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[Joe]

are media outlets in europe and japan covering the madness that is xbox360 north american launch? obviously it doesnt hurt, but will drastically increase hype for the 360 launches in europe and japan?

 

[dorio]

There is a video on xboxyde of Japan coverage of zero hour.

 

[hadareud]

are media outlets in europe and japan covering the madness that is xbox360 north american launch? obviously it doesnt hurt, but will drastically increase hype for the 360 launches in europe and japan?

Yeah, they showed it on the BBC here in the UK and it's all over the newspapers as well. I think the hype here will be just as mad as in the states.

 

[radioheadrule83]

Its weird, I heard that demo pods have been installed in Warrington (England) stores, so I checked out the stores in Liverpool. Last week they had placeholder Xbox 360 boxes in green and white, but this week Game and Gamestation have their Christmas decorations up, and barre a few notices you wouldnt even know a major console launch was coming. I assume they're gonna reorganise the front of the store for next week though and rectify that... I forgot to ask if they'd be opening at midnight.

there will probably be stories on the BBC, ITN and Sky news in the UK on the day it comes out... "gamers queued up" yadda yadda. Has the hype really been that big in the states?

 

[polg]

well, MS NZ announced date and price of 360...

March 2nd 2006
at NZ$720 which is around US$500 for the premium pack

that's madness

 

[TTP]

wow. Premium pack costs 472$ here in Europe. Tax incl.

 

[elostyle]

I saw a 360 demo unit at my local best buy like store and it... only... had..... videos. Nobody showed any interest (understandably).

 

[Striek]

We had a X360 zero-hour story on the Australian national news, as well as an announcment of the date. People don't talk about it IMO, but uh, I don't know many other gamers, so no surprise there.

 

[Prine]

Its on BBC.com front page

Ebay reported that 1,800 Xbox 360s had been re-sold via the auction site in the first 12 hours after the console was launched - many for a significant mark-up on the original price.

In a statement eBay said that the average price of the consoles was $660 (£385). By comparison the full Xbox 360 bundle is selling in stores for $399.99.

Some packages of the console which came with a selection of games were selling for prices as high as $2,500 said Ebay.

Microsoft's launch of the Xbox 360 now is widely seen as a gamble because although it means the console is on sale in the important Christmas season it has to hope that frustration does not turn to anger and translate into lost sales.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4462744.stm

 

[monkeyrun]

which makes me wonder, by the end of the day, how many of those people will actually play their 360 instead of reselling it :lol

 

[Juice]

I can assure you that hype in Japan is minimal. A decent chunk of people will eat it up at launch, just like the original Xbox, but beyond that it'll probably not be heard from again.

 

[Lardbutt]

I don't understand the "lost sales" argument. How exactly are the sales lost? In all likelihood these people will eventually buy a X360 anyway, or are they never going to buy the X360 just because Microsoft "screwed" them at launch? And how would not launching at all be any better? In that case you would have zero sales.

 

[Fredrik]

Yup it's kinda crazy right now, I haven't seen any TV commercials or demo pods or anything like that but the gaming boards has been on fire since the system launched in the US, everyone is posting links to reviews, previews, game videos, trailers and threads about the malfunctioning 360s, impressions from regular gamers and news etc, and the fanboys are argueing about the tiniest things like it was a matter of life and death and generally behave like 5 year olds. It's all crazy.
I'm in Sweden btw.

 

[cvxfreak]

I can assure you that hype in Japan is minimal. A decent chunk of people will eat it up at launch, just like the original Xbox, but beyond that it'll probably not be heard from again.

If I were in Japan on Dec. 10, could I just waltz into an Akihabara store and pick one up?