It is a strange world in which we live when there are more Xbox 360s to be found in the middle of the Mojave Freaking Desert than there are to be found at your local videogame retailers.
The much hyped, much anticipated, and much coveted Xbox 360 releases today. After months of anticipation, there is nary an Xbox 360 to be found. Anywhere. Having seen millions upon millions of pixels-worth of banner ads and pop-up announcements on every conceivable website… Having consumed millions upon millions of liquid tons of Mountain Freaking Dew… Having contributed millions upon millions of keystrokes for discussion in web forums and message boards… Having ingested enough spin to elect a world leader… We, the fanbase, cannot lay our hands on the blessed thing.
My original Clan Mate, a hardcore faithful gamer known to many as Fock, has become the first – and potentially only – kid on my block to pwn a 360 on the advent of its launch. This feat of consumerism was accomplished by standing in line at a Virgin Megastore, beginning at dawn’s crack of 6:30 AM. If that is not a prime example of a fan’s devotion to the manufacturer, I do not know what is…
And wouldn’t it be nice if the manufacturer was as devoted to the fans?
Why jerk us around like this? Why render millions of Christmas lists impotent after an unprecedented campaign of marketing overdrive? Did the assembly line break down, fellas? Or is all of this some clever ploy to create a buzz? Perhaps we are at the mercy of a Go-To-Market Strategy akin to a pump fake – intended to rile-up every Christmas Shopping Soccer Mom in the nation into a feeding frenzy for the actual shipment. And, if so, when would that come?
Whatever the case, the whole phenomenon leaves a bad taste in my mouth – like the scum left on your teeth after drinking too many soft-drinks in an ill-fated bid to win a contest. I would like acquaint myself with the Marketplace provided by the new Microsoft gaming platform. But I ain’t standing in line for one. This is a gadget, not concert tickets to a ‘Rage Against the Machine’ reunion. And ‘Rage…’ would have an excuse for subjecting me to camping the line – that being one of limited capacity at the concert venue. Microsoft told me to buy something – many times. Then they gave me a date. Then the date came, and I am [we are] left standing out in the cold.
Of course, if this is a ploy for extra press; here I am, playing into The Man’s Evil Plan. A rogue blogger with no industry connections to score myself a preview freebie, and nothing to do but add to the noise.
So there you have it. The Xbox 360 debuts on this day. Zero Hour.
In other related news, the much anticipated Unicorn Hunting Season begins tomorrow.
Whichever your quarry may be:
Happy Hunting. Suckers.
Well said. this should be just like a Star Wars DVD. You should be able to waltz in and buy the damn thing after all of this hype and BS. Ok, maybe we won’t see the 360 behind the counter at CVS, but STILL. Fock told me that 100 people were in the line at Virgin (most showed up at 7:30, an hour after him) and only 12 people got systems because that’s all they had.
Yup, that’s all they had. 8 Platinums and 4 Cores. All told it was about 100 people. At about 8:00 AM they came out with wrist bands. At that point there was about 20 people in line. I was number 4. Numbers 7 and 8 and been in line at Best Buy since 4:00 AM – about 40th in line there with only 30 boxes available. They came over to Virgin on a whim and got both the last Platinums.
The store manager said he would have ordered 500 if ‘they’ would have let them. They being MS.
So after the 15 wrist bands had been handed out (they were hoping for 15 units but ended up with 12) most people left.
Another hour and the line had doubled. We kept telling them there were only so many units and if you didn’t have a wrist band you weren’t gettin one.
After I walked away from the register there were easily 40+ people in line. Only 8 of those were getting a 360, and 4 of them had to buy a core system when the wanted a Platinum.
PS2 pulled the same shit. It could be urban ledgend, but durring that fiasco I heard tales of people getting mugged for thei PS2 on the way to the parking lot.
Don’t make much sense to me son.
I don’t want to spam this area with my (really really really fortunate) camping experience, so I’ll just give ya a link: http://hushedcasket.com/index.php/topic,1077.msg7455/topicseen.html#msg7455
Scroll to the top… it’s a long post.
There’s a 360 in my bedroom…
There’s also some going for 10 thousand dollars on ebay.
Rage Against the Machine reunion, how much would that rule?! I would properly fly over to America for that.
1. The only thing I like about RATM is Morello.
2. After I’ve had more time to tinker with the 360, I will give a full review for Deej to post next week.
Just thought I’d post the exact same thing I just showed you guys in a different (read: prettier) format:
http://mintz.hushedcasket.com/my-xbox360-xperience-story
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Deej, maybe you can post this instead (sorry for the long link):
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/23/138200&tid=128&tid=211&tid=10
From today’s Washington Post:
Officers Restore Order After Xbox Scuffle
Wednesday, November 23, 2005; 11:42 AM
Shoppers waiting in line for the new Xbox 360 video game player scuffled outside a Wal-Mart Supercenter when a manager improvised rules for who would get the game first. It took more than 10 police officers to restore order, though no one was arrested.
A crowd of about 300 people were waiting late Monday for the game to go on sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Some of them had waited 12 hours when a night manager said the Xboxes would be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, instead of using a number system devised by customers.
“That’s when all hell broke loose,” said Ben DiSabatino IV, a 23-year-old Bear, Del., resident, who had been waiting in line since 4 p.m.
“It was like a mosh pit,” 30-year-old Michael Pearman of Newark, Del., told the Cecil Whig.
Some customers were knocked down and trampled, though there were no serious injuries, said Elkton Police Lt. Lawrence Waldridge.
An Elkton police officer assigned to monitor the crowd called for backup. In all, it took more than 10 officers from Elkton, the state police and the sheriff’s office to restore peace.
Then Wal-Mart decided to cancel the sale and police ordered everyone to leave. A store employee who wouldn’t give her full name told the Cecil Whig that some Xboxes were sold later that night.
The Xbox 360 premium system includes a hard drive, wireless controllers and cables for high-definition TVs. It retails for $399.
Deej, your points are bittersweet to me. Should we trust the rumors offered by some retailers and by the MSN article that proclaims 360s will ship to retailers “every week”? I wonder…
I worked 6am to 3pm on 11/22, at a store that does not sell video games, nor their systems, but I have this to report.
At the Best Buy in Spokane, Washington, two guys got in line at 5pm on 11/21 for an 11/22 9am opening to get their 360s.
A Best Buy employee claimed the store had received 40 systems overall (toss your grains of salt, gentlemen, left shoulder or right), 30 premiums, 10 cores. Later I heard those numbers were reversed.
Here’s the rub: my friendly neighborhood Best Buy offered the core system to anyone with 300 simoleons, as all other retailers did (one presumes).
To receive the glorious white box everyone’s clamored for, those devoted consumers were forced to purchase them in a bundle. One of the bundles offered 3 games, a wireless controller, a faceplate of your choice, and a 3-month Gold subscription. That’s a nice bundle, but the bundle was priced exactly as those items all cost, NO DISCOUNT. Not bad for 693 bucks and change, but Best Buy would not let anyone buy the premium 360 alone, no bundle.
One thing I know: I’ll be buying my 360 (eventually) elsewhere.
The whole situation is bullshit… and Msoft did it just for bragging rights, “We’re the hottest thing this holiday season; We sold out!” I would skip it if I wasn’t addicted to all video games and if they released Halo 3 on the Nintendo Revolution (with a generic Xbox 360 controller of course).
On top of that I’m hearing that there might be a problem with 360’s. I follow a lot of x-box related sights and it seems many 360’s are malfuntioning right out of the box…..
http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=392599
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=462099
http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/23/technology/personaltech/xbox.reut/
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42831
Fouch – I will be offering my 360 review later today and I’m going to ask Deej to post it here. I tested mine with 40 + hours of play (Wed PM to Sunday PM) and experienced no problems. The box tends to run hot and I suspect the major volume of reported crashes are from systems that didn’t have proper ventilation.
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DATE: 11/23/2005 11:36:52 AM
I couldn’t agree more that this is an outrage. Nintendo does it, Sony does it, and now M$ has done it. I wanted one before but now I’m content to wait.
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DATE: 11/24/2005 10:59:29 AM
Well but MICROsoft doesn’t earn any money because they sell it to cheap . They lose 150 $ with each sold 360 … And here in Germany I have to wait 2 weeks until i could buy it … that sucks
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DATE: 11/23/2005 09:35:20 AM
I ain’t giving the 360 any more free press.
Screw that.
You should smash yours until there are enough to go around for everybody.
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DATE: 11/23/2005 10:35:29 AM
Forgot about Tiny URL.
http://tinyurl.com/732cd
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DATE: 11/22/2005 02:05:05 PM
I want a Tickle-Me-Xbox.