Xbox 360 Launch Date

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Microsoft has announced the launch date for the Xbox 360. The date for North America is November 22. This is two days before Thanksgiving. They will be in high demand for the beginning of the holiday shopping.

The Nov. 22 launch of Xbox 360 in North America will be followed by a Dec. 2 launch in Europe and a Dec. 10 launch in Japan.

The releases will allow the Redmond-based software maker to get a head start over rival Sony's PlayStation 3, which is slated to replace the market-leading PlayStation 2 next spring.

The Japanese unit will cost 37,900 yen, or about $345 — slightly less than the $399.99 the company is charging in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Microsoft had previously disclosed the U.S. price, as well as the European price of 399.99 euros.

Microsoft also is selling a scaled-back version, dubbed "Xbox 360 Core System," for $299.99 in North America and 299.99 euros in Europe. But David Reid, director of platform marketing for Xbox, said the company had decided there wouldn't be enough demand to immediately launch that cheaper system in Japan.

Reid said the company priced the Xboxes relative to what other, similar gadgets cost in the respective countries. He said the decision to charge less in Japan than the United States did not have anything to do with the fact that the first version of the Xbox has not been as successful in Japan as Microsoft had hoped.

This time around, Reid said the company is hoping it will have more success because it plans to have more games available that Japanese consumers will like.

In general, Reid acknowledged that the company will initially sell the new version of Xbox at a loss. But he said he expects some components of the product will get cheaper over time, allowing the company to eventually make money on the Xbox 360 even though it plans to eventually discount the price.

Microsoft is initially targeting the Xbox 360 to hardcore gamers, but it is hoping a sleek design and user-friendly features will eventually make it alluring to more mainstream users.

"The price is going to decline over time and be more broadly appealing to a broader range of consumers," he said.

Microsoft has already begun producing "millions of units" at three facilities in southern China, Reid said, although he would not provide a specific number of units that will be available at launch.

I can't wait to get mine.
 
Yeah, that'll be killer. Might want to reserve a second controller and that kind of stuff. Accessories can be harder to come by than games. A lot of people held off on the purchase of their first DVD player because of the XBox DVD playback kit, and then were shocked by the shortage.
 
Hmm...I never really thought about reserving an extra controller. I should probably look into that. Do you think Gamestop will make you purchase a bundle in the stores or can I just get the premium pack?
 
that they sell them cheaper in Japan, i can understand, why it has
to be more expensive in europe, i don't.

at current rates the 360 costs 500$ for europeans. without games.

guess I'll hang on to my normal Xbox for the time being.
 
I don't think GameStop is doing in-store bundles at all. Europe always gets screwed on prices. The 360 is a little bit better than the original XBox pricing.
 
Yeah, unfortunately I'm in the 3rd wave at my local gamestop in Des Moines, IA. I signed up some time ago but apparently a lot of people beat me to it. :( Oh well, still anxiously awaiting it.
 
Maj.Striker said:
Yeah, unfortunately I'm in the 3rd wave at my local gamestop in Des Moines, IA. I signed up some time ago but apparently a lot of people beat me to it. :( Oh well, still anxiously awaiting it.

It looks like 1-3rd waves will all be there November 22 at GameStop. They just shut off the 3rd wave and don't expect to take any more reservations.

Raptor leader said:
so the system without anything else will cost around $500?

Well.. where do you live? The exact pricing for all three main territories is listed in the first post in this thread. The base system without anything in the US is $299.
 
Core: $299

Hot Rod: $399

Since I'm a patient bastard I'll wait a while before I get one. Besides, I'm saving pennies to purchase a GeForce 6800, so I can't everything I want.
 
I think waiting is a good policy on console launches. MS and Sony hardware usually have a few glitches in the first batch. But hey, more power for the pre-buyers! :) And if Halo3 is a launch game, another reason to get one.
I do wish I could get me a Revolution at launch, but chances are pretty slim.
 
I don't believe (I could be wrong on this) that Halo 3 is slated for the xbox360 launch date...I think they are going to release it for the PS3 launchdate.

True there's no real advantage to getting an xbox360 right on the launch date other than to be able to say you have one and to play your one or two games that you bought. :) Still, I'm hoping to have mind...although those who wait will save a good bit of money...
 
I live in the Mid West of The USA. I'm buying going buy 360 because of Resident Evil 5 and possible Knights of The Old Republic III will be on the system.
 
Let me ask this straight up - what would I possibly want a X-Box 360 for if I have a high-end computer? (Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the only nextgen game Im remotely interested in is Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3.) Is there anything coming out for this sans Halo that could be considered "must have"?
 
I don't think there's any... seriously, the first batch of games is rarely the best. The developers are still far from dominating all the tricks and squeezing all that the hardware can do. Especially hardware so complex as the x360, with the multicore stuff and all. Not to mention that MS always drops prices every year. Games like Gears of War (if it makes launch) will surelly be pretty, but they offer nothing more than current games other than eyecandy. I like eyecandy, but I do love gameplay. And 500 bucks is too much for a graphic uplift. Then again, I payed 200 dollars for a new videoboard, so I can't really complain.


Getting a X360 a full year after lauch would probably be the most reasonable course of action. One would save some bucks AND get better games to play. But then you'd lose all the bragging rights and that "i got it at launch" feeling.

The only console I would buy at day one is the revolution. I really want to use the damned new control system. And it will play all my (legit) Cube games too. And if it gets Metroid Prime3 for launch, I'd be really set up.

But hey, to each its own.
 
LeHah said:
Let me ask this straight up - what would I possibly want a X-Box 360 for if I have a high-end computer? (Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the only nextgen game Im remotely interested in is Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3.) Is there anything coming out for this sans Halo that could be considered "must have"?

The real question is...how high end is your computer? To match the power of the xbox360 (or the PS3) it would have to have some really really high specs. Certainly it would have cost you more than the $400-500 price tag of the xbox360 to assemble. (the video card alone would probably be around that). But assuming you do have all that then that means that you can probably play games on your PC that look as nice as the games will look on the 360. However, you'll find very few 360 games are made for PC and vice versa. Sure there's some ports of the major games but it's several months later...there never was a Halo 2 game for PC (that I'm aware of). Yes, you'll probably find Madden 2006 and on for PC but games like MechAssault etc won't ever be found on the PC. The next question is whether you feel the need to play these games...if you don't like them then there's probably not much use in you getting an xbox360 to play them. If you're curious about these games then you probably will want an xbox because they likely won't come to your high end PC.
 
LeHah said:
Let me ask this straight up - what would I possibly want a X-Box 360 for if I have a high-end computer?
If you have to ask that question, you wouldn't.
Is there anything coming out for this sans Halo that could be considered "must have"?
Halo is only a must-have if you've never played a videogame before in your life.
Edfilho said:
The developers are still far from dominating all the tricks and squeezing all that the hardware can do.
That's no longer true. Each of the three upcoming systems is simply a riff on the idea of mating a PowerPC 9something CPU to an ATi or nVidia graphics chip. Each one is going to have a completely unchanging API from release until eternity, and all the games will be written in the same high-level languages for easy portability.
Especially hardware so complex as the x360, with the multicore stuff and all.
The PS3's CPU is also a multi-core PowerPC chip, and Revolution's probably is as well. The hardware is remarkably similar across the lines. And writing a game in C++ for a multi-core CPU isn't the same as, for instance, programming a Sega Saturn's twin SH-2s in assembly.
Games like Gears of War (if it makes launch) will surelly be pretty, but they offer nothing more than current games other than eyecandy. I like eyecandy, but I do love gameplay.
I'd like to know how you can tell this without having played the game.

Anyway, if you're going to boil it down, we might as well take that to its logical conclusion and admit that "gameplay" has remained fundamentally unchanged since the transition to 3D spaces, and that was a long time ago.
The only console I would buy at day one is the revolution. I really want to use the damned new control system.
And some people really want to shoot heroin, that doesn't make it a good idea.
But hey, to each its own.
Unless it sucks.
Maj.Striker said:
The real question is...how high end is your computer?
No it's not; PCs don't compete with consoles.
 
LeHah said:
Let me ask this straight up - what would I possibly want a X-Box 360 for if I have a high-end computer? (Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the only nextgen game Im remotely interested in is Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3.) Is there anything coming out for this sans Halo that could be considered "must have"?

For lots of people, yeah. Like Frosty said, if you have to ask, then the answer is no. I'm looking forward to quite a few games that won't be available on the PC though. To answer the first question directly, there's very little reason not to get an XBox 360 if you play a lot of new video games. In order to have access to a wide range of video game content, you absolutely can't stick to a single platform. There are incredile games I want to play that will on be on the PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, Revolution, PS3 and 360. So you'd want a second platform simply because you don't stick to a limited spectrum of the gaming industry.

I have a computer that can run pretty much any PC game, and I'd pull my hair out if that was all I had. I absolutely need my Mario Party and Donkey Konga on the GameCube, Advance Wars and Nintendogs on the DS, Metal Gear Acid on the PSP, and a ton of PS2/XBox games. On top of that, speaking with 20 years of both console and PC gaming history behind me, I have to say that the PC gaming industry has been incredibly annoying the last couple years. Installation is a waste of time, bugs are more prevalent, my favorite series/genre are being scaled back, better versions of some titles are appearing on consoles and the interface just isn't as good for me. For a typical game that exists both on the PC and something like the XBox, I'd pick the XBox version every time. This will be magnified with the 360. For about the price of a high end 3D card, I'll be getting a self-contained gaming unit that has more power than high end gaming computers. The minimum resolution for 360 games on my 52" screen is higher than I can comfortably look at on my 21" PC monitor. I personally prefer the controller to mouse/keyboard/joystick for most gametypes. The online interface will be much better than what most PC games find, and every single game will be interconnected. I often see my friends are playing one game, and I'll go join them if they allow that or they can come join me, and every game and every player will have a microphone/voice support built in.

You may very well be a person who doesn't play too many games and the ones you do might all be on the PC, so that's enough for you. Ghost Recon, Chrome Hounds, Dead or Alive 4, Ninety-nine Nights, Perfect Dark, Project Gotham, Burnout, Gears of War, Dead Rising and Halo 3 are all XBox 360 exclusive/enhanced titles that I think look fantastic, so I'll be there at midnight to get mine on launch day.
 
Frosty said:
No it's not; PCs don't compete with consoles.

In the context of the question that Lehah phrased, my point was valid. In other words, Lehah's definition of a high end pc could be quite different from mine. His might be an average machine with a crappy video card...obviously any game he would play on that would not look as good as the xbox counterpart.
 
Frosty said:
That's no longer true. Each of the three upcoming systems is simply a riff on the idea of mating a PowerPC 9something CPU to an ATi or nVidia graphics chip. Each one is going to have a completely unchanging API from release until eternity, and all the games will be written in the same high-level languages for easy portability.The PS3's CPU is also a multi-core PowerPC chip, and Revolution's probably is as well. The hardware is remarkably similar across the lines. And writing a game in C++ for a multi-core CPU isn't the same as, for instance, programming a Sega Saturn's twin SH-2s in assembly.
I wouldn't say that. First batch mediocrity was a fact for the last generation... And the jump now is just as big. Multi-core programming may not be as hard as was with saturn, but it is no piece of cake either. Just the fact that the new machines have differences from the current ones warrant a transition period.

I'd like to know how you can tell this without having played the game.
Reading interviews with the developers describing the games can be really illuminating. If the greatest new gameplay features are not-so-impressive when the guys who made it are plugging it , then it is a safe bet that the game isn't themost innovative kid in town. You can infer and assume stuff, you know, without being automatically wrong.
Anyway, if you're going to boil it down, we might as well take that to its logical conclusion and admit that "gameplay" has remained fundamentally unchanged since the transition to 3D spaces, and that was a long time ago.
Not really, we can't. Doom is different from System shock 2 in gameplay. Half-life2 is different from Quake. And Quake MP is really different from Unreal 2k4 more exclusive modes. There have been shooters who were just better or worse more of the same (Doom3) or the ones who added something to the genre.

I may be wrong and GoW could be really innovative, but everything points to a different outcome.
And some people really want to shoot heroin, that doesn't make it a good idea.
Haha. funny. Wait, no, it wasn't.
Unless it sucks.
Yeah, there is only one truth, only one possible valid opinion, only one true point of view. Wait again, no, there isn't.
No it's not; PCs don't compete with consoles.
Depends. Mario Kart does not compete with GP Legends or Juiced, but BiA PC competes with BiA Xbox. Not only that, but GENRES compete too. We have a limited amount of time. Whenever I'm playing Fable on the PC, that means I'm not playing Eternal Darkness on the cube, Super Metroid on the SNES, Grandia 2 on the DC or Nintendogs on the DS. I have to chose, because between full time executive job, college, wife, friends and the rest of the family, I really have to maximize my playtime.
 
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