Wonder if we’ll finally see the gaming Holy Grail, er Xbox 360, in some local retail stores by this New Zealand and Australia launch date? xbox (emphasis mine):

The new launch date has been set due to unprecedented global consumer demand and short-term manufacturing issues due to component shortages stemming from challenges in ramping supply. The move ensures that the markets will have an adequate supply of Xbox 360 consoles to meet demand at launch.

This is a delay from their earlier plans, so that’s a good thing that Microsoft has backed things up and earnestly seem to be trying to solve the supply shortage problem.

End of March, beginning of April will be about the time I hoped to be able to find one here locally, after realizing that getting one before Christmas was unrealistic. I do realize that they can be bought online and I might break down and buy one this way if too many more months go by. I keep hearing how great this Geometry Wars game is in the Xbox Live Arcade.

So tempting!

Let’s hope Gates is right and that third manufacturing plant really ramps up production. Something tells me when Sony ships the PS3, we’ll be tripping over Xbox 360 boxes at local retailers, so maybe I should be in Sony’s corner rooting for their nextgen machine to launch?

The Hmm poll on the homepage, though nothing remotely close to scientifc, still has some 68% either unwilling or undecided about buying an Xbox 360. I wonder if after this Australian/NZ launch if there still aren’t enough Xbox 360 units to go around if these numbers will rise or fall? I intend to keep that poll running until after I am able to walk into a local retailer and buy one. Please keep in mind that I live and work about 40 minutes from Microsoft’s campus.

Starting to wonder if/when I’ll be invited up to a usability testing session on the Xbox 360 before I actually own the unit. Wouldn’t that be something? I just went up for one, so I won’t be elligible for another couple months … which is about the time of this launch.

What are we now, about 75 days after the initial launch? This is probably my fourth or fifth post (at least) lamenting the Xbox 360 supply issue and this topic has grown lots of mold (so what am I writing about this again for?).

Ok, I’ll do my best to shut up about this supply issue — it isn’t going to change no matter what I write anyway — until either I can buy one or this March 23 date passes, whichever comes first. Feel free if you already own an Xbox 360 to gloat in the comments section and make me envious.

Just out of curiosity: is anybody out there — Japan aside — able to walk into their local retailer tomorrow and buy an Xbox 360?

Having trouble finding an Xbox 360? Yeah, me too, welcome to the club.

Even some Microsofties are having trouble. Sean Alexander shares his tip for bagging a 360 online:

Get notified instantly when a Web page changes, and see exactly what’s changed. With URLy Warning, a pop-up window appears when a Web page you’re watching changes, and you’ll see a visual comparison of what’s been added and deleted. The trial allows you to track one site in demo mode.

Thanks for sharing, Sean.

The more I read and hear about the Xbox 360, coupled with the fact that I’m still hopelessly searching the ravaged, retail strip, the less excited I become about buying one.

… more daily crink

Now, Boing Boing points to yet another negative thing about the Xbox 360: the DRM forces re-ripping your CDs to get the music you want on the system if you don’t use a portable device like memory stick or MP3 player; reportedly no transfer directly from the computer. At least yet that anybody has figured out anyway. In light of what has happened in the PSP community, I suspect the hack/mod crowd will be all over this one if this situation doesn’t change by an official source.

gamespot.com has the hands on details about the game rating too:

Your reputation rating starts at three out of five stars, and goes up or down depending on how other players rate you. If you’re respectful in victory and graceful in defeat, you’ll probably get positive feedback and a higher reputation. A rude braggart or a whiny loser, on the other hand, might get negative feedback from other players and get a lower reputation.

It will be interesting to see how this works for families sharing one account. We actually have two Xbox Live accounts now but are planning only renewing one of them this coming April (only one gets played a lot, the other is rarely played). Of course this may change, but I wonder how this rating will reflect our family and not just the player in the family who plays most? I maybe, maybe play Xbox Live on average a couple times a month and not much more. Two of our three sons beat that Halo experience to the ground with one of our sons not quite this emotional (video), but very passionate.

So I’m thinking our middle son — the dedicated Halo 2 player — hits the Xbox 360 and has a bad run and other gamers rate down account. Then I get on, and I’m a very graceful loser. Kick my ass and I won’t whine about it. I am pretty competitive with games I really like, so I might get in a groove and be back later for a rematch. My wife? She never playes Xbox Live, so her rating would never change. Our youngest son seems like the best sport when it comes to our children so maybe he’ll help out our family rating. I’m just really curious how this rating will adequately reflect the account … or maybe it will. It would be cool if accounts could be split by gamer in a family situation like ours, so that I’m not sharing my gamer rating with my kids and vice versa.

Oh and someone has commercialized the idea of alerting folks when an Xbox 360 is available somewhere to buy online — for £1.50 + nework charge: xbox360locator.co.uk will search various online stores (UK primarily) and send a text message to your cell phone when they find systems you can buy.

What happened to the promised weekly shipments of Xbox 360s?

Forgive me while I don’t get excited about an alleged leaked document that says Best Buy will be getting new shipments of Xbox 360 consoles to be put up for sale on Sunday December 18, via 360maniac.com:

Best Buy stores are also told not to take pre-orders, force bundle purchases, create waiting lists or hold the product for customers or employees. They are also instructed to not hold a midnight or early opening.

Why am I not excited? Because I know if I show up there on December 18th that the (also rumored) less amount of consoles will be gone and fodder for overpriced eBay resale. This futility likely won’t stop me from heading out again and attempting to bag one. Damn you, Microsoft.

The Hmm Xbox 360 poll (see the left column on the home page) doesn’t illuminater the Xbox 360 purchase scene in a brighter light either. Most of those who have responded so far (64%) indicate that they have “no plans to buy.” Completely unscientifc, yes, but seems a bit surprising considering how difficult it is to find one of these cabbage patch, er Xbox 360 consoles in the store.

I’m sticking with my launch day projection that it will be around tax time 2006 before most people are able to walk into the nearest retailer and buy an Xbox 360. If it’s too much later than that, there will be other options (PS3, Nintendo Revolution) and that will hurt Microsoft’s chances to gain more widespread adoption.

Stay with me, I’ll bag one of these beasts eventually.

Yikes.

eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman reports that 40,000 XBox 360 consoles have been sold on eBay to date:

the 40,000 unit figure has left pundits flabbergasted. If launch supply estimates from American Technology Research are accurate, that would mean that 10% of all Xbox 360 consoles sold in the US were either sold or resold through eBay.

On the weekly radio show I host Friday we discussed whether Microsoft should be going forward with launches in other countries while widespread retail outages exist in the US/Canada? Certainly this is a selfish point of view, but in the past many systems launch in Japan before they launch in the US.

I think Microsoft needs to take care of the first launch area first rather than spread this shortage problem worldwide. I still haven’t seen an Xbox 360 available for purchase in any retail store and don’t expect to until well after Christmas. This is pretty much reminiscent of how the PS2 went down without the overheating and system crash news.

What do you think? Should Microsoft halt their worldwide launch plans and take care of the existing supply outlets?

Flickr has thousands of pictures tagged with Xbox 360, unfortunately some pictures (untagged and tagged) do not paint the machine in a very positive light.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that Microsoft is taking a bath on the retail price:

The firm estimated the total cost to manufacture and test a premium Xbox 360, the software giant’s sleek and powerful new gaming machine, which debuted on Tuesday, was $552.27, compared with its retail price of $399.

It isn’t uncommon for console gaming hardware to be sold at a loss with the plan that the games will make the company a profit down the road. In the case of the Xbox this never really happened with a reported loss of $4 billion dollars. Microsoft is hoping the 360 will turn the tide, but they certainly aren’t off to a great start with underwhelming shipping numbers, glitches and system crashes.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard, it took a mere 24 hours for the pirates to climb aboard and rip the data off of Call of Duty 2 — believe it or not.

How long for homebrew gaming? Linux running? I don’t know much about the Xbox 360 Arcade, but it would be really cool if any developer could submit games legally to be available via this channel.

This anti-crash tip for the Xbox 360 comes via Goldenyemaster:

My 360 was crashing a lot (like once every 20 minutes). So I took the power supply off the ground and suspended it in the air with some string. I have been playing for about 3 hours straight and no crashes so far! … I found an easier way to do this. I got a box with no cover and put the power supply on the edges.

This tip sounds a bit hokey, but I suppose it does open up more circulation around that juice brick. Maybe this will help the unlucky 360 gamers out there experiencing crashes and freezing.

A long term fix though is offered by Molly O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft’s Xbox division, via Yahoo News:

O’Donnell urged anyone with Xbox problems to call 1-800-4myXbox or go to http://www.xbox.com. If the problems can’t be resolved immediately, Microsoft said it will pay to ship the console overnight to a repair center, overnight it back once it’s fixed, or ship a replacement.

A flying power brick definitely sounds cooler though.

Put me in the camp that thinks Microsoft has missed a great opportunity. No, not because they didn’t have enough Xbox 360s to go around. It’s already being reported that if they had had twice the number of systems they still would have sold out. I’m more curious what could they have done differently once they realized there weren’t enough systems to go around? Go back in time 60, 90, 120 or how many ever days it was when they realized: oh no, we are going to be short, what now?

Perhaps they could have put together a database of all shipments worldwide and made it open for anybody to be able to search. It could have been powered by MSN search (ding), used Virtual Earth (mapping and directions, ding, ding) and perhaps Windows Live (ding) for a widget to tie everything together. Talk about transparency!

Now the reality is that politics get in the way of this happening. There would be individual retailers bitching and moaning because the store down the street received more units than their store. So how would be the best way to distribute these Xbox 360s if there was only say 250,000 to go around the entire country?

Perhaps a set number could be allocated based on store Xbox sales volume? Distribution based on population?

The problem I see as customers is that we really don’t know anything about the distribution. We might get some general number, but nothing in the way that lays out what store is getting what units and when. Sort of like a FedX tracking system for new systems. This type of system if it existed would seriously refute that there was any sort of planned shortage because the information would be out there in the open.

As for the idea of sucking the people into the store so they can buy something else? Can’t speak for others but the only thing I spent was gas on launch day. I didn’t spend a penny at any retailer for anything, so they had a customer come into their store, find out they couldn’t buy what they were looking for and left. I wonder how many others that went on the hunt bought something else?

So if the idea is to get the mouse into the trap, it sure didn’t work in my case anyway.

Stop the whining
I have sort of resigned myself that getting an Xbox 360 before the New Year is going to be a challenge, which I’m looking forward to in an odd sort of way. No way am I going to pay over a thousand bucks for one on eBay, so now I have to figure out how to be at the right store on the right day (shipment arrives) at the right time, with using the minimum amount of time and gas.

I must admit, though, that reading some of these shortage stories others are telling about how they preordered many months ago and there weren’t enough boxes to fill their order until after Christmas? If that is what actually happens, then that definitely sucks.

Scoble says they are making them as fast they can. I’m not buying into this conspiracy theory crap that this was some kind of intentional marketing ploy. They launched early so they could get the jump on Sony, but I bet Sony is laughing over this right now. Also, they don’t really benefit by making this the cabbage patch doll of 2005, those who have the coveted machines do. Lastly, boxes in the warehouse are not being sold and increasing their installed base, so there really is limited value in creating this huge demand for something they can’t fill fast enough.

With all this said, if I’m unable to walk into a major retailer locally and buy one within the next 90-180 days then I’ll start bitching. In the meantime I’ll try and keep notes on the Xbox 360 space and see what others have to report/learn/find out so when we are able to buy one I can dig right in and start doing tons of cool stuff. And maybe even think aloud a bit creatively about how this system could be improved in the future.

Looks like I may own a couple of games before actually owning the system. Wonder how many others will share this same oddity?

I didn’t get an Xbox 360 today, no, and sincerely wish the following two miscreants hadn’t received one either. in-forum.com:

The boy was attacked by two males around 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, when stores nationwide began selling the new Xbox system. The attackers took the game valued at about $450 and fled on foot.

Bet these jackasses will turn and burn this machine on eBay, perhaps even using it for drug money. There are some truly bad people in the world. I hope the cops catch these thieves and the judge gives them each 360 hours of community service picking up garbage in freezing weather.

Whatever punishment they receive, if they are caught, won’t be enough. Thugs.

Update 11/23/05 4:10am PST: A man in Stafford, Virginia in the wee hours of the morning held up a manager at an Electronics Botique store, ordering at gunpoint to pony up two Xbox 360 units with the hard drive (the core system isn’t getting much love). Nobody was hurt, and this thief was nabbed by the cops shortly after leaving the store.

11/23/05 1:32pm PST: In Robert Scoble’s comment area he writes:

By the way, that employee was Jeremy Anderson. I just got the whole story. He donated his personal Xbox that he waited in line for. He doesn’t work on the Xbox team. And, to top it off, a bunch of other employees kicked in $625 in the kid’s name that’s being donated to http://www.childsplaycharity.org (which will be matched for $1250.

The kid that was mugged will get a Premium System, an extra wireless controller, play and charge kit, Kameo game, PGR3 game, and a $200 GameStop Gift Card. All due to Jeremy Anderson and a few other employees who kicked in some stuff.

Very cool!

Just got back from visiting every major retailer on South Hill in Puyallup, WA this morning and they were all sold out as soon as they opened. Some opened earlier than their posted time like Best Buy that said they’d open one hour early (9am instead of 10am) and actually opened like 8:45am.

Last night around 6pm PST the Best Buy had some 40 people already waiting outside, fully prepared to camp out. This morning at 8:30, some 30 minutes before the opening there was a line of 60-70 people outside.

Wal-Mart
Rumour is they had 15 units and handed out the “golden tickets” way early. They were sold out before anybody could even wait in line. Didn’t see any campers.

Best Buy
Sold out — the word is they had 60 total units and overnight campers.

Target
Sold out — no idea how many units they had, unknown on campers.

Toys R Us
No idea how many units, sold out, unknown on campers.

Fred Meyer @ 176th.
They had 12 units, sold out. Overnight campers

Megastore (CompUSA + Goodguys)
6 premium, 6 core, 12 total units sold out. Overnight campers.

Costco
Opens one hour early for business executive members, but the line outside was at least 50 people. Not sure if any of them were overnight campers or not.

Wonder if somebody has thrown together a program to keep track of where to buy an Xbox 360? I’ll have to hunt around. That might be a cool mapping program to throw together. Sort of like Gasbuddy, it could be Xbox360Buddy.