There was a lot of hub-bub over at Evil Avatar today when word of Xbox 360 pricing hit the net. Over four hundred comments that span 3 different topics was pretty impressive. A lot of people were proclaiming the downfall of the 360 and bemoaning the fact that there were two different Xbox 360 setups. 300 bucks for the barebones system and 400 for the deluxe model. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I personally didn’t think much of the announcement. My next generation plans are to wait for the price drop of the 360 (rumored to occur when the PS3 hits the market). I’ll probably pick up a Revolution at launch but I definitely will be waiting on the 360. Especially if there will be another model that sports a HD DVD drive.
I agree with most of the EA posters. I really do think Microsoft is fracturing their audience and playing fast and loose with people’s expectations. Not being straightforward about their plans for a HD DVD drive (or Blu-Ray, as if that were gonna happen) is another big mistake. And the prices on the peripherals? Sheesh, if the Revolution sports wi-fi out of the box and Microsoft wants to charge me 100$ for a wi-fi adapter? Goodnight! It will definitely be Revolution and PS3 for teh win.
A lot of things still have to happen before any of this is set in stone, but the path Microsoft has chosen definitely looks iffy at the moment. Things just got a lot more interesting.
Oh, wow, I can only imagine the war at Evil right about now. It’s gonna only get worse from here. I’ll probably post a bit on the 360 pricing in a little bit, but in the short run … I agree with the fracturing thing. There’s too many variables. Will users have a HD? HDTV? HD-DVD? I would have thought that MS would have learned from the PC market and just make the console as rock solid as possible out of the gate, one configuration. Has there been a successful add-on console market ever?
Sounds like to me, too many options and not enough system.
I don’t know to me HD-DVD at the moment right now is damn near point less. If Microsoft releases a version of the 360 with HD-DVD. In the future, if that format fails to Blu-Ray. Your going to have people stuck with an option that many will never use.
I think Microsoft eyes are too big and they don’t have enough stomach to digest everything.
I wish they would just shut up and give me Halo III!
Electronic Gaming Monthly had a little conference this month. One of the speakers was Peter Moore from MS giving a preview of the 360. He demo’d the abilities of the box to recognize and play mp3s from an ipod, PSP, and pictures from a digital camara. Arguably interesting if not impressive. What he didn’t demo was, surprize, surprize, any 360 games. Not that anyone would actually want to play video games on the home entertainment center. With only 2 months remaining, I’d suggest everyone buy an ipod as it may be the only thing that’ll run on the 360 at release.