A good lesson in life.
Just kidding.. ha ha.
Merry Christmas!
Posted on 11/23/2005 12:42:11 PM PST by Cagey
Hundreds of video game fans waited in line in chilly weather across the U.S. Tuesday in order to be among the first to get their hands on Microsoft Corp.'s new Xbox 360 video game console.
They may be the lucky ones. Most stores quickly sold out of their limited supply and prices for the console on eBay topped $2,000. Consumers from California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, Texas and Washington complained to MSNBC.com that finding an Xbox 360 for sale was nearly impossible.
( The Xbox 360 is the first in a new generation of game consoles aimed at moving gaming beyond its traditional audience and is designed to offer near-photo-realistic graphics, play music and video and link up gaming communities over the Internet. Similar offerings are due from Sony and Nintendo next year.
Microsoft is offering two versions of the Xbox 360. The basic "Xbox 360 Core System" sells for $300, while a $400 version has a removable hard drive and can play older Xbox titles. Most buyers were expected to purchase the $400 model.
A crowd of gamers at a Best Buy in Manhattan clapped and cheered when the first purchases were made just after midnight Tuesday, but shortages dampened the mood even there. 19-year-old Peter Gonzalez, the first in line, said he felt gamazing,h and that his nearly 30-hour wait was worth it. The college student planned to stay up all night playing games before heading to classes in the morning.
But 90 of the 200 people in line at the store were disappointed to learn they had to buy the $300 gCoreh system because the more expensive model was sold out. "It's like buying a car without the engine," said Eddie Buist, 29, from the Bronx.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Ding Ding Ding... we have a winner.
Will be a good lesson in life regardind opportunity costs and patience.
Lady got robbed at gunpoint for one here in Atlanta.
Exactly... PS3 will outdo XBOX II, purely because of backward compatibility.
Mom and Dad have a few thousand dollars in PS2 games over the years... and Jr. wants next gen... guess what? He gets the PS3. Walking away from backward compatibility out of the box has killed every dominant system that did it. XBOX is number 2, and will stay there.... with more than 200 Million PS2 and PS1s shipped, compared to 20Million or so XBOX I... the installed base of Sony is too much for MS to overcome by releasing a non backward compatible box, with only 18 games, most of which were developed on the previous platform and cheaply ported forward.
Whats amazing is that XBox is in so many fewer homes than is PS, but Halo still outsold all other games by a large margin.
as do manufacturers of DVD players.
There is only 1 problem... XBOX I still hasn't turned a profit.... Or at least hadn't as of last numbers I saw... MS is just purely take the loss for market share mode, and has been since XBOX's original introduction.... 360 is just more of the same.
My cousin used to work for MS on XBox. I asked him about their losing money hand over fist and he said it was true and that (at the time) it cost over $300 to produce an XBox and they had to sell it at a substantial loss, but Halo and Halo2 would make up the difference.
18 Xbox 360™ games, spanning all the popular genres, available on Day One:
Kameo™: Elements of Power™
Perfect Dark Zero™
Project Gotham Racing® 3
Call of Duty® 2
Need for Speed™ Most Wanted
Peter Jackson's King Kong™
Madden NFL 06
GUN™
Condemned: Criminal Origins™
NBA 2K6
Ridge Racer™ 6
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
QUAKE™ 4
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 06
Amped® 3
FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup™
NHL 2K6
NBA Live 06
They turned a profit this year.
I'm sure HALO is an excellent game. However I view it like this....
EVERYONE has a PS2 (figuratively). (Broad Market)
MANY have a PS2 and an XBOX (Serious gamers)
A few have just an XBOX. (limited subset)
Do the math. I don't see this general criteria changing. Frankly I'm waiting for PS3 to come out so I can buy a cheap PS2....
I don't play games much, and can't justify buying any system I can't get complete (all the options) for $100 or less.
Of course the most profitable company was Nintendo.
Ok, so now they can start the losses on 360 :)
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Meanwhile, any good DemocRAT worth his weight in "toot" will tell you that the American economy is in the toilet and Americans are buying gas with the money they should be using to buy food.
NES owned the home game market.. and then lost it when its upgrade wasn't backwardly compatible... this is a lesson learned over and over in gaming.. but MS seems to ignore it.
They will get some leverage because they are first mover in next gen.. but it won't unseat Sony... who's new system will be backward compatible with most games, and guaranteed 10 year life of their consoles. PS1 only this year hit its 10 year mark... PS2 still has another 5 years left...
I see the whole 360 thing as lots of hype, little real substance to realistically change the playing field long term.
Yes, Eeeeeeeevil Microsoft "forcing" Americans to buy an X-box instead of healthcare...
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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