How to score an Xbox

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At that point, the reality is that consumers will have to wait to buy one of the new consoles. But Microsoft hopes they won't have to wait long.

"Replenishment, replenishment, replenishment, that is the key word here," said Hufford. "We've got thousands of people working in China right now cranking out boxes. The minute they come off the line, we're boarding them up and putting them on 747s."

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Meanwhile, as countless thousands of Xbox buyers get their consoles at retailers, many others have pre-ordered from Web sites belonging to Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.

The advantage of pre-ordering, said Tate, is that those who did so were offered a guarantee (if they were willing to pay for express shipping) of getting their Xbox on Tuesday. But she added that pre-order supplies were limited. (Circuit City's online store experienced a spike in traffic, and subsequent slowness, on Friday afternoon minutes after the console went on sale. The supply sold out in less than three hours, Tate said.)

Jay Musolf, a spokesperson for Best Buy, also said his company had offered pre-orders--though only to members of its loyalty program.

"Our main goal is to give our customers a chance on the day the Xboxes come out to (get one) at the stores."

But while in-store customers will be able to buy the consoles in person and make their own decisions about accessories or games, many pre-order deals forced buyers to pay substantially more for packages including several games, extra controllers and the like.

Hufford said Microsoft had nothing to do with the pre-order packages.

"I think what you're seeing is retailers are all trying to differentiate their offerings from their competition," he said. "Retailers are going with huge offerings to lure in the most hard core of the hard core."

But while thousands will be lining up around the country, not all game fans are going to rush out on Tuesday morning.

Jon Gilkison, a 32-year-old software architect from Los Angeles, said that while he has been willing to stand in line for launches like that of Sony's PlayStation Portable, he has no such plans for the Xbox 360.

"It doesn't feel like a 2.0 upgrade," Gilkison said. "It feels more like a 1.5 upgrade. None of the launch titles have that next-gen feel to me, and that would be the point of upgrading. And even though I'm an Xbox die-hard, I'm personally a little more excited about Nintendo's (forthcoming) Revolution, and am waiting to see how that pans out."

Still, sentiments like Gilkison's aside, there is clearly no shortage of excitement about the Xbox launch, and most retailers seem primed to quickly sell out their initial allotments.

In fact, some Xbox enthusiasts worry that Microsoft is building up a buying frenzy by deliberately sending retailers minimal numbers of the consoles. But the company said that notion couldn't be further from the truth.

"I can understand that there's some anxiety around people wanting to get their consoles on the first day," Hufford said. "The truth is we're not holding anything back. We're going all out with the Xbox 360 launch to ensure that we put every product we're capable of making on the shelves on the 22nd."

[zaznet]

External Drive?

I thought that the premium kit was an internal drive. That's what the design intent was going some months back and this is the first I've noticed it was an external drive.

Of course such a drive is easy to add via USB and really elimintes the need to get the MS included drive when you can use an existing USB drive of your choice.

[Scott W]

step backwards?

are MS taking a step backwards by omitting an internal hdd? one of X-Box's selling points was that it came with a hdd fitted, which also meant developers could make games with that in mind. it was touted as a reason for X-Box being better than PS2. however by omitting this feature AND sticking to the current generation of DVD format they are severely limiting the potential of their console.they can throw as much power into it as they want but with such tight limits on space games developers may have to resort to multiple discs to fit everything on, something that hasn't happened since the PS1 days!

[Jamie314]

Not quite.

Yes the drive is external and not a necessity to play games on the console, but I highly doubt Microsoft will let us use the 'USB drive of your choice'.

Unfortunately, I expect some kind of driver or hardware lock in place that stops the 360 from recognising and using a non-360 external drive.

The only major plus I can see with the external drive is that 6 months down the line, or when 20GB is just nowhere near enough, you can upgrade the drive capacity by swapping in a bigger drive. No doubt Microsoft will exploit this, and thats probably one of the reasons for using such a small drive in the first place.

[cturkin]

No

It is an internal drive, but it is removable.

[nyte3k]

Doesn't Really impress me...

For some reason, the xbox360 doesn't impress me. I've played the little demos they have and seen some videos of some games yet to be released, but graphics wise, it doesn't seem like a huge leap. The PlayStation 3 graphics look a bit better in my opinion.

And i wonder how long people will wait for more xbox360s when all are sold out because of the short supply. If they have to wait too long, and more press and announcements and hype build up for PS3 (and the price is right) people might decide to wait a few months for that instead.

but that's just my biased opinion :)

[Bob_Barker]

True

Xbox 360 isn't all that impressive yet. But keep in mind everything you've seen for PS3 is FMV.

[kingofgods]

Not True

First off look at the graphics for Condemned...the game looks great and wait for Splinter Cell's footage.
Second all the CGi videos that were shown for PS3 were exactly that CGI. It's a known fact that all the footage shown wasn't even running on the ps3 but was created and shown on PCs. How can you say the PS3 looks better when there hasn't been anything shown for it.

The X360 has live....what console you know comes close to live.

[Bill Dautrive]

Graphics

When all is said and done, graphics is only a distraction. Great games can have outstanding graphics or it can have oor graphics and it will still be a great game.

A crap game is crap regardless of the quality of the graphics.

In the end graphics are eye-candy.

So far, as is typical with concoles, the games for the new XBox might look decent but appear to be mediocre at best.

Of course, the hardcore console crowd seems to think graphics are the only thing that matters.

[Earl Benser]

No Problem....

.. I have no interest in the Xbox, so I'll just step aside and watch the
lemmings run.

[SystemsJunky]

Blah

I have no interest in the iPod, so I'll just step aside and watch the
lemmings get taken to the slaughter house.

[Christopher Hall]

That was a good game

Lemmings, that.

You played it, Earl? Might be your kind of game.

[Thunder Johny]

lemmings run

http://www.analogstereo.com/lexus_gx_owners_manual.htm

eBay

It's obvious where to go to get an xbox without standing in line at 12:01 or getting on some wait list: eBay. It's like paying somebody to stand in line for you. Often I wonder why MS doesn't just auction these things off--risks angering the fans, I suppose.

[Below Meigh]

Holy Smoke...

Can you believe what folks are selling (and getting) for Xbox 360 on eBay?

Buy it Now for $5000 !!! and others (One seller wants $40,000 for 100 units...)

Should M$ be regulating this? Nah...after all...its all about money.

(funny, walked into a desolate Walmart and got a $400 unit...wonder if I should eBay it for double?)

[i_made_this]

if this series xBox needs to be patched...

...and upgraded as fast as windows, it'll be on sale begging $50 coming Jan 2.:p

[radimage]

Another MAC user

Nobody makes anyone buy Microsoft products.
The first XBOX rocks! I bet that XBOX 360 is 100 times better.
If you don't like Microsoft, that great, but quit crying. Run back to your MAC and feel safe.

[BartleyF]

Wal-Mart, Costoc, Best Buy ALL sold out

I can't believe Wal-Mart would say they would be able to meet demand - my local store got 14 that were gone instantly. Ebay is the only place: expect to pay over 1500 bucks...for now.

[Thunder Johny]

can't believe

http://www.analogstereo.com/vacuum_sealer/foodsaver_vacuum_sealer.htm

[lrd123]

Where's the XBOX? Where's the beef???

Don't be surprised if you here an annoucment for a re-call next week or the following week. Articles on the net are saying tons of people are experiencing problems with their XBOXs- too bad if they bought a $1800 HDTV set just to play a game and the XBOX catches on fire!!!

[208774626618253979477959487856]

Go xbox!

http://www.analogstereo.com/turntable_linn_sondek_lp12.htm

[Earl Benser]

Another useless link

nt