xbox - how did it sell?

ironfist77

Any body know how many xboxs were sold this weekend ?

Shinji

No figures available yet - there might be some on Tuesday.

I wouldn't even hazard a guess at this stage. They certainly didn't sell out all of their stock anywhere in Europe, but it could be that they just overstocked and had plenty of units in, so that might not be a bad sign after all.

Terminator

Was in virgin megastore today and they certainly weren't sold out.

Gamecube will probably sell out though - not because its better but because it has a cheaper price.

segadreamcast

Or because most of the retail chains will only amount to buying about twenty to begin with - all of Nintendo's Irish fans will be satisfied

chernobyl

Xbox certainly wont sell out here, or if it does it will only be with the initial shipment. MS were always pushing the fact that if the demand was high that they have a plant in Europe to feed it, but demand certainly is not high, even tough the box does have excellent launch titles.
Price is obviously a big turn off or ppl's hatred of MS.

If ppl buy the GC purely because its cheaper, they dont count with their 2 games a year and a rental a month policy for gaming.

PS2 will do best this year.

-oRnein9-

Could anyone tell me how much an X-BoX costs.

chernobyl

I paid €500 and €80 for Halo.
Apparently theres a full scale price war in germany/Austria with guys getting the box for [and this is not a typo] €299.

Cheapest in germany was €350.
I got that info from the teamxbox forum and the guys had scanned in there receipts.

phreak

€299 u say?

i thought that prices were supposed to be the same all across europe!

chernobyl

RRP Phreak.


RRP = Make you own price up.

i.e. Gamesworld are going to sell the Ninty Cube for €280 when you could get it for €250 pretty much everywhere else.

orangerooster

I'd like to see the x-box do well it certainly has the games to go with the specs.Hmm i dont know if people will use hatred of microsoft to not buy the x-box if they do there incredibly stupid.

Shinji

Price is obviously a big turn off or ppl's hatred of MS.

Or possibly people just don't see any games worth paying that amount of money to play, especially given the amazing amount of good stuff on the PS2 at the moment?

ironfist77

I have to say there was a part of me that wanted the xbox to fail at lunch time in Europe. No I haven’t got any thing against Microsoft etc , but the fact that they charged much more for the xbox here in Europe than they did in the usa and japan even thought they are manufacturing the xbox in hungry really pissed me off .By the way I want an xbox:)

Goodshape

For a start, I'm not paying $500 for a console. Any console.

Secondly, the only game everyone keeps waffeling about is Halo, a FPS. First person shooters belong on the PC, IMO.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the GameCube. Games like Zelda, X-Wing, the new WWF game (No Mercy on the N64 is actually very good multiplayer) and even Lugi's Mansion looks fun.

I wouldn’t worry as much about launch titles with Nintendo. I trust they'll pull some classics out of the bag.

Clintons Cat

anyone notice sony played their Platinum range card on the ps2?
always a good rival-console spoiler.

Shinji

Yeah - although I think playing the Metal Gear Solid 2 card was a bit more of a spoiler than the Platinum card

And look out for the Final Fantasy X card around the time GameCube launches...

(FFX, by the way, still has me hooked. I should have finished it AGES ago, but I keep running around doing little things and trying to get all the abilities and so on... I've never done this with a Final Fantasy game before, but I actually really, really enjoy the random battles in this, whereas before they were just a pain in the butt before the next bit of story. What a f*cking brilliant game!)

chernobyl

Originally posted by Shinji


Or possibly people just don't see any games worth paying that amount of money to play, especially given the amazing amount of good stuff on the PS2 at the moment?

No, i dont think its that at all, its just the price or hate.
You know there are very good games on the Xbox Shinji, and many more to come.

Originally posted by Goodshape
For a start, I'm not paying $500 for a console. Any console.

Secondly, the only game everyone keeps waffeling about is Halo, a FPS. First person shooters belong on the PC, IMO.

I think its €500, high but not the most i ever paid.
I dont keep waffeling about Halo, thers also JSRF/RalliSport Challenge and F1 2002.


!quote...."First person shooters...."

Have you played Halo for a while?
Before i had an hour with Halo i would have agreed that the "Keyboard/mouse" interface would have been best for FPS but after an hours play i actually thought to myself "im getting really good at aiming" and now i can even handle the Legendary mode.

Atomic Pineapple

Or possibly people just don't see any games worth paying that amount of money to play, especially given the amazing amount of good stuff on the PS2 at the moment?

There are decent games for the PS2?
I must have blinked and missed them cos every game i have bought lately has been a big disapointment!!

Bought Wipeout Fusion one of the dullest games ever!!

Bought MGS2, finished it the day i got it! wasted 10 hours of my life walking from one cut scene to another!!!

State Of Emergency is a laugh but again far too short!

Shinji

No, i dont think its that at all, its just the price or hate.

Er well you're entitled to your opinion. I've got no problem with MS personally, I've got no issues with the guys on the Xbox team either in Europe or the States (people like J Allard and Seamus Blackley are genuinely good blokes who are really into games and trying very hard to make this the best console they can). I've certainly got no problem with the price - I import machines from the US and Japan, I'm not about to baulk at 300 quid for a domestic machine!

But right now, I would not buy an Xbox. I don't think the games are worthwhile - it's that simple. Halo isn't bad. JSRF is cool. Rallisport Challenge looks fantastic but ultimately it's another relatively shallow racing game and I'm not really up for that.

I told people for MONTHS not to buy PS2s. In fact, that was my line up until just before Christmas - and hey, not to go "I told you so" too much, just before Christmas the price dropped to about HALF what you'd have paid for it 12 months before, and it got Grand Theft Auto 3, Silent Hill 2, Jak & Daxter, SSX Tricky, Devil May Cry and Pro Evolution Soccer. (All games which I note draffodx has failed to mention...)

In the meanwhile you could have bought a cheap Dreamcast and hoovered up the fantastic games it was getting right up until late last year.

Xbox will be the same. I honestly believe it's going to get some great games - I've seen some of them in fact. Hell, my housemate works on one of them and it's looking pretty damn amazing

However, it's going to be a while. Right now, there are far better gameplay experiences to be had with your £300. Xbox will still be there in six months - it's not about to disappear off the shelves. In fact, it'll get cheaper and the games will get better. So what's the rush?

chernobyl

A gaming journo asking "whats the rush?"
i think you can answer that one yourself Shinji.

Shinji

A gaming journo asking "whats the rush?"
i think you can answer that one yourself Shinji.

Why don't you humour me?

chernobyl

How many months did you wait for the N64/Mario64? [i bet you had it on import!]

I want Halo/JSRF/F1 2002 and i want them now, granted they are not Mario or FF*n but i wont wait.

Shinji

i bet you had it on import!

I did indeed - simply because I looked at Mario 64 and was absolutely blown away. It's kinda weird thinking of the absolute thrill down your spine when the first pics of Mario 64 hit the net... This was something that was going to totally revolutionise gaming, and, well, it did. It was worth every penny of the import price because it changed the way I saw games forever.

You aren't seriously about to tell me that F1 2002 has been a religious experience for you?

chernobyl

No im not, but nor was Mario64.

It was everything that MGS2 is today, looks great, plays the same and hyped beyond belief but the games were the most patronising experiences ever.

Mario64 was too simple and when it was finished there was nothing, the 64 pretty much ended 1 week later, the Xbox wont.

bugs

I suppose i could understand ppl having waited years for halo, its understandable but why, in gods name, would you want to play an FPS game with a pad. Boring comes to mind, and its still not a patch on quakeworld.......

I dunno how many hyped pieces of dirt i've seen roll by since QW and not one of them has matched up.

End of the day, ppl (with more money than sense) will buy it and mouth off about its greatness (i did when i had the ps2 about a year before most ppl ) but after a while you might realise you've bought a really powerful machine that will sit there under the telly getting kicked by random ppl until the odd game thats worth playing comes out every 4-6 months.

Stick with pr0n, its the entertainment of the future.

Shinji

i did when i had the ps2 about a year before most ppl

*grin*

At least you've the bollocks to admit it now

I generally don't evangelise consoles, just games. I've never really loved a specific console - they've all got their faults and whatnot. I just like games, console hardware does nothing for me

(Although admittedly I do tend to look at the SNES with very rose-tinted spectacles, and I'm sure the same will be true of the PSX in the fullness of time - already the memories of mank shovelware rubbish are fading, and being replaced by wall-to-wall Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Chrono Cross...)

Greenbean

I can't say I'm rich or earn alot of money - and I'm as likely as the next guy to get caught up in hype, though I'd like to think something like Black&White or Anarchy Online will be my last mistakes (unfortunately neither were the second coming of Jesus, though I did avoid buying AO); but I still think I've been rather clever with my console purchases - my biggest ace up the sleeve being the fact that I generally don't give a damn about specific machines (not since the Amiga) or feel like tribalising myself behind a big corporate name.

If a machine has accumulated enough good games then I will buy it if I've enough money. I know I've spent 180 quid before on a graphics card, and thats quiet honestly insane when you compare it to a console - consoles make extremely good buys at certain stages of their life-span and its usually towards the end. I've always been quiet happy with a N64 purchase 3 years ago - zelda, mario, iss, golden-eye added up to about 1 1/2 years of casual playing. Since getting the ps2 before christmas (90% because of gta3), its been doing nothing but rewarding me - sillent hill 2, pro evolution soccer, gt3, gta3, mgs2 (ico soon), a dvd player (I don't have a proper one, so I'm non the wiser to its poor playback - seems excellent to me) plus a very assured future for the next 2 years. What am I trying to say... well the biggest problem as a games fan in general is trying to resist hype, fashion, powerful specs etc. Its by not caring about these things that you can make your best purchases. I'm well aware though, that the only reason I'm impartial to consoles is because I'm such a PC devote (a 2 grand machine, tons of second-rate games, technological hype machine, eats up most your social life, you have to be a slavering devote)- but not so much I can't miss the obvious (give me 100 quid tomorrow and I can buy a dreamcast second hand and 5 top quality games).

tHE vAGGABOND

I will hold my hand up to being totally bias here, as most of you know I’m working on an XBox game. I have been messing about with an Xbox in one way or another for months. I just got rid of my PS2 (its Shinji's second one!) I have also seen and played (to some degree) most of the upcoming XBox games...

I loved MSR to death, so Project Gotham with its two new cities and new tracks and even l33t0r graphics is a *must buy* for me!

Wreckless is totally cool, in a Crazy Taxi pick up and play for 10 cool minutes kind of way, and is another I will be getting..

JSRF does nothing for me personally. I totally understand why lots of people love it but I also understand why it sells **** all when its released too

I too like Halo, but I’m nearly finished it here in the office so I’m not going to buy it. Man Payne has been out on nearly as many platforms as SSX Tricky - but the PC version was my fave game of last year, but the PS2 version stank of poo - I hope we get a decent version on the XBox - but again I wont be getting it.

NBA Inside Drive from Microsoft is cool (not to be confused with NBA Live from EA which is total sh1t) It has the best sound of any sport game ever. The sound track and the commentators are spot on. There is a huge amount of commentary, you don’t find yourself listening to the same 10 bits like in most sports games (like Fifa or PES) – Another I will be getting..

I have not played Gun Valkyre, but it sounds like it will be cool...

Of course Championship Manager 01/02 rocks, and has not gotten a single bad review (out of 12, all over the place)

I have nothing against PS2 or the Cube, it’s just that the games out and on the way out for the Xbox suit me. I don’t like cartoon and obscure puzzle style Nintendo games. The PS2 did nothing for me really. If you want to get one feel free, but I'm getting an XBox (as soon as I can get my deposit back from my old landlord!!)