ClarkKentKY

Wow, and at 499 a pop too.

Burnt Alive

They're probably all gonna end up in Bill Gates' garage...

belboz

You notice it says "first batch" and not total allotment. Sounds like a marketing stunt to me.

Trigger

face it - the X-Box is here to stay... all these "will the X-Box fail" and "How long will the x-box last before failing" poll threads are just silly. The people want an x-box... you don't have to get one.

darkside

The initial launch sales have no meaning what so ever. The N64 was impossible to get at launch and set records only to end up being a dissapointment in Japan and only a slight success here. The Dreamcast broke all sales records on its launch only to become a worldwide failure. Microsoft will have no problem at launch. Its those next 12 months sales that will tell the tale.

PixyJunket

MiCRO$$$$oftTTT F0%ckINK sux0RRR dawwg!!!!!~!~!!11111`!!!~!11!

BoBoish

I'm planning to get one, but have decided I'm not going to buy into the hoopla this year (unlike I did with PS2 last year). With the PS2, I preordered mine four months in advance and remember seeing all this footage over how hard they were to get, and yet on the day of release there were plenty at my local Best Buy.

Bo.

Outlaw

Holy cr@p!

I don't care whether its XBox, PS2, GBA, or whatever, but bundles just suck!!! I thought Toys R Us was one of the stores that wasn't going to do bundles. Bundles that save you money like the GT3 and PS2 for $330 deal are ok but it got out of hand with the PS2 pretty much only sold everwhere forcing everyone go buy 2 controllers, stand, memory cards and Fantavision with it for $200 extra when the system alone was pretty expensive. [/rant]

CreatureX

If you remember, the PS2 sold out in 23 seconds at Amazon/ToysRUs last year during preorders.

All consoles sell out at launch. Even failed consoles like Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO. Its what happens the following year that shows if the console is going to survive or not.

BTW, did you catch those crappy Xbox commercials last night? What the hell is MS thinking?

darkside

For those that want an Xbox, but don't want to get stuck with an overpriced bundle I would expect Walmart, K-mart, and Target to go the non bundle road. I bought both my Game Boy Advances from Target and didn't have to bother with a bundle. Target even did preorders.

Feneant

I don't find the bundles to be a bad deal... You get a second remote and the game selection you can choose from is basically all the games that will be out at launch so why complain? I think the Xbox will do great as a console with kids who can't afford a high end pc every year or two to have games working at their highest level.

ClarkKentKY

Remember back in the good days when 99$ WAS the bundle....

Ahh for the days of the NES home entertainment system

2 Controllers
1 Gun
2 games Duck Hunt/Mario Bros.
1 Game system

Now you pay 644.73$ for just the system...then 26.42$ for the AC adapter and RCA plugs, then 49.99$ for the controller, Another 49.99$ for the second controller, then 67.84$ for the game..... Ugh.

mljones99

I got the one that came bundled with the track and field game and the PowerPad... along with the light gun, mario/duck hunt, system and 2 controllers.

ClarkKentKY

See, even better.. that one was 149.99 right?

mljones99

That sounds about right. I was too little to remember exactly

KoalSlaw

I dunno about the 3DO - those bad boys were $750 a pop. They didn't sell too many at at launch.

belboz

I don't much care whether the xbox does well or not.

I'm just noting that this press release sounds like a cheap marketing stunt. It was carefully worded to only state that the initial allotment sold out in 30 minutes with no indication of how many machines that was. It could be anywhere from 1 machine to 1 million.

The fact is, if it was a truely astounding number like the BS numbers of 500K-800K, they would be shouting that number from the rooftops.

I wouldn't say no meaning, though you're right in that it's an often over-hyped factor. But MS actually needs a big launch because they're not established in this market like Nintendo or Sony. If xbox gets trounced by Gamecube and PS2 this xmas, MS will have a very steep hill to climb. Maintaining any momentum after such a failure will be next to impossible. Developer support will wane, its shelf real estate will dwindle.

Nintendo can take a slow start for the GC because they're not as reliant on 3rd party game developers. Retailers will continue to push GC because they need GBA. And even if the GC never becomes the dominant console, you know they'll continue to be in the console business until they die because they have no other choice. Xbox partners facing a weak xbox launch, on the other hand, will always be wondering, "Has MS lost enough money yet? When are they going to pull the plug? Should I just cut my losses?"

Thunderball

sigh..the good ole days

RCL66

One thing they don't really make clear is this was the online store ONLY. The retail stores still are not taking pre-orders for X-box.