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XBox (Games)

The Industry's Opinion: The 360 Launch 36

Posted by Zonk from the lots-of-pdz-less-devs dept.
Gamasutra's ever-interesting question of the week queried individuals in the games industry for their opinions on the launch of the Xbox 360. There were opinions from both sides of the issue, with folks in between as well. From the article: "In my opinion, Microsoft did a superb job of establishing Xbox 360 as the premier next-gen gaming platform. However, it suffered a huge setback when it failed to get enough machines to the market for the Christmas holiday. While coordinating a console launch across multiple continents is truly a massive undertaking, a company as massive as Microsoft has no excuse for being so grossly unprepared. -Coray Seifert, Large Animal Games"
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The Industry's Opinion: The 360 Launch More

The Industry's Opinion: The 360 Launch

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  • Maybe they should have been as prepared as say SEGA with the DreamCast Launch.

    No I think emptying stock from store shelves long before christmas is a good thing. Especially if you can fill them back up before Xmas morn. Even if it was carefully calculated to give the appearance of a shortage it was well played.

    The Only thing I can fault them for is not covering ALL pre-Orders.

    My Local WalMart said they had 20 that lasted the for about an hour that first Night.

    Everybody I've talked to (if they had no

    • Okay, there's a threshold where sold out is successful and where sold out is poor planning.

      Apple sells out of iPods regularly, but has them restocked with the next week's shipment; supply is mostly matched by demand, and that is good.

      Microsoft sells out of XBoxes, but doesn't have any in stock for three weeks, and with no indication of any more coming back in stock until after Christmas? That is stupid.

      So IF Microsoft can get more in stock before Christmas and can consistently keep stock levels up to meet d

  • Price of being the first. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by imstanny ( 722685 ) on Saturday December 10, 2005 @01:28PM (#14228829)
    While coordinating a console launch across multiple continents is truly a massive undertaking, a company as massive as Microsoft has no excuse for being so grossly unprepared.

    ??. Microsoft did get the xbox to market 6 months before PS3 is even slated to appear, and the Revolution to be debuted. This is a company that faces the realities of production vs time, and consequently it is excusable. There's a price to pay for launching the same type of technology 6 months ahead of your competitors; saying it's inexcusable is at best childish and at worst ignorant. Mind you, Microsoft is launching the console Worldwide!

    Even with the shortages, I'm impressed.

    • You know, when Apple released the nano to such popular acclaim that they suffered SHORTAGES, they delayed the worldwide release by a couple months to make sure the customers that were waiting were able to acquire a nano in a timely manner.

      Microsoft had options they didn't take; however I wouldn't be impressed. If they are facing shortages, I really do think Microsoft underpriced their console and essentially cheated themselves out of extra profit. They could have set $399 and $499 price points and still hav
      • Interesting point. I overlooked it, and I agree... they definately did not compensate their pricing based on the basic concept of supply/demand.
    • Microsoft is launching the console Worldwide!

      So they launch in N America, and sell out compleatly, befoer they release it to the rest of the world ? I'd just call it pigheadedness to get out first.

      XB360 will not be for sale in Australia until late Feb/March, and just avalible now in Europe & Japan.

      I wouldn't call that a fast worldwide release. Just plain stupidity & greed to get 360 out for xmas.

      P.S. I'm not buying one until they hack them and get XBMC running H.234 videos running smoothly in at le
    • OMG! Slightly better graphics and 1st-gen tech demos! That totally makes MS blameless. Thanks for pointing this out.
  • Look at amazon.com:
    Availability: This item is currently not available.
    ("used" xbox 360 are for USD 900!)

    look at amazon.de:
    Gewöhnlich versandfertig bei Amazon in 2 bis 4 Monaten.
    (Ready to ship in 2 to 4 months)
    ("used" xbox 360 are for 600++ Euro)

    Today I heard a conversation like this:

    Father: Do you have any xbox 360?
    Salesperson: No, and we don't expect any large shipments until february or march.
    Son (14years): In spring there will be the the PS3. It's far superior to the xbox. If I have to wait, I take

    • Re:xbox start is a failure (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Malor ( 3658 ) on Saturday December 10, 2005 @02:07PM (#14229020) Journal
      I haven't been paying attention for a couple of months, but as far as I know, Sony doesn't even have a finalized hardware spec... and they're supposed to launch in 90 days.

      I don't see it. My guess is, a Japan launch for Christmas and a US launch in March of 2007. And the console will not make bread, do the dishes, and fold your laundry. It'll probably be quite good, but this is, after all, Sony. You know, DRM Sony? They're both braindead and known for overpromising and underdelivering(see: PS2 and 'real time Toy Story', hah).

      I'm sure I'll buy one, just like I have all the other consoles. But I very strongly suspect it won't be that much better than the 360, if it's better at all, and I REALLY doubt we're going to see it in the US before 2007.

      I wonder if the Cell processor will go down with Itanium in the 'hideously expensive boondoggles' category. That thing looks monstrously tough to program. They're gonna have to sell an awful lot of difficult-to-develop-for chips to pay for all those billions they spent on design.
      • The "Real-Time Toy Story on the PS2" bit is a little myth that no one ever seems to be able to find documented evidence of Sony stating.

        That said: yeah, your PS3 won't be a "wireless hub," almost certainly isn't going to include "2 HDMI outputs" and probably won't have flash memory ports for every one of the five promised formats (Hmm... Sony voluntarily giving up the lucrative memory card market... Can you say "Memory Stick DUO compatible?")

        And if the PSP is any indication, Euro-Timmy's got quite a wait ah
    • People wanted to buy the xbox, no xbox available people buy other console.

      There is no other console. At least, no other console that would serve as an adequate replacement.

  • Real Fun Next XMas (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blueZhift ( 652272 ) on Saturday December 10, 2005 @02:31PM (#14229116) Homepage Journal
    I think the real fun begins next Christmas which is the earliest that I think we'll see the PS3 launch in the U.S.. Shortages and hardware issues are typical of major console launches, so on that note there was nothing unusual about the 360 launch. The thing that sets it apart IMHO is launching in three territories in a relatively short period of time. Kudos to Microsoft for pulling that off.

    I think that now Sony has to be careful not to pull a Saturn and push the PS3 out the door before it and key software is ready. Right now, I just don't see how they can get it out along with good games by spring. And missing XMas 2007 in the U.S. would be very bad for them too. Granted, I don't think MS is going to grab the crown from Sony this round, but spotting them not one but two Christmas seasons would not be a good idea.

    And let's not forget Nintendo! Since they have chosen not to go bleeding edge on the hardware, they may be able to launch by XMas 2007 as well. An inexpensive Revolution, Xbox 360 with a year's headstart, and the Playstation 3 likely launch should make next Christmas very interesting.
    • 2007? Are you sure you don't mean 2006? I can't see either the Rev or PS3 missing 2007 Xmas. That's a given.
    • Right now, I just don't see how they can get it out along with good games by spring.

      Most games run on multiple platforms. 80% of the games that come out for Xbox 360 between now and the PS3 launch will be PS3 launch titles. That's how.

      Also, christmas time is hugely overrated for launcing consoles. Why? Because you get a huge rush to buy the next thing whenever you launch, and then another huge rush the first christmas. If you make them both occur at the same time, you're shooting yourself in the foot becaus

  • Totally Botched (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 )
    I see the launch as totally botched.

    First there are no great games? Where is the Halo? Where is the Mario? Where is the must have? It is sports and FPSes, and that's about it. I want to play PGR3, and Kameo looks interesting (although opinions on it vary wildly). But past that is is all sports and FPSes (Call of Duty 2 is nice, but it isn't original, it was on PC first). Even a copy of Burnout Revenge or SSX: Tricky or something like that with updated graphics would be nice (Sorry, not an Amped fan). There

  • How is the availibility in other areas? Particularly the Core System.

    Where I live (Germany) there doesnt seem to be that much of a shortage.
    I saw a few Core systems today in my local electronics store.
    • Here in the UK there's a real shortage. Premiums are almost non-existent. Cores can be had here and there, but it's a case of a few units going to each store, and they disappear as soon as they are available.

      The situation with cores wouldn't be so bad if the hard drives were available in any decent quantity, but they're pretty rare too.

      It's hard to feel anything other than cynical about the Premium/Core situation. It's quite clear that for the early adopters, the Premium is what they want, I doubt sales

      • ...As I see it, the only people enjoying the current situation are the Ebay jockeys.
        Speaking of Ebay, how are the auction/scalping prices for the new Xbox? During the last Xbox release the going price was about 200% of retail for the first week. People stopped bidding in the second week.

  • Well, M$ wanted to create artificial shortage to create big "sell out" buzz and watch their stock tick up a couple of notches. Ok. However, they just alientated a HUGE segment of the market, who now have no choice but to buy thier loved one SOMETHING ELSE for a XMAS gift. NOW, if I were buying something for a gamer (we are assuming the recipient is a non PC gamer, since the first choice was xbox 360) and couldn't get the 360, am I just going to stiff that person out of a gift cause I couldn't be fortuna
    • Wow. That comment wasn't stereotypically pathetic at ALL.

      Very original with "M$", it's like they're a large corporation whose goal is making money and you figured it out!

      You even used a very clever little acronym for Microsoft that utilizes the similarity between an "S" and a dollar sign!

      Tool.

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