andrew carter

I’ve been observing the Xbox 360 launch for lots of reasons. First of all, I am a gamer and I’m interested in any new gaming platform. Second, I worked on Xbox Live for a little while before I left Microsoft. Third, I still have friends working in the Xbox group. I want this product to succeed. But I have to say that as of December 2005, I think the launch has been a failure.Why is it a failure? Isn’t it the hottest ticket this Christmas? Depends on how you look at it. Yeah, it is impossible to get one. My brother pre-ordered in June and still hasn’t got one. Every store I’ve asked about it says that it won’t be until February or March. So a big success, right?Not so fast. Is there really that much demand? No one outside of Microsoft really knows how many boxes have shipped. Given the wide spread shortages, it can’t be more than a few hundred thousand. The only solid numbers are the disappointing Japan sales of around 60,000.The next reason it is a failure is that the launch titles flat out suck. OK — there are a few nice games like PGR3 but there is nothing close to a system seller like Halo. The EA Sports lineup are all crippled compared to the Xbox or PS2 versions. The IGN ratings for the launch titles are not too impressive.Next you have the rumors of hardware failure. Every console has had a rough start — from the PS1 to the original Xbox. How widespread are the problems? Not clear. But it does sound like it’s not that rare. Overheating boxes and bad drives scratching discs are the two most common heard complaints. Hard to say if this is due to using cheap components to drive down costs or if there is a design flaw.Finally, you have the incredibly awful bundles. Even if you managed to find a box, you would have to pay 2-3x the cost to buy all the stuff they force you to take. I love games but there is no way I’m paying $600 or more for a bundle. To top it off, the core vs. premium offerings are massively confusing. The reality is that the core is a useless system. No backwards compatibility without the hard drive. No one in their right mind would waste money on the crippled core unit.Add it all up and you have a pretty disappointing launch. Microsoft had one chance to really take the next gen lead and in my opinion they blew it. The Playstation 3 could be out by this summer so if you have to wait until March to get a 360, why not wait and see what the PS3 is like? I never thought I would consider a PS3 but given my favorable experience with my PSP, I will probably wait and compare. I’m guessing I won’t be the only one.