Crashing Xbox Kiosks 662
quannump writes "Gaming Age has an article up about some stores, including Toys R Us and Babbages, Xbox kiosk crashing at various places across the country. "Out of five stores that have playable demos within a ten mile area, only two have working units," says one Babbage's employee." It's funny because it's Microsoft. Get it? It's... oh never mind. Is DOA3 still planned as x-box only?
Xbox Crash (Score:4, Interesting)
It was some car driving game. I played for about 5 minutes when I tried to restart the race. The box locked up solid.
Now I know it was probally getting abused but I dont't think that it should have done that.
And actually I wasn't that impressed by the graphics. I think my Tbird 1.4 with my Gforce 3 is much better
Go Linux on the PS2 instead! (Score:1, Interesting)
Sony to expand Linux for PlayStation 2 [cnet.com]
Now I know which console I'll be getting this holiday season! :-)
299,792,458 m/s...not just a good idea, its the law!
fucking retards (Score:2, Interesting)
As far as DOA goes, yeah, I think the X-Box is DOA.
Few people are buying xbox anyway (Score:2, Interesting)
While the OS on other game consoles ends up crashing occasionally too (in spite of the almost complete lack of a visible OS) they'd believe anything about the Microsoft one crashing anyway, without needing a demonstration.
Its almost a shame these people don't take their expectations of one complex computer system and attach them to another, like, say, a desktop.
Bah to user opinion. (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm no longer going to use microsoft products in my home. My girlfriends computer is going to get a fresh install of Redhat in about two weeks and that should be the last of it.
The only shortfall to the whole thing has been the lack of mmog's to play under linux. I figure this will take a little time, but it'll get there eventually (most likely in the form of a game / games that play on all platforms..)
I went and bought a ps2 this summer, and some of the games coming out right now, Ico (SCEA) and Devil May Cry are absolutely stunning single player games. It will be interesting to see what happens when the net adapter and hard disk come out for the ps2, but in the meantime, based on principle I've made a few smaller decisions.
I won't be installing explorer 6.x+ ever (even at work), and I won't be buying an Xbox. Some of the stuff that Microsoft is doing with their licensing practices, as well as the shoddy quality of all their products since they were born just don't warrant rewards.
Then again, I'll most likely be one of those parents that spanks their kids as a disciplinary action as well, so maybe that just makes me a great big asshole.
Nobody should be siding with microsoft in any of their endeavors, I wonder why nobody is standing up and saying anything like this, now that MS is reaching into the gaming arena.
Still, it's rather humorous that some of the demo systems don't work, and people will still run out and buy them like lemmings.
-mh
Re:IMHO an excellent point... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've also never seen an incident of a PS2 breaking down or crashing in a kiosk (though I never asked much).
I've lurked quite a bit on PS2 discussion boards and I've not heard much about problems with actual PS2 games on the PS2 console. Pretty stable, apparently.
I'll wait ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Xbox and Marketing (Score:3, Interesting)
~raum
Re:Public Beta Testing? (Score:2, Interesting)
It may be a good way to test the Xbox, but it's still a horrible blunder from a marketing standpoint.
What's your garden variety 12 year old boy going to say when he plays with an Xbox kiosk and it crashes? He's not going to say "Oh. A bug. I guess I'll contact Microsoft with the circumstances and error details." No, he's going to say "Dude, this sucks. I'm getting a PS2."
Xbox Rumors (Score:3, Interesting)
Hilight:
A friend of mine (which we will call "Dave" to keep his real name anonymous) works there and was assigned to the XBOX project a month ago. (shocking!) Now you may imagine it must been a really busy month building and testing XBOXes and stuff but.. can you handle the truth? can you?!
According to Dave he has spent the last month doing.. (dramatic pause!) absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact he has been lingering around watching videos on the net and trying to appear to be busy. Why? because they didnt have anything to build! the xbox design finally went into production last SUNDAY! (september 23 2001) (truly shocking!!)
Now what happens if you start production on Sunday on a Mexican factory ? (dramatic pause allowing you to answer) NOBODY is there to do it! only those who are unlucky enough to be there doing extra time, (like poor old Dave was) But they were ORDERED to do it anyway. No QA guys, no big bosses nothing, just a bunch of employees, trying to build a machine for the first time ever! (shocking, er, shocking!)
As you may have guessed things didnt went very smooth, as a matter of fact they didnt go very smooth at all! lots of machines were so defective they didnt pass the normal standards and went back to the line again, Dave and his friend expent hours after hours trying to build the damn boxes but they still were defective, to make a large awful history short they only were able to build 10 Xboxes that day! 10! and those XBOXES who did make it only passed standard tests! no other testing was applied!
Green Screen of Death (Score:2, Interesting)
http://mosfet.cjb.net/images/xbox.jpg
Microsoft commments on the in-store Xbox situation (Score:4, Interesting)
A Microsoft representative has responded to yesterday's FiXbox story. Here's the official company line on in-store Xbox units.
"With over 10,000 playable Xbox kiosks at retail over a month before launch, there are bound to be a few issues that crop up. Microsoft representatives are currently following up with retailers across the country to insure proper functionality of kiosks. Overall, the displays are working great and we are on track to achieve our goal of having 100% of the Xbox interactive displays working correctly and demonstrating the Xbox difference."
XBOX is not a option, for gaming anyways. (Score:1, Interesting)
First make press(aka. investors) happy = say you are going to release a really cool product, which does everything. At half the cost(time when we talk office apps/devtools) of their compeditors.
Next, focus on "looks" and making the deadline(you know you got around 6 month of buffer, since people dont really expect you to deliver on time).
Have a huge release party(where the app. chrashes), ship the product anyways.
After articles begin rising on "important" newssites like PCworld, beging to test the application. If under 34 bugs is cound, claim it works. And start building a service pack.
BUUT, Im probertly going to get a xbox anyways. Because its VERY VEEEEERY hackable.
And i would LOVE to be able to run linux on something MS produced.
You're going to listen to something I said? Haven't I made it abundantly clear during the tenure of our friendship that I don't know shit?
Funny how history is rewritten (Score:1, Interesting)
And yet, despite these problems, PS1 effectively handed Nintendo their own testicles in a jar.
Xbox's biggest problem isn't its hardware - it's Microsoft's public image. Heck, I get flack to this day for having worked there at one point. If Xbox were made by, say, Matsushita, you wouldn't be giving it half the flak you're giving it now.
Re:Probably overheating (Score:3, Interesting)
"Fuck the customer" works well with 85%+ market share (and in console land Atari had somewhat the same attitude during the 2600 days as well). But when you've got 2 entrenched competitors to worry about, you're suck. They'll have to eat the $$$ and fix 'em.
Write crappy software that doesn't sell and you're out development and marketing costs (and some point of sale distribution costs as well). Make crappy hardware that you're selling at a loss (with the hope of making it all back up in SW) and you're screwed.. big time. When soccer mom goes to Walmart and has 3 game systems in front of her, and one has a reputation of possibly being DOA, she's going to pick on of the other two.
With all of the comp. MS has to fase in the console world, a system with a bad reputation for stability is gonna Kill 'em. You can update designs and make the next revision of the hardware stable, but the reputation is a lot harder to repair.
Xbox and Games (Score:2, Interesting)
I wouldnt count out the entire Xbox because some demo doesnt work. Could the code from the developer of that demo be crap? I have personally seen some of what will be on Xbox and it has some great potential as well as some top notch developers in line to make some great games.
Its too bad that when it crashes, and when it has problems, it will just be blamed on Microsoft. Oh well.
ah, MS bashing at it's 'finest' (Score:2, Interesting)
yes they run rather warm, etc
plenty of games have locked up before, and on other systems as well... but of course, since its slashdot, we should focus on microsoft and the evil from redmond.
no i'm not a microsoft supporter, yes i've played the console before, no it's not crashed on me.
wanna look at buggy, play anything by 3do.
First Generation .. (Score:1, Interesting)
people create software / hardware, people make mistakes, get over it.