xbox 360

This interview with J Allard of the Microsoft 360 Hype Machine is making its rounds through the gaming sites and blogs (yeah, there’s quite a few comments on Major Nelson’s site). I read it with a big cube of salt, so not much really surprised me, except this little nugget:

J Allard (Expert):
Q: Why even offer the core package, its seems quite useless
A: great question! the thing to remember that while we designed a no compromises game system, a huge percentage of our customers are not like the folks in this chat room. recognize that more than 75% of the folks on xbox have not played halo. by introducing the core system we are sending a signal to the market that we are committed to this part of the market just like with the xbox 360 premium bundle that we are committed to you.

I call Bull-oney on that one. 75% have not played Halo? That just does not sound right. Perhaps that’s not including Halo 2. If Halo and Halo 2 are considered, it has to be close to 50% — Bungie has sold over 11 million copies of Halo and Halo 2. With 20 million Xboxes, you do the math. So it may be semantics, but a lot of people have played Halo. 25% my foot.

There’s more marketing double-speak and the the like, but I’ll let you read the poorly formatted chat. Still, like I said, it’s making it’s rounds in the gaming blogsphere. Here’s a smattering:

Major Ynos’ Mark Creig lived blogged it, cutting through the crap. He gives it to ya straight. (I’d avoid the comments there, they may cause spontaneous combustion)

Joystiq as usual provides great coverage, also highlighting the fact that Allard answered a lot of the questions with “We want to hear what the gamers think”. This could be call for input that will be given thoughtful consideration of it could be desperation. Maybe they don’t know what the heck they’re doing and they need some help.

Kotaku mentions the interview in passing (thinking the same I did – why did they hold this on Sunday?) along with the results from his poll.

Evil Avatar, often accused of Xbox bias (which I no longer agree with) had a pretty lively conversation about the chat as well.

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.

You may not know this, but a lot of gamers are cheap. So I boldly predict, in a way only a blogger can, that the Xbox 360 is going to be CHEAP.

That’s the only way to explain these wild claims coming out of Microsoft these days. Ten million units in 12-16 months? A billion worldwide gamers? This is either the mutterings of a clinically insane person (or people) or they have something up there sleeves. Those are lofty numbers. I can think of two ways Microsoft might accomplish these insanely lofty goals.

One – Microsoft is going to start giving the Xbox360 away. Does that sound crazy? They already started doing just that in Japan. While this certainly isn’t the most plausible, I wouldn’t complain. Microsoft has piles of cash, right? They sleep on pillows stuffed with hundred dollar bills, don’t they? They would make up for the loses with the volume of game sales, right?

Two – The Xbox 360 is going to be insanely cheap. They’ve built up a tremendous amount of buzz, they’re planning on a big line-up of launch games, and there’s the promise of an insanely cool Halo 3. So in order to hit the ten million mark in a year (it took four years to hit 20 million Xbox’s), the Xbox 360 has to be CHEAP. How cheap? My guesstimate is that it’s gonna debut at around 200 dollars and then drop to around 150 dollars when the PS3 drops. It could happen!

Both cases sound like financial suicide, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this happens. Microsoft is committed to lose as much money as it takes to become #1. They’ve done goofier things. I myself don’t plan on picking up an Xbox 360 until it drops below the 300 dollar price tag, so I hope my prediction comes true.

Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ll be live blogging MTV’s Xbox Next Generation infomercial special. Looks like Kyle, Kotaku, and Joystiq will be doing so as well.

I’m not really sold on the Xbox 360 just yet. The whole MTV special just stinks of piles of Microsoft money being thrown around trying to get the ever popular 18-39 audience. I’m the list of “stars” that will be there don’t do it for me, either. The fact that Maurice Clarett is there almost prevents me from watching it all together (I’m an Ohio State fan, what can I say?). I’ll reserve judgement until after the show, but I can’t shake this feeling of deja vu.

On a side note, I’d like to see Xbox Live numbers between 9:30 – 10:00 pm EST.

Update: Okay, here we are, 9:30 and it’s go time:
Lets get the hype and hyperbole going right away! The Next Xbox will “Literally change the face of entertainment”. Phew, they start piling it on thick right way.

(Kotaku has some nice high-res images up already. Again, I’m not feeling the new design. I keep getting this nagging feeling that Microsoft is making a big mistake releasing this so early. More on that later.)

9:31 pm – Alright, so unrecognizable girl brought it out and yep, it looks just like we’ve known for a while now – ugly white and standing upright. Blech.

9:35 pm – “What do you think of the new Xbox 360?” (Elijah Wood)
“I’m looking forward to getting a free one. Hah ha!” (Li’l John? Some dude with a chalice)

9:39 pm – Alrighty then, they’ve shown the Xbox 360/Samsung commercial during the same break. The first time I saw that I thought it said “Microsoft and Samus” Heh. Madden, NFSU:MW and TW 2006 clips – are they real or simply “possible” gameplay. We’ll see. Need for Speed looked hot but Madden and Tiger Woods looked wierd.

Now we’re gonna pimp the Xbox. I thought this was about the new one.

Wireless was just confirmed – and a RING OF LIGHT. Whoa. That is hawt. Those face plates are embarassing.

The Live Marketplace – another bad idea. After watching that demonstration I had the image of MS taking money out of my pocket without me even knowing it was happening.

9:50 – Some more games – Gears of War looked good as did Qauke 4. The other brief games didn’t look interesting. So now it’s Perfect Dark time. But first let’s listen to some Gaming Pros. Zyos just called it the “Xbox 2”. I guess he didn’t get that memo. Now they’re talking about Perfect Dark Zero. 50 players at once sounds very, very tasty. Fully destructible environments. We’ll see about that. It’s been promised before. Ms. PMSgamer likes to swear a lot. That’s so gamer.

Watching the deathmatch, the controllers look small. Too small?

“Xbox 360 is gonna be amazing.” – Elijah Wood.

10:03 pm – That was over sooner than I thought it would be. A couple observations –
1.) Xbox 360 is supposed to usher in the HD era. But as Bill at DQ points out, why not broadcast the show in HD? There wouldn’t be a better way to convince us that it is, indeed, the HD era. I’m not convinced yet. I also noted that they really didn’t play up the HD aspect of the 360. Not sure why, but I didn’t notice any mentions.

2.) Even though it was still MTV, the production value was well done. While I asked Spike TV for two hours they stole from me last year, MTV kept it short and relatively sweet. Spike TV could take some advice from MTV how to host a Video Game show. I didn’t notice any gratuitous cleavage shots (except during the deathmatch which was too bad) or any celebrities trying to act like gamers. Well played, MTV.

Well, that was actually anti-climactic. I’m still interested in the next generation of consoles, including the Xbox. Things looked great. But like I said earlier, there’s still that nagging feeling that I can’t shake. With the marketplace, the ugly design (with a ring of light!), and the “HD era” things feel gimmicky. I know Microsoft knows what they’re doing, so I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Update #2: Here are some of the other bloggers talking about the Xbox 360 – Damned Machines, SmashBOT, Video Games Ombudsman, Dubious Quality, Joystiq, Nomad Gamer, Listen Up, Sports Gamer, Arena of Ideas, Also Coin Operated, and others, I’m sure. The consesus seems to be MTV sucks, the Xbox 360 didn’t impress, and everyone will still be buying one. Mission Accomplished.

I don’t care for it, but maybe you will – Engadget brings us a Live Xbox 360 shot!. It can look ugly as long as it delivers the goods, namely Halo 3. The white color will certainly stick out next to the black components of my home theater but that’s not a big deal for me. Standing up isn’t my thing, either, but I doubt it will have to stand as such.

Is this the real deal? Who cares, in less than a week we’ll have the MTV unveiling (which I’ll probably live blog) and we can say goodbye to all the rumors and hearsay.