How Many Xbox 360s for Europe - Really?

As a poor grad student (and to remain poor, as I'm going into education) the cost/benefits of wireless controllers is only there is they have the rechargables already loaded. Buying the rechargeables, on top of controllers, is pretty silly to me.

Since I spend a lot of time on my feet, I don't care if I have to walk the 5 feet to my TV.

But it doesn't matter that much to me anyway -- Without Oblivion, there is little incentive for me to go out and buy one, and even when it comes out, it might just play on my computer (crossing fingers here)

but one thing is clear (besides the fact that I too am rambling): I'm waiting for a price drop / more incentives to buy.

That last bit sounds a lot like the reasons why people aren't really buying PSP's even if they are intrested...or am I just rambling here too? Help me!

You're right. Very expensive initially (for all the peripherals that aren't included, but "needed") with few stand out, must have, or revolutionary (or even evolutionary, I think) games.

I think the idea of a "killer app" is starting to become outdated. systems will need more than one inital killer game in order to convince people there wasn't a fluke...

GTA just came out a litle bit ago... and i dont think there was any major spike in system sales because of it.

Exactly. People see GTA....and? I'm supposedly in the demographic (mid 20s, no portable game system, likes movies, ect ect) I know there's a GTA game, and a WipeOut game, and....huh. I see a lot of movies that are on PSP (according to TV ads) So, is it a game player, a movie player, or what? Both? I have a lappy for that. With a bigger screen. and it takes DVDs, so I don't need to either buy UMD versions, or do something illegal.

If it's a game machine, what's the deal? where are the games? a GTA game alone won't cut it.

This is a complete joke.

I rang around stores saying "Is there even the slightest chance you've got a..." and they all cut me off and said 'no' in anticipation of what I was asking about.

This sums up how LITTLE have been delivered. I rang up the Tesco and Asda HQ's (the only stores likely to have any - open 24hours). The only store that had them was an Asda in Brighton of all places (I live in London). ONE STORE. I rang them up and they said "we have eight in stock - eight people have been waiting outside for them all day.

What a joke! Eight? EIGHT???? In one store!?!? Microsoft did this as a marketing tactic to make it a must-have product.

Also, my brother ordered one off an internet site claiming they could satisfy, despite all others stores selling out via pre-order (they charged an extra £40). They took my brother's money, then days before told him they couldn't live up to their promise. Nice!

Here's a fun expirement to try! See if you can fit your laptop into your shirt pocket. No? Well the PSP wins then. It also has expandable memory, so you can fit lots of movies, movies YOU MAY VERY WELL OWN (homebrew rippers are out there and it is legal to make copies of your own dvds for personal use), and also listen to music. It's no iPod but it sure is more universal. I also know lots of people, or overhear people wanting the PSP because it's the IN thing. BECAUSE it plays movies and music, and because they think that it plays games like Snood and Tetris. The games come second for alot of people. I bet there's lots of PSP owners who have more movies than games. Maybe somewhat because there's 3x as many movies as games, but who knows.

In regards to the "must have" game or the one "that sells the system", handheld sales will never be what console sales are, so the numbers will be less impressive.

I think that without Halo, the X-Box would of gone onto becoming one of the worst game launches/game systems ever. EVERYONE who bought an X-Box bought Halo. Hands down. NES and Mario? Come on? PS2 had Tekken, Final Fantasy and GTA, Gamecube had Zelda, Resident Evil, Metroid Prime, and Monkeyball, N64 had Zelda, Mario, and Smash Party, Jaguar had, well um..., Jaguar ya see well..., um...,they had lots of 2D arcade ports. (Bad example) I think every successful system has at least ONE system seller. Whether it's day one of three years into the life of the system. And there may not be a huge spike in sales, but over the long run, I'm sure a correlation between the amount sold of system x and game y will be sufficent to prove my point.

You know what sold me on X-Box? Jet Set Radio Future! Sure I have 15 games now for it, but it was JSRF that got me.

Problem with the PSP is... what does Sony want it to be? Game-wise it's really getting the most crap-tastic support as in...ever!
Sony themselves do not see it as a gamingmachine, anyone who thinks its one should be shot for that matter (Sony said it, not me).
The thing is, the PSP is in several markets and fights with several competitors at a time: iPod, laptops (are getting cheaper en are getting sold more and more as multi-media devices then "i'm a corporate executive dude" indicators) GBA (slowly degrading though) and DS.

That's a lot of markets with a lot of different target groups who have different priorities. Sony is probably feeling the squeeze more and more, especially from Apple's and Big N's side and they have a upcoming next-gen console to support and have (huge) loss-leading divisions... bussiness wise this isn't looking good for Sony.

That really is an absurd statement. If you're talking about the volume of games released per month, then PSP is only getting slightly less per month. As an example, the US Nov release schedule was NDS (31) and PSP (20) [source].

I'd hardly call 20 games in a month a drought.

If you mean quality, well then, that's in the eye of the beholder. 3rd-party publishers are releasing stuff on both systems (e.g. EA), so the only unique dev houses are internal, 1st-party ones, or those tied with exclusivity deals (e.g. Rockstar).

Personally, I've owned Ridge Racers, Wipeout Pure, Burnout Legends, and GTA:LCS - and they've all seriously reduced the tedium of my 2hr-a-day commute per day.

I could mention the video playback, but I think the PSPs game library alone can defend the PSP.

The PSP and NDS can coexist. They each (or both)offer different gaming, to different gamers.

I agree, there is room for both. However, you'll notice that the people saying that since the PSP isn't selling as well as the DS it has failed are the same saying the poor sales of the GameCube don't matter since the games are so great.

They are also the ones saying that the PSP must fail since it does something other than play games. It will also fail because it doesn't have a stylus or microphone.

They are also the ones saying they can't wait for the Revolution and that neither the Xbox 360 nor the PS3 are bringing anything new to the party.

In short, they are Nintendo fanboys feeling threatened or Sony haters.

The fact is that the PSP has had the same length of games drought that almost all consoles get after release. It's also got some great games both now and in progress. And there is room for all handhelds, GBA/SP/Micro, DS and PSP.

Well according to today's figures from ChartTrack, the Xbox 360 sold 70,000 units in the UK, and we all know it's sold out, so there's your sell-in figure for the UK.

i fall into the later category myself, but atleast im aware of it and can put it aside if necesary. ;)
infact im fully prepared to buy a ps3 on launch... but i do think the psp is seriously underwhelming thus far.. it is not the ipod like monster sony hoped for... it isnt even the gameboy like seller it should reasonably be. I have no doubt sony will come through with good stuff for it but it seems inherently flawed to me... if for no other reason than a 3d console with one analog stick is a full on retarded idea.
the demo of prime hunters gives mouse and keyboard quality controls in a portable package... so even though the system is underpowered by comparison it is much more suited for 3d gaming by default.
and the train of thought has jumped track....

Come on LUPOS! You can't have it both ways! One analog stick versus one touch screen being used as an analog stick. Either it's retarded or it's not!

DS:
you can use the d-pad with the left hand as well as the left shoulder button and the touch screen and face buttons and shoulder buttong can be manipulated with the right hand... not to disimilar from most current consoles. except of course that the left hand is a digital input and the right an analor... which makes it much mroe similar to a mouse/keyboard set up.
PSP:
left hand either manages the d-pad or the single analog input and the left shoulder.
right hand manages the buttosn and left shoulder.
now admitedly you could use the face buttons as a d-pad and the d-pad as buttons but for purposes of most non fps games it makes most sense to have the analog stick on the left. conversely most FPS's have movement mapped to the left stick and orientation mapped to the right... which woudl mean either your face buttons that are emulating a d-pad control your orientation, which woudl inhibit game play... or the controls are switched to their more apropritate sticks, which breaks from the normal layotu and woudl be akward to most people who are used to one methode of play.

in conclusion the DS touch screen alows analog control for the left or right hand (or potentialy both if they wana get crazy) so it is more suited for a wider variaty of games... i.e. mario64 controleld with left hand... metroid prime controleld with the right.

whereas the psp is only good for certain kinds... GTA=good
Socom= stop and aim, walk and dotn aim = crappy
(although it is playable caus eit is a more slow passed strategy based game, but it is a good example of why faster passed FPS's will not work well)

maybe retarded was a bit strong, but again, for a device that is supposed to do it all... 250 seems steep when you consider it is nearly incapable of running a good FPgame, one of the most popular vantage points in gameing i would say. and more and more so as graphics become more realistic... a few years back a FP game with non shooting weapons seemed like a horribel idea... now we have riddick condemened and the game for the xbox with the guy with the glowy hands whose name escapes me at the moment.

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