XBOX 360 Release Tomorrow
So tomorrow is the release date for XBox 360, though don’t expect to get your grubby hands on one for some time well after that. Although the release is one of the most hyped of the year, many Game Stops’s have received calls from Microsoft to stop taking preorders for the system. Major retailers, including Target and Best Buy, will not be open at midnight to sell the system. Why?
Microsoft, having lost roughly 4 billion dollars on the original X-Box, desperately needs the new system to be viewed by the gaming public as a hot item. Thus, taking a cue from Sony’s previous console releases, it is making sure there will be a shortage of systems on the release date. Though this shortage is something drastic.
Each store will be allotted somewhere in the ballpark of 16 – 30 systems. Furthermore, each store has had to agree to sell each unit by the close of the release day. This will allow Microsoft to say their new system is flying off the shelves. In fact, the word on the street is Microsoft is goign to use “Sold Out” as their marketing slogan.
But hype can’t buy loyalty. If consumers find that the 360, though technically superior to any system currently on the market, offers nothing truly innovative in the realm of gameplay, they may abandon the system once Nintendo and Sony’s systems come out next year. Plus, with games going for roughly $60 each, including ports of games available on other systems, gamers may opt to play similar cheaper games on their trusty old consoles.
The way I see it Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle. The hype machine will work to its advantage for a short while, but that same excitement will peter off unless this system can prove an entirely different animal than the the old X-Box. Just take a look at what’s happened to the PSP.
– Chris Nelson
