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.

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?

[Vo0k]

getting one early next year after the price drops.

and the modchip is released.

(that way they will actually cost Microsoft money...)

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 Revoluti

Re:Consumer Reaction?

[KDR_11k]

I voted never because the XBox was meant for a demographic that doesn't include me and so far I don't see the 360 change that. I mean, the big launch titles are racing games! I still have my fill of racing games for the decade from Burnout 2.

Re:Consumer Reaction?

[hillg3]

Wow, actually using a slashdot poll for factual information, that takes balls.

Re:Consumer Reaction?

[drsquare]

Slashdot isn't representative of the population, it's a heavily anti-MS skewed place. Not to mention the poll is susceptable to ballot-stuffing.

generally positive?

[Iriel]

Yeah, I've heard the crash reports too. Some of them sound down right dubious. Someone even claims that they got the same problem after exchanging their system. Wow, what an utter load of BS. Even still, most of the crash reports I've read have been problems relating to the hard drive rather than the power supply.

While the system is tempting and all, "generally positive" isn't enough to make it worth the effort to make my way through the mobs with a pitchfork. I'll wait to see if there's enough errors to wa

Re:generally positive?

[shawb]

So this seems to be about in line for tax return season?

Re:generally positive?

[rAiNsT0rm]

Two defective units to the same person is NOT "dubious" or "B.S." there have been TWO cases just like this at the Gamestop near my home. They had three systems that folks who pre-ordered could not be reached, and have had 7 returned... of the three extras they had two went to people with problems on their first 360... both came back AGAIN. The guys at the store thought it was user error and even swapping power cords/HDD's/and trying brand new games they truely didn't work.

This is a lot bigger than MS is let

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 peopl

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:generally positive?

[C0rinthian]

Suppose for a second that ~1% of XBox 360s have a problem which would cause them to be returned; this would mean that you'd have a 1% chance of having a defective unit on the first one you get and a 0.01% chance your replacement having the same problem.

Um, bad math. If 1% of consoles are defective, then my first purchase has a 1% chance of being bad. If I replace it, then there is a 1% chance of the replacement being defective. The two events are independant, so the probability is not reduced on subs

Re:Yawn.

[Threni]

> 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.

Really? I thought they weren't that bothered about it, which could be a bit of a problem, at least in the short term.

Re:Yawn.

[Threni]

>If you mean that MS isn't bothered by it

No, the Japanese. The OP stated that the Japanese were bothered by the xbox but it's my (and apparantly your) understanding that they're not. That's all.

Maybe...

[game kid]

...we might see an apology [lionhead.com] for such things soon. Then again, maybe not--they are flaunting it as of post time [microsoft.com].

At least the monitor's hot [g-prime.net]--no wait, that was separate...

Re:Maybe...

[Leiterfluid]

You keep using that same 50% rate of return, but you don't specify what it's a percentage of, or where you get your source information.

If one of these stores only got 5 or 10 units, then whoopdee-freakin-do if they have a high percentage of returns. Also, given that there are three gamestops within a mile of each other near where I live, it wouldn't be unreasonable that a unit was purchased at one store, and then returned at another.

Unless you have hard numbers to justify your claims, 61% of your statistic

Re:Maybe...

[rAiNsT0rm]

Well, I used to be an industry analyst so my contacts and information is still very strong. I do personally have very good relationships with my local gaming stores and as I stated one Gamestop has had 7 returned - they only received 12... now could some be from other Gamestops? Sure. I was just giving the numbers and that is very high for any product.

I actually stated that right now the general consensus is about 30% defective. That is still 3 out of 10 and that is not good.

I get my numbers from a number o

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 the

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

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.

[rAiNsT0rm]

Aww... does somebody have pent up geek rage they need to take out today?

I was making a point about the relatively low release title number, of course there are more than 5 launch titles. Sheesh.

My numbers come from close friends in a number of places, including a manager of an EB a friend at Gamestop, a colleague at MS who is part of the Xbox support team (and gee, he wouldn't know anything), and some early numbers culled from around the internet. I used to be an industry analyst for the PS2, I'm pretty sur

Re:Yawn.

[C0rinthian]

I assume then, that if you have your shit together, that you know a sample of 12 units is WAY too small to actually make an accurate assessment of returns.

Yeah, the gamestore got 7/12 returned. Is that concerning? Yeah a bit, but until I see large scale sampling numbers I'm not going to assume 50% of the console run is defective.

Re:Yawn.

[rAiNsT0rm]

I clearly stated that I had a pretty large sampling to come up with my numbers and I also clearly stated that the final numbers will most likely be about 30% affected. I gave a single case that I personally know of that I saw firsthand about the 7/12 to show in some places it is over 50%.

You know damn well what I stated, it was pretty clear.

Re:Yawn.

[KDR_11k]

How many fingers does your hand have exactly? 18?

Five? You can count up to 31 with five fingers.

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 d

Re:Yawn.

[rAiNsT0rm]

Wow, who died and made you king of what can and cannot be posted to slashdot. Did you notice you offered NOTHING, you offered no contrary facts, you offered nothing of value at all, all you look like is a whiney bitch.

I have a number of friends and colleagues in Japan. Gee, I have a direct insight to the Japanese popular opinion and it is all about the same... I didn't realize I needed to disclose their names, addresses, phone numbers so you some anonymous /. dork could fact check me. Oh, and by the way to

Re:Yawn.

[Blakey Rat]

Oh, well, with such a mature and intelligent correction to your original post, how could I possibly doubt you? I'm sure anybody who uses the phrase "lick my hairy nut sac" is an expert on console marketing, so I'll just concede this one to you.

Re:Yawn.

[rAiNsT0rm]

You sure got me, I'm so bummed some anonymous internet person doubts me. Wah... dude I could care less, this is /. I'm not here to wow you with my credentials and give a fucking dissertation including footnotes and references.

Re:Yawn.

[Breakfast Pants]

"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."

I'm sorry but I didn't see you label "If the average Joe is staying away for any reason, it's that you literally cannot buy one for less than $1200 right now" a supposition. Just because some have gone for that much doesn't mean you can't get it for less, particularly when the average isn't near that. Looks like a case of a Doctor who won't take his own medici

Re:Yawn.

[fishbowl]

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

I can count to 32 on one hand; more if I assign more than two states to each digit.

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:Congratulations

[Morinaga]

It's called Capatilism. Microsoft did their job. Slashdot editors also did theirs when they posted stories of interest regarding a highly anticipated tech product. You seem to take some issue with the fact a corporation developed a product, marketed this product and in the end sold that product. The "same old same old" has been practiced in the free market for a very, very long time. It is no different than the ipod, the ISP you use nor Slashdot themselves.

Pray tell, how were we all dissapointed? W

Re:Congratulations

[Blakey Rat]

And wait until the PS3 get closer. It'll have at least as many Slashdot articles, and probably more because I think more Slashdot users are PS2 fans than Xbox fans. It's just pointless griping.

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

Re:Not worth the cost...

[drsquare]

Where the hell do you get a PC for $400 that is guaranteed to be powerful enough to play all the latest games for the next 4-5 years? Without any fucking about putting it together or configuring it?

Re:Not worth the cost...

[mink]

Not all the latest games require a dual core 3 GHZ processor.

For instance The Movies (one of the latest games) claims all you need is a sub GHZ Pentium (800MHZ I think they say).

While thats a bit extreme, not everyone codes only to the latest bleeding edge hardware.

Not just a fight...

[PhilHibbs]

someone got shot in the chest [penny-arcade.com]!

Re:Enough already indeed.

[Song for the Deaf]

(sigh) You're right. A game system developed by one of the largest companies in the world, directly competing with a foreign rival who also happens to be one of the most sucessful consumer electronics companies in history- I mean, that shit's just boring!

When you also consider in such un-important facts as: the majority of game developers breathing right now will attempt to express themselves on this platform, the deployment of such powerful hardware on a massive scale, the cultural ramifications of vid

I won't be participating

[jskline]

I for one consider that anything that rediculous to be fighting over, and general mayhem,... because you have to have a damned video game!;... sheesh. I don't want to know where those gene's came from and don't want my kids associating with the likes of those!

I won't be having one of those in my house. My regular Xbox is problem enough without having to have something like that in there...

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...