The three most exciting things for a gaming journalist are:
- The announcement of a new gaming console or handheld
- Being able to try out a console or handheld at E3 that is yet to release
- The launch of a new gaming console or handheld
North AmericaOn November 22nd, 2005 the Xbox 360 was officially launched in North America; the first territory in the worldwide launch. Lines were beginning to form as early as the 20th in front of stores like Best Buy or Circuit City as rumors of a launch shortage were widespread. Unfortunately for many gamers, the rumors were true. Most stores were extremely limited in their shipments with many not even receiving enough to fulfill their preorders. Message boards around the internet were flooded with posts by angry gamers who didn't manage to score a 360 despite having preordered one as early as May. The launch shortages caused a stir on eBay where people were selling their Xbox 360s on auctions that closed as high as $1,000, but the majority of gamers have chosen to wait for additional shipments to become available.
A typical scene outside of a retailer the day before the 360 launch.The launch software was pretty well-rounded with a few racers, a platformer, some sports titles, a sampling of first-person shooters, and a couple of extreme sports titles thrown into the mix. Most gamers were able to pick up the types of games that they wanted while only the hardcore RPG crowd and fighter fans were left waiting for something that appealed to them. Despite horrible hardware shortages, there was a nice selection of launch titles to choose from. The launch titles sold incredibly well, with most gamers picking up multiple titles along with their 360s.
There were, however, more problems to be found during the launch than just hardware shortages. From day one there were thousands of complaints appearing on popular internet gaming forums regarding hardware defects. People were reporting problems with overheating units, discs that were scratched during gameplay, faulty hard drives, crashing, drives not recognizing discs, and much more. After the problems became more widespread, Microsoft issued a statement claiming that a console as advanced as the Xbox 360 would inevitably have a higher failure rate than previous consoles due to the higher amounts of moving parts in the system. Certain news outlets were estimating that the failure rate of the 360 was as high as 5%-7%; which is still with in the realm of acceptable by many manufacturing standards. However, the 360 has received a reputation of being faulty and many people are either waiting a while to purchase a system to see if all the bugs get ironed out or are buying extended warranties for their system out of caution. Just this week I was asked by three seperate people if it was true that a recall had been ordered for the 360. No, a recall has not been issued, but Microsoft is offering to fix faulty hardware for free for the time being.
Despite a bumpy launch that was characterized by horrible shortages and suspect hardware quality, the Xbox 360 launch has managed to bring a great gaming experience into the homes of nearly 1.5 million gamers worldwide. My personal top ten games of 2005 included two Xbox 360 games (
Call of Duty 2, Dead or Alive 4), and there looks to be a pretty solid lineup of software on the way. While the post-holiday buzz that surrounded the 360 has died down a bit, there is still plenty of things that gamers are excited by when talk turns to the Xbox 360.
EuropeThe European launch went a bit smoother than the North American one, but it was in part due to the fact that demand wasn't as quite as high in that region. During the launch window, Microsoft managed to sell nearly 500,000 Xbox 360s; which represented their total allotment to Europe. The same reports of faulty hardware have surfaced in Europe, but on a seemingly smaller scale. Whether this is due to the fact that they received half the systems of the North American gamers or something else remains to be seen. Traditionally, Europe is dominated by the Sony brand, especially in gaming. In order to get a head start on Sony's PlayStation 3 (due out sometime this year), Microsoft is going to try to get as many Xbox 360s into European gamers' hands as possible before Sony launches their console.
JapanSimply put, the Japanese launch of the Xbox 360 was a disaster. Despite an effort by Microsoft to offer a more "Japanese friendly" launch lineup, most of the planned launch titles were delayed. On launch day there were literally hundreds of thousands of unpurchased Xbox 360 consoles sitting on the shelves in Japanese stores. As North American gamers received the news that the Japanese launch was severely overstocked, many were angry that Microsoft chose to launch in Japan at this time instead of supplying more units to retailers in the US and Canada. By the end of the launch weekend, Microsoft managed to sell only 62,000 systms by most estimates. The original Xbox managed to sell 120,000 in the same span of time.
On launch day, and in the days following, stacks of unsold 360s could be found in Japanese stores.Japan is going to be an uphill battle for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft knows that. However, while the Xbox was a total failure in the Japanese market, Microsoft is determined to succeed with the Xbox 360. When Microsoft manages to provide software that is more suited to the Japanese market, it will be interesting to see if sales of the 360 pick up. Currently the Xbox 360 is being outsold by the competition quite easily. Below are the Japanese sales numbers for hardware from January 16-22 as provided by Media Create:
Nintendo DS: 64,515
PlayStation Portable: 38,271
PlayStation 2: 26,271
GameBoy Advance SP: 7,912
GameBoy Micro: 4,653
GameCube: 4,490
Xbox 360: 3,616
GameBoy Advance: 236
Xbox: 83
ConclusionWhile the next-generation wars are just beginning with the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft is going to have a tough battle when Sony and Nintendo enter the battle with their next-gen consoles. Microsoft is going to have to find a way to get more systems on the shelves in order to get a strong headstart against Nintendo and Sony. The whole reason the Xbox 360 was launched early was to get a big jump on the competition, but if shimpents can't start coming in from Microsoft, their lead could dwindle quickly should Sony produce enough PlayStation 3 systems to meet demands with its launch. Overall the launch was a horrible experience if you didn't manage to get a 360 or if yours was faulty. Mine, however, has worked great up to this point and I've been very happy with the product. With the new features of Xbox Live and the power of the hardware, Microsoft has all the tools they need to build a wonderful software library with the 360.
