough to cover all the products a specific store might carry, without being excessively difficult to manually type in when a bar code won't scan, and without consuming unnecessary space in their databases. SKUs are internal to a specific store/company, and exist to simplify the jobs of those people at the company.

So if you still think there is no purpose to the SKU, go back to being blissfully ignorant of its existence like the overwhelming majority of consumers. Otherwise, please don't refer to it as the "Boba Fett of consumer lifestyle", as that only makes YOU sound elitist.

PS. You do know that books have ISBNs, and instead of UPC Europe uses EAN-13, Japan uses JAN-13, and there is a variant called EAN-128 (or GS1) that includes both UPC and EAN-13?

Re:Fuck SKU

[75th Trombone]

Like it or not, SKU has a specific, useful, and hard-to-express meaning. Come up with a better way of saying it that's just as succinct as "SKU", and I (and presumably others) will gladly use your word instead of business-morons' term.

Re:Fuck SKU

[75th Trombone]

Your point is good, but not necessarily relevant. "SKU" as it's used in Slashdot stories doesn't refer to the number or any characteristics thereof; rather it's used to refer to a hard-to-otherwise-express concept that needs a good succinct name.

I'm on board with you on SKU having a purpose, but not because SKU numbers are easy to type in. :P

Re:Fuck SKU

[Anonymous Coward]

Come up with a better way of saying it that's just as succinct as "SKU"

But why? Would a few actual words in place of a jargonistic acronym incomprehensible to the majority of the public really be so horrible? Should efficiency really the primary goal of non-programming languages, even in journalism?

I mean, I don't see The New York Times or Fox News using "SKU" when they discuss the latest Wii or Xbox bundle. Why is that, do you think?

Re:Fuck SKU

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Apparently you've never had to follow a 30 step process, hour long process five times to create a five new skus, because you fixed a typo in the documentaition for your software. Man, oh man I hated that.

Re:Fuck SKU

[chrisG23]

How about using the term package? As in "The new Xbox360 package that Microsoft is selling contains the standard Xbox360, a memory card, 3 arcade? games, and a bunch of demos. It is called the Xbox Arcade package, not to be confused with the Xbox Elite (standard Xbox, harddrive of xGB, some controller or something, a game or whatever, Im not interested etc) or the XBOX poor mans version (standard Xbox, no HDD, no game, a controller maybe?)" If I was interested in buying an XBOX 360 I would do 2 minutes of research and pick the package that seemed best for me. (nothing wrong with the XBOX360 btw, I just dont want any next gen console yet, Im still playing all the PS2 games I missed, and am thinking of getting a plain Xbox).

I remember the 8-bit Nintendo (Nintendo Entertainment System) came in a few "packages" itself. First there was the one with Gyromite and Duck Hunt as included games, that came with a light gun and ROB the fucking unfun robot. Next (or maybe something was in between) came the mario/duck hunt, and If I remember correctly there was a package that had just mario with no duck hunt or light gun. I did not need to use the term SKU to keep them straight in my mind. I got the first one for christmas. But it sucked (duck hunt, gyromite????? and no friends to trade games with. My mom ended up exchanging it for a Sega 8-bit (Master System) because my cousins had one and we could swap games. On a side note, the Master system came in a few different packages. One with Hang-On and some light gun game, and then later one without, maybe more.

As a kid I never needed a new term that applied specifically to different inventory units to keep track of these. I used the flexibility of my language which enables me to extend the meaning of words and borrow them to hitherto unknown or uninvented concepts, which did not cause cognitive dissonance to me and my 7-year old mentality friends (literally, not figuratively). But I guess 7-year olds back then were smarter or more mentally apt than adults nowadays. Which I guess means I was smarter than I am. Whoah, I feel a lobe wrinkling. So ExSKUse me.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Lisandro]

There's no need to mention anything about SKUs. The story title summarized it perfectly.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Anonymous Coward]

I get more annoyed when people say "price point" when "price" would have worked just as well.

Shut up already.

Re:Fuck SKU

[75th Trombone]

Hum. I think you might be right. Somehow in a previous thread, I came up with the gerund "packaging" as the closest thing to a synonym for "SKU". I don't know if "package" just didn't occur to me --- which would be ridiculous and indicate that I have a sub-90 IQ --- or if I had a problem with it at the time.

I don't seem to have a problem with it now, though, so I guess I'll start evangelizing it and stop defending SKU. :P

Re:Fuck SKU

[Anonymous Coward]

SKU doesn't tell me whether or not this is a new version of the console, or just a special bundle.

I can only assume that those that champion the term in mainstream language are those that have only ever worked in retail and cannot comprehend a world where SKU doesn't mean anything useful.

So here's a hint - if you feel like using SKU in conversation, stop and take a good long look at your life.
Then get a REAL job.

Who's Gonna Buy This?

[blueZhift]

I'm not really sure who's going to buy this though. The casual market it may be aimed at would likely still go for a Wii for $30 less and a pack in game that all of their friends are already playing. The hardcore gamers would balk at a system without a hard drive and are probably starting to eye the PS3 a little more now as the price drops. So I'm not sure where this fits in. I can only guess, that like the core system before it, it sits there to give a lower price point on the books in time for Christmas, when you can bet Wii's will be scarce.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[plague3106]

I dunno, I might, but I don't know enough about it? Does it only work with Live? The HD is optional; does that mean I can install one myself?

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[bigdady92]

Parent's who don't know any better. Just like the Wii and the cheap PS3. It's going to be parents who go out and say "@#$! Joey Jr wants an Xbox to play with his friends, crap it's $400. Wait! There's one for $280 and it comes with a wireless controller and online games! SOLD!"

It won't be till lil joey opens it up that he sees he's not getting his HD with it and mommy has to trundle back to the store to buy something to hold the games on.

Ignorance is how 90% of these consoles get bought out anyway by the parents. Trust me, I was there for the Wii release and most of these people were buying it to resell and were stunned when I told them about the controller and the wireless aspects of it.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[Aladrin]

No, it's a regular XBox 360 with a few arcade games on a disc. There's no requirement for Live.

Yes, you can add an HD to it, but you'll have to buy a Microsoft one because I don't think there are any generics with the proper hookups yet. (You can later buy a generic, as the hookups are an addon... You just can't buy the hookups separately.)

With no HD, there's no backward compatibility and the ability to download games from Live would be severly hampered... The memory cards are quite expensive, especially compared to the price of a hard drive that holds a -lot- more.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[ozphx]

Funniest shit happened here down-under right at the peak of Wii-hype. There were these little stalls in all the major malls selling really crap 'consoles' with motion sensitive controllers. I could just feel the disappointment when little Johnny gets told that his parents got "that motion video game thingo you wanted" and unveil one of these $80 pieces of shit.

Gave me lulz every time.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[iainl]

Yes, but unlike the old Core model that this replaces, it comes with a memory stick to get you started.

If you don't care about backward-compatibility (I don't too much any more. I was all excited when they made OutRun 2 work and played it loads for a fortnight, but then I went back to Forza 2) don't plan on having loads of Live games all downloaded at once (at 50Mb each you can fit several on a memory stick, and re-download ones you've already paid for before if you want to go back) and don't care too much about game demos or movies, the memory stick is fine.

This new model also has the HDMI port and seems to have the new Falcon chipset, so the lack of bundled component leads isn't a problem for most and it's ideal for people who already have 360s but want to get HDMI working.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[j235]

About the "have to buy a Microsoft" hard drive, you don't HAVE to. If you're technically inclined, you can use hddhackr to turn a standard 2.5" Western Digital Scorpio BEVS drive into a drive for the 360. I've done this on two 120gb drives with no problems.

Non-reg required

[antifoidulus]

story that actually tells you all that comes with it(256 meg memory card, but no hd, to store games on)

Is this a joke?

[Arcturax]

$280 to play Pacman and Uno? You are better off getting a IIe or Commodore 64 emulator and a deck of Uno cards if you are going to play stuff that old.

Ballmer must be mad.

Re:Is this a joke?

[Grave]

Ah, of course. Because the fact that it can play 360 games is irrelevant.

$200 media player, $79 console & "free DVD pla

[Rude Turnip]

That's how I break this down. This makes it very attractive to afford a second Xbox 360 for the bedroom to serve as a front-end for TVersity. From everything I've read, D-link's DSM 520 networked media player falls a little short on performance, but my Xbox 360 in the living room is really responsive to playing vids over the network. Transcoding (albeit on the fly) non-WMV/MP4 files sucks and takes a second or two, but the overall experience is great.

Fixed

[Satanboy]

"While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi, a Blu-ray drive, and a substantial lack of games."

Re:Fixed

[otis wildflower]

Gotta wonder if the dearth of games would have been quite as bad had Sony just thrown subsidy money around like Microsoft has? $599 was a retarded launch price, they should have launched $399 for the 60gb version.

Presumably the botched launch caused game makers to put the (already hard-to-code) PS3 ports and projects on the back burner, and with Wii going gangbusters moving stuff back up front may take even longer.

Re:Fixed

[e4tmyl33t]

Agreed. This was one of the reasons I decided to buy a 360 instead of a PS3. Yes, the PS3 may be able to get better graphics, but what use is that when the games with good graphics suck? I finally see some games starting to push through that seem to be good, Folklore for example, and eventually Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe sometime in the future I'll consider a PS3 once they've built up a decent library, but for now the only reason I'd buy it is to get a Blu-ray player (which I can live without).

Pff!

[morari]

My GameCube has Pac-Man Vs.

Take that Pac-Man Championship!

Re:Pff!

[mister_slim]

By the way, the new Namco Museum DS has Pac-man Vs. with single-card multiplayer.

360 Pro and 40 GB PS3 now the same price in Canada

[Hamster Lover]

Another challenge for Microsoft is thanks to the high value of the Canadian dollar the 40 GB PS3 will be released in Canada at $399.99, the same price as in the United States (Sony also dropped the price of the 80 GB model here in Canada by an additional $60 above the already $100 price drop to reach parity). With the current price of the 360 Pro package sitting at $399.99 Canadian, the PS3 is finally the value leader between the two systems. With a larger hard drive, included wireless controller battery kit, a Blue-Ray drive and WI-FI functionality built in, the 360 Pro kit -- even with two games -- just doesn't have the value.

As retailers receive new bundles from Microsoft in the ramp up towards Christmas there is no excuse for the $50 price premium to remain in place, especially in light of Sony's move.

Stupid Name

[BandoMcHando]

Am I the only one thinking this is a slightly stupid product with a stupid name?

The first 2-3 articles I saw about it didn't do anything to dispel the first impression that the name gave me, that this was an xbox 360 mounted in an arcade cabinet....

Re:Stupid Name

[damn_registrars]

Thats what I was hoping for when I saw the title as well. Or even better, a mass market arcade box in a cabinet from a company I actually like.

What this machine has to do with arcade gaming, beyond giving you a copy of one game from the 80s, is beyond me. At least I never saw Uno in the arcade before ...

Re:Stupid Name

[Wdomburg]

If you're targeting non-gamers using a term which is universally recognized is a good thing.

hrm

[coolhandlucas]

Nobody creates a product without a customer better than Microsoft. This is very poorly targeted at that price point, although I'm glad they dropped the wired controller crap.

Although ... I do want another 360 so I can do system link between rooms ... and I could pretend that it's a present for my wife (who loves the Live Arcade games) ... hmm ...

Micro$oft

[tyrantking31]

Damn Microsoft and their cursed "editions". Who would buy an Xbox without a HD? Being that it's the cheapest Xbox my mom would have, that's who. There are going to be some mad kids on Xmas morning this year and some surly customer service reps the next morning when all the moms come returning.

Re:Micro$oft

[Toonol]

Who has more editions, Microsoft's 360 or Sony's PS3? And I'm not asking sarcastically, I've really and truly lost track. They both have far too many. Two is probably too many.

Re:Micro$oft

[Stalin]

I probably will. I have a 360 with a hard drive but no HDMI port. The price is low enough that I am considering buying the "Arcade" package, swapping it for my current base unit, and selling the old one. I figure I can get at least $100 for a brand new wireless controller, 256MB memory card, and old main unit.

Re:Micro$oft

[MeanderingMind]

I'm just as confused as you are.

We started with three consoles this generation, the Wii, the 360 and the PS3. Then Microsoft announced the Core and Premium variations, upping the consoles this generation to four. Then Sony followed suit with their 20gb and 60gb versions, five. Then Microsoft announced the Elite, six. Then Sony announced the 80gb PS3, seven. Then Sony announced the 40gb PS3, eight. Then Microsoft announced the Arcade, nine...

You can argue that they are all over-glorified, repackaged versions of the same thing, you might be right. However, the point remains that both Microsoft and Sony are needlessly complicating matters. There isn't an obvious difference between any of the systems. One 360 looks like another, one PS3 looks like another. You have a wall of systems all alike, all different.

Meanwhile, each and every Wii box is exactly the same.

If I were an uninformed parent, walking into a store because I knew Jr wanted video games and I wanted to give them to him, I'd probably run out screaming if it wasn't for the Wii. The Wii is a comforting reminder that someone understands people who don't understand video games. There are no confusing, "What's different between this one and this one?" questions. There is only a clearly marked, small, and inoffensive box marked Wii.

Yes, many parents will go into stores looking specifically for 360s and PS3s, but they aren't going to enjoy the experience. It's Russian roulette with your wallet.

Re:Micro$oft

[Toonol]

Basically, you're saying the Wii might as will have "Don't Panic" written on the box in friendly, inoffensive letters.

Re:Micro$oft

[KDR_11k]

The controllers do that, 16 buttons make people without experience panic, the Wiimote reduces that a lot while adding the potential for gesture controls that could replace the buttons.

Already at retailers

[protektor]

This is a weird announcement considering some of the retailers had already gotten this unit in to sell about 2 weeks ago. I saw this come in at work but it didn't have a set spot on the self yet. Guess they wanted retailers to get the unit before they announced it. It seems like an ok setup/unit to me but I would want the hard drive add on to be able to easily download more arcade/casual games if I were going to purchase it.

Re:Demos only

[falzbro]

No, it comes with full versions of games, and demos. The games listed in the description are full versions.

Re:Demos only

[powerlord]

Actually, the main reason is to trick people into spending more than they normally would have, by making the money they spend on the XBox Arcade a Sunk Cost that people will discount.

1) People buy XBox 360 Arcade.

3) People buy the HD.

4) People buy the HD-DVD drive.

5) etc.

(or so MS is hoping)

Could have gotten a better deal by buying a different bundle/package/system, but the incremental cost for each piece is all people see (usually), not the total cost of the system, as they keep buying it to make it what it should have been in the first place.

Re:$200 media player, $79 console & "free DVD

[skepticult]

The only issue right now is that they botched up WMV 7 and 8 in the spring update, making it basically impossible to stream transcoded HD video on the fly to the 360. WMV 9 still works, but the encoder is too slow to operate usefully in real time for HD video. Microsoft acknowledged the problem, but who knows if they will fix it in the fall dashboard update.

It is a shame because it was the best part about the 360. Fingers crossed.

No WiFi

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure the new 40 gig PS3 does not include WiFi.

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2006/05/09/cheaper-ps3-loses-hdmi-slots-wi-fi-40gb/

Re:360 Pro and 40 GB PS3 now the same price in Can

[DeepZenPill]

I don't know about you guys, but I used my wireless adapter for the 360 for a week before getting fed up with packet losses and lag. 100 bucks down the drain. Does anyone really get satisfactory online play over their wireless network?

I really wonder how much use the wireless functionality is getting on all these PS3s and what the cost savings would have been without it.

Doesn't seem very arcade-y

[Anonymous Coward]

It's definitely not the sort of product I would design if I were making an arcade themed system. For starters, I would design both the case and the Dashboard to be more evocative of an 80's vintage arcade, rather like the pinball hall in Bally's Pinball classics. Second, I would pack in a whole bunch of 8/16 bit Namco/Konami/Midway/Taito/Atari classics:

Pac Man
Defender
Joust
Time Pilot
Space Invaders
Tempest
et al

bkd

Right...

[ToasterMonkey]

and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!

Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer?

I play Resistance all the time...

[Hamster Lover]

I play Resistance: Fall of Man all the time on-line and I never have a problem. Guys at work play WoW on our wireless network without issues (at least, the issues have nothing to do with our wireless network).

I don't have a 360 myself, but I have heard friends with 360s complain that the Xbox brand wireless adapter is not particularly robust, so they moved to a wireless bridge and simply plugged it into the 360s Ethernet port. Voila! Problem solved. You can pick up a wireless bridge for about $29, if I am not mistaken. Beats the hell out of the ridiculous $100 price Microsoft charges for their adapter.

Hard Drives Holding 360 Back

[BarneyL]

The price looks good but one thing alone is stopping me for picking up a 360 and that's the huge overpricing MS puts on the hard drive add ons.
I don't believe I'm the only one who will pick up a 360 the day we can plug in a USB hard drive rather than being forced to pay the same price for 1/10th the storage.

To further complicate matters...

[PixelScuba]

Remember that a Nintendo representative said that a new version of the Wii will be hitting store shelves sometime soon. So there will be a DVD playback Wii and a non DVD Wii.

Re:To further complicate matters...

[nullChris]

... then wait until there are new colors! Then a reduced profile version, and so it continues.

Not equal exactly...

[HalAtWork]

The PS3 can play high def videos and has wireless built in but the 360 will require $200 + $100 = $300 extra for that functionality. Just saying.

Re:Not equal exactly...

[nullChris]

The PS3 can play blu-ray discs. The xbox 360 can play hi-def videos via digital distribution through xbox live (free silver account necessary).

Re:360 Pro and 40 GB PS3 now the same price in Can

[nullChris]

I picked up a used wireless adapter for about half price. At first I had a couple issues, but I overcame them when I flashed dd-wrt onto my linksys router, and boosted the transmit power a bit. It's been rather good since then.

rechargable battery packs

[DaTFooLCaSS]

Personally i think that all systems should come with rechargeable batteries r something of the sort. within a week of me having my wii i bought the recharge stand. It was probably more because I had borrowed a friends 360 and went thru TONS of batteries. where as when i got ahold of a PS3 it was awesome to not have to worry about batteries.

Weak argument, imho

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh yeah, ones that have no value... you can't lend 'em, sell 'em used, take 'em to your friends' house, play them on a standard player, someone has to have a 360 + live to even do that... You might as well say everyone already can play high def movies just because PCs can or people who have DivX file players for their TVs...

Re:Weak argument, imho

[nullChris]

What argument? It was just patently untrue that the 360 can't play HD Videos, which is what my comment addressed.