You can thank the evolutionary link and her junk for that one.

Considering the Xbox has recently overtaken the Gamecube in Europe and is still leading in the U.S., I'd say it's unlikely that it's desperation (except maybe in Japan ). Maybe if Halo was the packin there might be trouble but Amped's sales have already run their course so Microsoft isn't losing much of anything by including it.

I agree, this just seems to be part of an aggressive marketing plan that is being strategically rolled out as we get closer to the gift giving holidays. Microsoft has stated they are in this thing for the long haul and will continue to do what ever it takes to make the xbox very successful (i.e.: the 2 billion+ dollar budget for Xbox Live).

since i bought the x-box bundle at target, can i take the walmart ad in and say "give me a reason not to return the xbox bundle here and buy it at walmart" if they will give me the game amped for free?

If you want Amped you can pick it up just about anywhere for $20 now. They tossed it in because it's an old title (as old as an xbox title can be anyway) Not nearly as big of a deal as getting Jet Set and Sega GT which is a brand new game.

where are you seeing those numbers?

I thought the Gc was still leading in Europe and gaining here on the XBox.

The last numbers I saw had the GC out front, I searched, but found nothing. I'll see if I can find anything. I nkow xbox sales have improved quite a bit since they started packing in games.

We all know this is going to open a new can.

I did see an article that for the last few weeks that weekly sales numbers and a few countries(no one mentioned) that the XBox was ahead of the GC however overall in Europe the Gc is still ahead from what I had heard.

Frankly not that it matters- although this new additional game says that they are not ahead of the GC and still falling behind the PS2 or else why bundle yet another game if the sales had shot up that much.

My guess is that they had a spike of sales that made them outsell the GC for a this last two weeks with the tendency downward so they are doing this to try and spike the sales a bit more.

The worry I would have is for people to decide to wait to see if a better deal comes out since MS is making so many changes(and so they do not feel like they got less than they should somehow)

If I had just bought one I would expect to get this additional game from MS.

"Despite the arrival of Super Mario Sunshine and a GameCube bundle containing a copy of that game, the Xbox has recently overtaken Nintendo's console in terms of both weekly and total sales in some European countries, including the UK. "

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...897439,00.html
Dated 11/12/02
kind of a soft advertising like story however nowhere does it say that MS is ahead overall in Europe just a few countries like UK(since no other major country is mentioned I figured the rest are small countries)

Gary, proof that this isn't just a Walmart thing? I haven't seen that yet. You seem to jump to that conclusion.

Yeah - too bad it's not Lavendar.

Yes.. To Sony & Nintendo fanboys who desperately want to believe one strong-arming, money-grubbing, predatory megacorporation will love them more than the other.

I mean gimme a break. It's just how you want to spin it. If their gameplan from the start is "do whatever it takes to win", then is that desperation or determination? They want to be number 1 and they're not number 1 yet. So they will do what it takes. If they see that 2 games gave them momentum, then why not build on that with 3? When Sony secured up exclusive rights to GTA and shut down the Xbox version, did that mean they were panicking and scared sh#tless of Microsoft? Or were they just doing whatever necessary to maintain their lead?

Yeah it's weird people want to use this to attack MS, you'd think they'd be happy since it makes the system even more desirable and buyable. Instead people use it as fanboy fodder. I think some people would never buy an Xbox if it came stuffed with $100 bills.

I gladly paid $300 for the big box a while ago just like I gladly paid $200 for the little black box and $200 for the medium sized black box. I would have LOVED to get 3 good games with it and for $200....

darn, just bought the sega bundle last week... oh well...

Well said.

In one word; NO!

I can't stand the Indigo GameCube or the Purple PS2 either. Just something I couldn't bear looking at all the time.

I would be shocked if it was a walmart exclusive- they are big but so are toysrus and best buy. if they gave walmart this deal and not the others they would be in for a world of hurt- trust me on this.

If this is a bundle being made by walmart and they are losing the money by bundling the new game in then i would agree it could be exclusive.

here goes nothing.

i am going to target with my receipt and the new toysrus ad that has:

xbox bundle (JSRF & GT)
extra generic contoller
NFL 2003
Spiderman

for $249.96

Target has a 90 day return policy, so i am going to go in and say

"hello, i have a question and a problem, i was wondering if you can help me out" and see what they can do for me, cause i can just return the x-box, they can lose my money, and i can go elsewhere....

well it may not work, with my majestical mojo, and a little luck, maybe they will help me out, our at least offer me somthing....

brb....

My Target told me they no longer price match anything. I don't know if that is just the store or everywhere. Hopefully it's just the store.

I got the black one at launch but now that eveybody seems to hate the purple one I wish I got it. I have the pink GBA too. I like to be different.

Rather than another color for the XBox I would have rather seen a flat topped one. I hate that you cant stack other components on it. And it weighs a ton so Im not stacking it on top of everything else. So as it is I have it on a shelf by itself. Not a huge deal but with all the crap I have in my main HT it kinda sucks.

it looks cool

I have been to the xbox campus up on union hill road in redmond to do some xbox game testing before. That green style xbox is a debugging unit. They have them side by side with the standard box when doing game testing. Don't count on its release.

Nope... I would have bought one new if that was the case!

Got mine used with halo for a little less than a bill... good enough for me!

-k
###

I may be picking up another one, so is this bundle confirmed everywhere yet or so far is it only contained in Walmart? If BestBuy is selling it, I think I know what to get.

They have already released some promotional boxes with that case. I think they were japanese. There were a few on EBay that went for outrageous prices. I wouldnt not count on a wider release.