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[sonycowboy]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Business/story?id=1341972&page=1

One Day After Launch and Some Gamers Report Glitches in New Machine

Nov. 23, 2005 — Launch day has come and gone and now tens of thousands of gamers are huddled in front of the electric glow of their new Xbox 360 video games.

But despite all of the hype, the midnight openings, and the long lines of ravenous fans braving cold, wind and rain, one question now looms over Microsoft's powerful new video game system — how well does it work?

Does the Mighty New Xbox Have a Key Weakness?

"Mine crashes a lot while playing 'Project Gotham Racing 3 … nice job M$ [Microsoft]," said one comment on the popular electronics blog Engadget.

Complaints about the unit overheating, crashing, locking up among other issues are appearing on blogs and forums around the Internet.

But is there really a widespread problem, or just the isolated frustrations of a very vocal minority?

Gamers' Complaints
Ask 16-year-old Matt Stapleton what he thinks about the Xbox 360 and Microsoft probably wouldn't like the answer.

"It's been one problem after another," he said.

When Stapleton's mother brought the system home on Tuesday, he says he was thrilled to be one of the first kids on the block to try it out.

"I was extremely excited about it and to go to school and tell everyone and see everyone's reaction," Matt said.

But after hours of trying to get the system to work, he became so frustrated he threw the machine's game controller across the room.

"I thought it was going to be good, but now I don't know," he said.

Stapleton's main problem was trying to connect to the much-touted Xbox Live service, which allows 360 owners to play with and against each other online.

But Xbox Live issues are just the tip of the virtual iceberg. On various Web sites, some Xbox 360 early adopters are complaining about all sorts of different technical problems.

"I've had two lockups (multiplayer COD2 [ the World War II simulation Call of Duty 2] or PDZ [the first-person shooter Perfect Dark Zero]) both on the first day I got it," read one comment.

"My kameo disk keeps being detected as a DVD instead of a game," wrote another frustrated gamer, referring to a new action-adventure game called Kameo: Elements of Power. "When it tried to play the disc as a DVD it gives an error that it is a 360 game. Make up your mind!"

Other wannabe players say the machine crashed as soon as they powered it up.


A Major Problem? Too Soon to Know, Says One Expert
Engadget editor Peter Rojas says he has three Xbox 360s, and also encountered problems connecting to Xbox Live. But he cautions it's too early to know how big of a problem this really is.

"The question is, is this just a little thing that's only going to effect a small group of people, or is it really a systemic problem with the device itself?" he said.

Rojas says it's not uncommon for a new high-tech gadget to have some isolated problems out of the gate. So far he seems to think the Xbox 360's issues are pretty isolated.

"Even if it's a thousand people, it's a very small minority of people who actually bought these boxes," he said. "If you go back and look at the archives, the Playstation 2 had problems when it was released as well."

The recently released iPod Nano and Playstation Portable — PSP — also had highly publicized glitches when they were launched, but it turned out that only a small percentage of purchasers encountered them.

Microsoft Says Most Customers Are Satisfied
Despite testing and other quality control measures, Rojas believes there's no substitute for getting the product in the hands of the consumer.

"You can do lots of beta testing," he said, referring to the final stage of quality control for software and electronics. "But it's only once you have it out there in front of hundreds of thousands of people, that you're going to find out these little problems that are very hard to discover."

Rojas also says many of the Xbox 360s were sold to "hardcore" gamers who tend to be quite Internet savvy and very vocal in cyberspace.

It's a sentiment echoed by Xbox senior product manager Molly O'Donnell.

"The vast majority of Xbox 360 owners are having an outstanding experience with their new consoles," she said. "As you might expect, we're hearing some reports of consoles not working as expected. But the important thing to note here is that the call rate is well below what you'd expect for a consumer electronic product of this complexity."

 

[Wario64]

The glitches is just a Microsoft PR stunt. Ship a few broken Xboxen 360's and get free publicity

 

[MrDaravon]

"I thought it was going to be good, but now I don't know," he said.

:lol

 

[PhatSaqs]

Drama queen post of the day.

 

[lollerskates]

par for the course.

 

[J2 Cool]

"I was extremely excited about it and to go to school and tell everyone and see everyone's reaction," Matt said.

:lol What a poser bitch. Microsoft's cool ads have gotten to him.

 

[BorkBork]

Pfft. Nothing new or unexpected. Even the article acknowledges that it's probably just a tiny percentage that have problems.

 

[Sweedishrodeo]

So how many of all 10, erhm, half million Xbox360 units that Microsoft shipped to NA will have to go defective before launch defects, ala ps2, are ruled out?

 

[PhoenixDark]

 

[Miburou]

Here's the most likely answer:

just the isolated frustrations of a very vocal minority

 

[Troidal]

he became so frustrated he threw the machine's game controller across the room.

Good work, kid. Now it's really broken :lol

 

[sonycowboy]

Pfft. Nothing new or unexpected. Even the article acknowledges that it's probably just a tiny percentage that have problems.

Agreed. It's of more note because it's ABC and will be on the TV national news. I think that this launch is so huge that absolutely everything is magnified. Day 1 responses, Live available day 1, etc.

 

[vas]

The glitches is just a Microsoft PR stunt. Ship a few broken Xboxen 360's and get free publicity

This kind of publicity is a PR disaster. This will do MS a lot of damage and deservedly so. Should have spent more money/effort on quality control.

 

[Gek54]

Does anyone remember PS2's failing 24 hours after launch? I thought it was usually well after the 3 month period which was why most were pissed off at first.

 

[lollerskates]

This kind of publicity is a PR disaster. This will do MS a lot of damage and deservedly so. Should have spent more money/effort on quality control.

not really, its expected

 

[thorns]

This kind of publicity is a PR disaster. This will do MS a lot of damage and deservedly so. Should have spent more money/effort on quality control.

well, only the negative articles get posted on gaf :lol

 

[Shompola]

Good work, kid. Now it's really broken :lol

I really feel sorry for him though. Waiting in line for hours, paying +400USD. Getting home excited, and then the thing doesnt work properly, talk about anti-climax to the extreme.

I really hope MS addresses this issue asap possible, address as in send them replacements right NOW.

 

[Sweedishrodeo]

I really feel sorry for him though. Waiting in line for hours, paying +400USD. Getting home excited, and then the thing doesnt work properly, talk about anti-climax to the extreme.

I don't feel sorry for anyone shelling out $400 for an Xbox360.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

PROTECT THE HIVE XBOTS!

 

[GhaleonEB]

Oviously they are emulating Sony's model for success, hardware quality and all.

 

[littlewig]

Oviously they are emulating Sony's model for success, hardware quality and all.

How else will they be able to claim 10 million units shipped by the end of 2006?

 

[Hayami]

my 360 sucked off my grandpa.

 

[Monk]

Oviously they are emulating Sony's model for success, hardware quality and all.

:lol I wonder if things would work out the same way.

 

[SantaC]

my 360 sucked off my grandpa.

that avatar, is it a she or he?

 

[krypt0nian]

my 360 sucked off my grandpa.

FTW

 

[Sweedishrodeo]

that avatar, is it a she or he?

it's pat.

 

[shpankey]

PROTECT THE HIVE XBOTS!

If you're going to make a joke... at least know which jokes are for which groups. The "HIVE" is for Nintendo Fanboys. That is because of their hive mentality and organization and ability to act as one large cohesive unit to protect the queen (Nintendo).

Xbox Fanboy jokes are on "the Borg", or the ever popular "Darth Vader - join the dark side" stuff; and the deragatory term for them is: "Xbot"; which I think has something to do with being robots maybe, that or that they are autoresponding posters? I dunno.

 

[Monk]

my 360 sucked off my grandpa.

Meh for $400 I can go to china and buy a bride that would suck me off for half a decade.

 

[DarienA]

I blame this news article on Sony.

 

[littlewig]

Don't borgs have a hive mentality?

shpankey for the own? FTO?

 

[clearacell]

Oviously they are emulating Sony's model for success, hardware quality and all.

I expect 90 million Xbox 360 to be sold now. With a user tie ratio of 4 consoles per 1 game.

 

[shpankey]

Don't borgs have a hive mentality?

shpankey for the own? FTO?

:lol

 

[Shompola]

No their mentality is, assimilate all. They dont give a shit about each other, although they do process information as a collective and act like one...

 

[cvxfreak]

Happened with the iPod nano and it scratches; just hope word doesn't spread because of one real pissed off customer.

 

[Hayami]

that avatar, is it a she or he?

it's Chu, man. does Chu sound like a female name?

 

[Lindsay]

Good work, kid. Now it's really broken :lol

Darnit! I spit out my Frosted Flakes from reading that! Good job sir! >_<;

 

[Speevy]

I thought this was about sales.

*breathes a sigh of relief*


This is the company that brought us the Thompson drive. Are we surprised? Next year, watch the pinnacle of engineering that is the launch Sony system. Will yours stay alive? Find out in 2006!

 

[alejob]

it's Chu, man. does Chu sound like a female name?

It sounds like a doggy treat.

 

[TheDuce22]

Does anyone remember PS2's failing 24 hours after launch? I thought it was usually well after the 3 month period which was why most were pissed off at first.

There were reports of them having all kinds of issues when it launched in japan.

 

[koam]

I don't get why people are blaming the hardware for freezing. Don't you guys remember the rush job that was Perfect Dark Zero? It got almost no bug testing time and didn't go through QA last I read. COD2 is a probably a shoddy port. Consoles freeze all the time, even with current games. As for Xbox live, that's nothing new, we get that shit happen every time a new online game comes out. Unstable network the first few days and then all is well.

 

[C- Warrior]

You know, a kid who throws controllers accross the room shouldn't be taken seriously when he says "things aren't working..."

:lol

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I really feel sorry for him though. Waiting in line for hours, paying +400USD. Getting home excited, and then the thing doesnt work properly, talk about anti-climax to the extreme.

Not that it makes him more deserving of a defective experience, but the story does mention his mom brought the thing home.

 

[jiggle]

Now on MSNBC


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10185201/from/RS.2/




Microsoft's Xbox 360, the much-anticipated video game system that made its debut earlier this week, is apparently experiencing some technical glitches -- screens freezing only minutes into a game, for example -- and that has left some users pretty upset.

At gamer-oriented Web sites, Xbox 360 owners have reported system crashes in games such as the space-marines-vs.-aliens title Quake 4.

One owner complained that his new console tries to read the shooter game Perfect Dark Zero as a DVD movie. Another posted a video file of the game Project Gotham Racing 3 freezing up before the player had even finished the first lap of the driving game.

Brian Crecente, who runs the game-fan site Kotaku.com, said his Xbox 360 locked up three times, causing him to lose a couple of hours' worth of progress in a Western-themed action game called Gun.

The problems with the gaming console don't appear to be widespread based on feedback from visitors to his Web site, Crecente said, but it's "enough to make me wonder."

Technical glitches are not unheard of in new-game-machine launches -- some early buyers of Sony's PlayStation Portable this spring complained that the device came with dead picture elements on the screen of the handheld game device.

Microsoft played down the number of complaints it has gotten from Xbox 360 users yesterday, saying the company has received only "a few, isolated reports" of Xbox 360 consoles with problems.

"The call rate is well below what you'd expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity," said Microsoft spokeswoman Molly O'Donnell.

Crecente said the stakes are high for Microsoft's ambitious new console as it aspires to also be a multimedia hub for the living room, connecting wirelessly to the user's home network and a number of other digital gadgets.

"You don't expect your VCR to crash when you hit the eject button," he said.

"Once [a game console] makes the transition from your back bedroom to your living room -- you're on Broadway now. You can't have any misfires."

‘They just lost me’
At Web sites devoted to the new Xbox, some owners were already expressing regret that they had spent up to $400 for the console -- not including games.

"Up until today I was pretty much an Xbox fanboy," wrote one gamer whose online moniker is Kulanose. "But after spending 6 and a half hours outside uncontrollably [shivering] for something that doesn't work right . . . they just lost me and a bunch of people I know."

Over at techno-geek Web site Slashdot, some readers were already trying to diagnose the system's problems from images that had been posted on the Web and come up with their own solutions.

"Let's rename it to crash-box," one visitor wrote.

Microsoft has said it hopes to sell 3 million units of the new game consoles in its first 90 days.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

 

[TheJollyCorner]

What will the next 360 commercial be? A gas raid in downtown Moscow?

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Is this the only console online at launch? I think it is.

 

[Archaix]

Is this the only console online at launch? I think it is.

I could think of another one. Of course, I'd just be blasted for comparing it to the Xbox360.

 

[Gahiggidy]

My emails worked!

 

[etiolate]

"Mine crashes a lot while playing 'Project Gotham Racing 3 … nice job M$ [Microsoft],"

:lol It's like ABC went to gamefaqs for the inside scoop.

"I WUSH GURNA SHOWZ ALL MY FRIENDZ!"

 

[GhaleonEB]

My emails worked!

I knew you were behind this somehow.

 

[Gahiggidy]

I knew you were behind this somehow.

Next stop, the Better Business Bureau.