Finally have the BC info and game list: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
I played a King Kong demo for 360 at Wal-Mart the other day and I was really, really impressed. I'm a playstation guy, but the graphics and gameplay was amazing. Maybe it was just the game, but being King Kong and fighting a T-Rex doesn't get much better.
Yeah, Ubisoft is doing a great job of getting great visuals for King Kong on each platform it is on (current-gen consoles, PSP, and 360). Despite being ported around like crazy, each one looks pretty impressive relative to the hardware possibilities. I haven't had a chance to play it, but if the gameplay is as good as the visuals, I'm sure it is great; as you said, the chance to fight a T-Rex as King Kong sounds fun. BTW, is backwards compatibility just not that important to you guys? Just curious. It seems like there are several interesting pieces of info you can take from this news (impressive number of titles, strange lack of big-name titles from the list, BC enhancements, inability to transfer Xbox 1 data, etc). If nothing else, how does the list look to those who are getting a 360 and have Xbox games? In other words, will most of your games be BC on day 1?
looks like about a third of my games are on there. but if i buy one, it will be to play Morrowind Oblivion anyway.
Getting killed in Winning 11 right now. Can't buy a win in 2nd season. and then I find out it's not on the list. Biotch. Finished Psychonauts. Liked that game a lot. great characters and environments.
man the only game that i was looking for on that list was mvp baseball and it's not on there! bastards.
Sounds somewhat like the norm from what I've read, not to mention that the list is something like ~30% of the Xbox game library. Now the next question is how much you play/would play those games as compared to the other 2/3 of your games? Of course, as you said, you'll probably be playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (no Morrowind in the title ) and never get much of a chance to play any Xbox games. Isn't Pro Evolution Soccer basically the same game as Winning Eleven? They're just slightly different versions released at different times in the year or something like that. I see Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is on the list; not sure if that matches the Winning Eleven you have. Either it shouldn't be very hard to get your version to work shortly after launch...or maybe it does work but MS had it by a different name or something. I'm getting kind of confused by Konami's naming schemes for the same game. Not sure about Psychonauts though. Might be one of those games that MS might look at once they get some of the other big-name games done...hopefully. That sucks. I imagine getting the full EA sports lineup working, as well as a few other franchises (EX:Splinter Cell), is at the top of the list of games to make BC; granted, that doesn't mean they'll be the next ones to make the list, but I'm sure MS is working on it. Now that I think about it, I wonder how some of these sports games will look with some of the BC enhancements. Kind of old, but for anyone curious to see what comes in the premium SKU, here's a video of someone opening up and examining the stuff that comes with it. Even if you don't plan on getting one, it is pretty funny to see the guy pull out the power supply. Here's a link to the video: http://files.filefront.com/Xbox360_Le_grand_deballageavi/;4344872;;/fileinfo.html Also, just out of curiosity, for those who had one preordered...have you received any "bad news?" I've been reading about some unfortunate stories from people who preordered from EB and Gamestop. Basically, both of those stores promised systems for way too many people (EX: promised 25 people a day 1 system, but will only get 20 systems on day 1 or something like that) and now they're having to call them back and tell them the bad news. I hope no one here will get that call, although I'm worried that it may be a lot more common than I may think. Eh...if nothing else, maybe MS will ship their 2nd and 3rd shipments shortly after, making it possible to get one during the 1st week or so of December if you're one of the unfortunate ones.
I went to EB today and asked how many they expect to get at launch. Now, I had been there before a month or so ago and asked and was told 30. This time though they said maybe 11. He then told me, one of the companies expected to manufacture the system, backed out at the last moment thus halfing their shipment totals. I didn't ask about future shipments though. Then again, I read on IGN, they speculate it's a marketing ploy for MS to gain some publicity. I was lucky enough to get my preorder in to where I was 7th on the list and was called by them yesterday telling me when to pick it up (Midnight the 21st). For those not preordered, I was also in Circuit City today, and an employee told me it's on first come-first serve to get a system. So, at least that is one more place you can camp out to get one.
That's possible. Or EB just screwed up and is looking for a way out, deciding to place the blame elsewhere. They're not going to say, "Um...yeah, we decided to reserve more systems than we knew would actually get shipped…sorry about that." To be honest, it did seem a bit strange how many systems were being reserved at all these stores without any sort of real info on how much MS would be able to supply. Again, the manufacturing thing might be true (might even explain some of the shipment rumors), but it wouldn't surprise me if that was just an excuse on their part. As for MS possibly trying to make a shortage on purpose, that is a very risky move IMO. It might be a good idea during some dead period of the year (February, March, April, etc.), but you don't want to limit the supply during the holiday shopping season. The only way it would maybe work is if they made the shortage last a week or so, leaving enough time for the local news stations to make stories on the "hot" new item for the holidays, and then quickly follow that up with numerous shipments. That way, they'll get the "shortage" hype without missing out on too many sales due to a shortage. Still risky though, and even without trying, there might be some shortages anyway…so I’m not sure if it is worth trying to do on purpose. There's a reason that not too many companies attempt to do a worldwide launch for a console. IMO, MS should just pump these things out ASAP in order to create a large userbase by the time the PS3 comes out. Sure, they might get a lot of hype with a shortage, but if the PS3 somehow makes it here in the Spring and MS only managed to sell a couple million...uh-oh. The whole point of launching early was to get a large userbase in place before the competition even got on its feet; creating shortages for hype doesn’t seem the best way to reach that goal, IMO. Just throw together some Halo 3 trailers and they'll get there hype. On the other hand, if MS could come up with a rather large and respectable userbase, developers/publishers will have no choice but to at least consider putting their games on the system. It was rumored that Rockstar was waiting to see which console had the bigger userbase before committing to a console for the next-gen GTA...although that was before some of the newer rumors that basically confirm it is a PS3-exclusive...but you get the idea. Well anyways, I'm glad you were one of the lucky ones who managed to reserve a system early enough to get one on day 1. We need at least one person on the board who can give first-hand impressions on November 22nd. Hmm...just realized that's about 9 days away.
I preordered from Ritz Camera in the middle of September and called them back about every week just to confirm that it was going out in the first shipment. I got affirmative answers up until this week, when they told me that Microsoft is shipping direct to fill their orders, so they're not sure how many they're getting in their first "shipment". Then on Friday I got an email saying that due to high demand and scarce supply, some of the orders may not be filled until "after the holiday season". Now I'm stuck because I don't know if they're going to ship mine, and I can't afford to go to someplace that's selling them at midnight then be charged for the one Ritz is supposed to send. And, since I work until 10 PM, I wouldn't be able to get anyplace in town that might sell them at midnight until 11 at the EARLIEST (as in possible high speed chase on the freeway). By then the lines would be way too long. Needless to say, I'm quite put out at the moment.
Yes, I'd say that this is a matter of MS not shipping out as many as they intended. That's not to say that the retailers didn't get overzealous at the moment they thought they'd get more, but with the number of different retail outlets pointing at the same thing, I'd say this is definitely a cutback that effected everyone rather than just Gamestop or EB screwing up.
I'm not so sure about that, although I admit that some of the numbers for the 360 are a bit too low (either because of a "shortage" or something else going on). There's this one poster on another board I visit who works at a Gamestop and he claims MS didn't cut anything...mostly since they never really gave any numbers to cut. Although there are reports of GS/EB managers who claim they were promised X amount of systems, he says that all their MS reps never gave them numbers for day 1. In fact, the only real numbers they ever got were some approximates in September (a high-end number and a low-end number). Of course, by that time, EB, Gamestop, and a bunch of other stores had already taken a large amount of preorders. And finally, his posts were actually where I got that story about these stores lying about MS shipment numbers as an excuse. He had no problem blaming the stores instead of MS...and he even works at one of these stores. That does seem to make sense to me. I don't even think MS could attempt to give estimates until September, which is around the time they started mass producing the system, IIRC. And given how quickly things could change, I doubt they'd go around promising to ship 200 or so units to one EB/GS store. Remember that a large amount of systems will be practically given away due to several contests (9K alone from every10minutes, IIRC), Wal-Mart and Best Buy will be getting the largest amount of systems, followed by the next largest stores (Target, Circuit City, Sam's, etc.), and then these smaller stores (EB, GS, etc.). If MS could somehow get 200 systems to a few of these stores, I can't even imagine what a few Wal-marts would get. I would have applauded MS if they could have somehow pulled off these numbers during a worldwide launch of a next-gen console like the 360. FWIW, I think I remember reading about some stores (I think Gamecrazy was one) that tried to stick to only 10-15 launch-day preorders and nothing more. Again, I'm just hoping that MS sticks by their "weekly shipments" statement so people don't have to wait too long in case they don't get one on day 1.
same old marketing crap. -Release Day Units will have a shortage -People will wait in line everyday at store openings -Xbox 360 will make nightly news -Hype Builds -A slew of units hit shelves just before Christmas
Since I can't dive into heavy gaming until the semester is over, I can just wait until then anyway. The shortage won't be too long. M$ needs to get a big of a head start as possible, and they know that, because once the PS3 rolls around, all hell is gonna break loose. In fact I'm pretty positive that my 360 is being sold once the PS3 hits.
I think there's a little bit of blame to go around on both fronts; I believe MS cut their numbers somewhat here toward the end. And I believe the gamestore companies got a little giddy, and probably took the first sign they were going to get more systems and ran with it. They did a poor job of being patient with that. I don't know about GS, but I can tell you how the EB timeline has looked in this area: Early in the summer stores could start taking preorders; no price yet, no allocations known (at store level). Then late summer stores got a number limit on the number of systems for each store at launch, X. Anything preordered after X could not be guaranteed first shipment. (When that number is reached you can still take preorders; but you have to inform the customer that they would be second shipment) Soon afterward (probably Sept.) that estimated launch number rises slightly, to Y. (If this is a miscommunication somehow between MS and EB, or just within EB, I don't know.) Then early Oct. there are concerns over number of systems on launch. Stores are told there may be less that could be guaranteed on first shipment than originally anticpated. It was just this month that new allocations came across. Sadly enough, these numbers are more in line with the original estimate, X, than the second one, Y. A store employee - or a manager for that matter - would have no idea what anyone was 'promised'. That's handled completely through corporate and then emailed to the stores through the district manager. The MS reps wouldn't have any idea or any say in it either. They're only there to put up signage and trade out demo discs. Looking at what's being said about, say, Ritz Camera, and I know of a WalMart in the Houston area that's getting only 30 systems on launch; I know of a Best Buy that's getting only like 40 systems at launch; and there's definitely some sort of shortage thing going. Now how soon MS knew that, or what they told the other companies, I don't know. But if Wal Marts are getting less than 50, there's definitely a shortage somewhere.
Without actually knowing what were Microsoft's initial shipment expectations, the actual shipments that will be made on 11/21, how much they'll supply after launch (and how quickly after), etc., I guess I more or less agree with you, although I think some of the retailers are slightly more to blame. Obviously, if Microsoft did cut down from their expected numbers drastically in order to create even more of a "shortage," then I can't help but feel they caused at least some of this to happen (although I'm assuming it would get "better" before the end of the year). On the other hand, if MS has stuck roughly to one number and hasn't really cut any numbers (like the guy I was talking about said), then I find it hard to put too much blame on MS if the top execs at these stores pushed for more preorders in order to sell a few extra faceplates and media remotes. Just because a Wal-mart only has 30 systems doesn't mean it is really Microsoft's fault, assuming they're sticking to around ~400K systems for launch (one of the rumored shipment amounts). I guess I'm looking at it in more of a 70-30 thing instead of an even 50-50 distribution for the blame; however, I'll wait it out some more until I get some firm numbers on exactly what type of launch MS is planning.
BTW, I'm hearing that some stores might be doing some sort of "ticket" giveaway prior to launch. Basically, they have a day where they hand out these tickets; if you get one, you can walk in on the 22nd and get a system. One of these was a Wal-mart (tickets given away early 11/21 IIRC), but it sounds like only some of the big ones will be doing it; another one could be Circuit City, although that is somewhat assumed only because they mention being able to get the system this Friday on their website. Either it is a mistake, they're breaking the street date on the 360 knowingly/unknowingly, or they'll be giving away "chances" to get the system...or something like that. It is actually kind of confusing. But basically, for those of you who may find it difficult to get to a store around midnight for launch, you might be able to help yourself out if you do one of these things, assuming a store near you is doing it. I'm assuming not everyone will know about this, so you'll probably stand a better chance at getting one. If I hear anything more about these two stores or even some other ones, I'll try to keep you guys updated. edit: Or maybe the CC thing on Friday is just for buying one online...I don't know what it is.
BC isn't too important for me. I still have the XBOX and it isn't very hard to switch from component 2 to component 3. BC would allow me to give my XBOX to a relative.
