Xbox 360 to ship by Thanksgiving?

So we know Microsoft is gunning for a holiday season release for the Xbox 360, and buried inside an article on the hardware testing process for the console is a wee bit of a more specific timeline: July will see product validation, September will begin full-scale production, with an eye on meeting the "huge mandate" set forth by Microsoft to have product ready to ship by Thanksgiving. Sales of canned cranberries expected to suffer.

[Thanks, spick]

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Next up: Sony announces they are releasing the PS3 next weekend.


Seriously though, watch Sony try to push ahead their release date again.

[insaneInTheMembrane @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Does this really give developers time to tweak their games for the actual hardware by that time? Remember that the games at E3 were still all running on Macs.

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Sony push up their release date?

They've gotta have a console actually *made* first :) Or can they just put hype in a box and charge 400 bucks for it?

[Mack Swift @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Not a bad move at all. They should either a) release it the day before Thanksgiving, and thus causing family strife as every male at the turkey day gathering is glued either to football or Xbox360. Or b) release the damn thing the day after turkey day on the biggest shopping day of the year.

[Spies @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I hope Sony & Nintendo take their sweet time and make great consoles instead of rushing to market just because of the Xbox 360. I think the biggest challenge to the upcoming console generation is the current console generation. I just don't see much interest in upgrading at this time with casual gamers.

[DanAmpX @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Microsoft is notorious for rush jobs. and seeing as the games were still running on Macs at E3, I'm not too sure about this.
What I am sure of is that by the end of the year Microsoft will have had to fix some bug in their console and thus screw everyone who bought one early. *sigh*

Man that day after Thanksgiving sale is going to be NUTS this year. dag nabbit.

[Mack Swift @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Another comment, the price point. I get the feeling that the Big M will charge $200 for this thing. Why so low? Simple, they want this thing in every gamer's household, and $200 will do it.

- Games are easily gonna run at least $70 at release. Increased licensing and development costs. Microsoft will make up part of the hardware cost loss with increased licensing.

- Same with hardware accessories. Increased licensing to make extra hardware for this thing.

- Xbox Live is where it's at. Having Live Basic come standard with the 360, and giving gamers a free taste of Live content (try before you buy), Big M will definetly recover costs with the new Xbox Live.

[Darren C @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Come on people, 370 is an amazing price for the PS3, X360 (or if u prefer XBOX 1.5) has little to compete in terms with what its selling and what it will probably cost (between 299-399). Being within the same price range, PS3 will have so much more to offer than the X360 and cost similar. Evidentally PS3 will sell more and X360 fans have "even less" to talk about now.

[Mack Swift @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Not a bad move at all. They should either a) release it the day before Thanksgiving, and thus causing family strife as every male at the turkey day gathering is glued either to football or Xbox360. Or b) release the damn thing the day after turkey day on the biggest shopping day of the year.

[Ian_Dass @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

They ran their games on Macs at E3 by choice not necessity. The games work on the 360 already, but for presentation purposes ms CHOSE to run their "presentation" on macs.

Now if they were in their house showing off the system on their television, they would have used the 360. Obviously E3 and a living room are 2 totally different settings.

[Galley @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Sorry, but I still wouldn't pay $200 for an "Xbox 1.5".

[duerra @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#7 - You just keep telling yourself that. (XBox 360 for $200). I will PayPal you $200 to buy the thing if its suggested retail price is $200 on opening day. You have my word.

[Utills @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Last time round Sony had both a better product and released a whole year and a half b4 the Xbox(in the UK anyway). This time round it looks like the M$ peep want to get in on that first mover thing.

Sony on the other hand may be forced to release later on due to the nature of the components they are putting into this beast of a machine.

If M$ employ a low price approach they may end up taking most of the non-gamer (buy it as a gift at christmas) type of guys. This may enable them to get developers onto their side by showing them that they have lots of customers.

I think sony just need to build up the hype to delay the customers into thinking why buy a technically subpar system when a much more powerful one is to come out in only 6 months or so.

Both are promising some sort of all in one media entertainment system (perhaps thereby justifying the high price) which may help to sell it to the non-gamer sect of console buyers.

[duerra @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

*sigh* I suppose I should have commented on the $70 game price "prediction", too.

#7 - I'm sorry that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. It's great that you've thought about this - but I'm sorry about your clear lack of economic understanding. Econ 101 will teach you all about "supply and demand". You should take it sometime!

[khamel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

looking at my optiplex at work i just realized it DOES look way to similar to the Xbox 360. Maybe too similar. I hope the hate I have for work doesn't transfer to my game playing.

If it came out the right after thanksgiving it think it would be a smart move only if they have the supply. The lines at best buy are already 400 yards long and I could only imagine people lining up at 9pm on thanksgiving day to get an Xbox 360 the next morning.

I think i'll just order mine online and wait the day or so and avoid the crowds.

[Inferno @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Maybe I understood Microsoft wrong, but remember, Microsofts big thing has been programing in the XNA environment and having that be compatible across all environments that recognize XNA (PC, Xbox360). It would make sense for the powermacs that are the current dev kits would recognize XNA along with the Xbox360. So anything running on the current kits should run on the X360. They just obviously aren't going to make full use of the hardware. But from what we have seen at E3, the games on the powermacs are pretty impressive. So, I think that is how they plan to pull that off the quick release of titles without the devs having much time with final dev kits. This is just speculation though.

[Pete @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I see it like this, the first XBOX had problems resulting from several production bugs. Remember back when XBOX first hit the scene alongside Nintendo and all those news reports of Houses caught on fire by the new MS video gaming system (I live in Detroit where a lot of these stories were on the news and in the papers)? Maybe I am just lucky, but my PS2 didn't start to have problems until GTA: VC came out; and I got my PS2 at launch. I don't see Microsoft being able to work out the bugs in such a short amount of time, especially since this system seems rushed, seriously. Sony has had news about research on the PS3 since the 5th day of the PS2 release (wish I could point to the news article that caught up with Sony patenting the PS3 logo). MS seems to have rushed to try to catch Sont with an AHA, I Got here first, nanananana na.

In the end, I will still be the dumb ass and give into the hype of the gaming systems, as the gamer in me always does, and purchase each system as soon as i get the right amount saved/hustled up. But take heed, people, the next generation is about to begin.

[Rocket Punch @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#7, $200? lol, good luck.
I will be surprised if the 360 is under $300 and I will not be surprise if the 360 is $399.

Here are some pros and cons by releasing the 360 ahead of the PS3 and revolution:

Pros - Being that they will have the first dip into the so called "Next Gen" market. But I think the key here is backward compatibility, as (we all know) that the killer app for the 360 is the new Halo game which MS will use it as the anti-PS3 launch weapon. So if you want the 360 for the new halo game? why buy it a year before the game came out when you can get the 360 at a potentially cheaper price with the game a year later. So, "IF" the 360 is a "true" BWC machine, at least people can still play their old halo games on the new machine. (for whatever reason)

Cons - 360 will potentially be the most expensive gaming console to date at launch and with all the hype about how xboxlive will cure cancer, ultimately it is how much consumer are willing to pay for it. So, 360 will have to be the lab rat for the other upcoming machine to test the water. On the other hand, it is confirmed that both PS3 & Revolution will be fully BWC, and there "WILL" be another price drop for both PS2 and Gamecube (you can quote me on this) for the 2005 holiday season. So for kids who still have to cry and scream to get what they want, those would be it. Not to mention, the fact that the games that they got for those machine this year, will not became instant "scratch and loose" garbage 2 years down the road.

I will be getting both new machine for sure but the question would be when.

[Pete @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Typo up there, i meant Sony, not Sont

[Vincent @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

To have a product out by Christmas you nedd to obviously shhot for Oct - Nov , the earlier the better. My prediction is the week leading up to black friday. Can anybody tell me if any console has had a spring - summer launch? The people saying that the PS3 will launch like April - May '06 are wrong. It should be Oct '06 , the traditional launch time. Tell me if I am wrong I will list the consoles that I know launched the last quarter of the year. PS2 , Xbox , Dreamcast , PS1 , Genesis , Super Nintendo , I think the NES either launched in Nov. or Mar. which would break the mold. Gamecube I don't know. I just can't see a Spring launch for the PS3, it is traditionally the slow shopping season. I bet we have a good full year between 360 and PS3.

[Mack Swift @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Hmmm, I don't know what I am talking about? Well, look at M$ for a moment. Anyone who has ever worked for, with, or with a vendor or developer that has direct M$ relations will tell you right out that this a VERY aggressive company. Xbox360 is a key puzzle piece to M$'s domination of the home entertainment center, PC desk space, and hell even your whole house. They want this thing in every gamer's house, and $200 will do it. I'm a PC gamer, I have not bought a console since the Super Nintendo. At $200, I'd buy a 360 and 2 games and an extra controller. Again, M$ is VERY aggressive. They don't have to follow the normal chains of supply and demand; they have how many billions of dollars sitting all over the place just waiting to be used? They'll make it all up with hardware and software licensing, Live service, and anything else they can cram into it.

-$70 dollar games. It's gonna be the norm. Hell, alot of new big PC releases are coming out at $60 dollars instead of the norm of $40-$50. It's due to licensing and dev costs.

[courtney @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I got to see more of how these games really play before I decide.

I am not buying a living room entertainment system, I have a PC for that. I want to play games. I think Nintendo is the only one who gets that.

[Vincent @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I agree with some hot titles going for $ 70.00. I feel that the norm will go from 49.99 to 54.99 or 59.99 for a Next Gen title. I have said this before and I will say it again the biggest problem I have with all this hype is people comparing the power level of these machines. There will be at best; little to no difference in the look of cross platform titles.

[Ted @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

You guys keep talking about those "Macs" running the 360 games at E3. What you don't understand is that INSIDE those Macs were full fledged pre production 360s. The Macs were just shells to hide the preproduction units. There are still a few features that MS won't divulge yet and Bill likes to poke fun at Stevie J every chance he can...it's an inside joke between Bill and Stevie J. If anyone paid attention at MacWorld in January when they announced the iPod shuffle, Stevie J's iPod shuffle had a little teenie tiny windows logo emblazoned on the play button...

[Darren C @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

PS3 will launch under 40,000yen (under US$370). Now what can the X360 fans say? Also, for those people who wouldn't buy a PS3 because it was rumoured to be over US$500, now you can be happy to get more for your money as the PS3 will be selling at a competative low price! I have plenty to back my opinion but I've written similar in the "Bizzare 180 of the XBox 360" topic~ LOL, it's quite hilarious to see XBox fanboys squirm for their beloved Halo and Xbox Live, which inturn will also fall to Sony in due time. Food for thought, there is still 7 months for Sony to unleash their online plans for the PS3, so wait for your XBox Live comparisons till a later date. So far, for what IS comparable, Sony have already succeeded in the preliminary rounds.

[Joel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#19: Since you asked, the PS 2 was launched in Japan in March.

Perhaps more importantly, the PSP (not a traditional "console," I know) was launched in the US in March as well, proving that you can successfully launch a platform in the US in March, and giving Sony a real reason to be confident about being flexible with the launch date in the states.

Those are the only two spring launches I can remember, but they were both successful Springtime launches for Sony, so they are significant to the discussion here.

I'd predict MS to make an early Nov. launch...Sony in mid-March. I have no idea where Sony will launch first though. I'd suspect Japan first, but following the success of the PSP launch, and remembering how Sony had trouble meeting Christmas demand with the US PS2 launch, who knows? If the 360 follows the original XBox in failing to penetrate the Japanese market early on, Sony might chose to meet the competition head-on in N.A. first. If the 360 does start to do well in Japan, I'd expect Sony to shore up that "home" market by launching there first.

[James @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

From talking to some people who work on games, at E3 2001 they didn't have final XBox hardware yet so this timeline is similar to the original XBox launch. Of course pretty much all the decent XBox launch titles were Microsoft ones, decent 3rd party stuff didn't start appearing until spring 2002.

I'm just curious if they think PD0 is going to be as big of a draw as Halo. Like it or not the XBox is the "HaloBox" to many people.

Pricing will be interesting, I don't know if the US market is ready for $70 games.

[James @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#8 "PS3 will have so much more to offer than the X360 and cost similar."

It looks like you're riding the BS train all the way to Sonyland. I didn't know you can predict the future like Ms. Cleo.


#13 "Last time round Sony had both a better product"

What constituted a better product? Made you buy a separate hard drive to play 2 whole games that supported it? Made you buy a network adapter when the online component is crap? Made a smaller PS2 so you can buy it again for the seventeenth time. Sure, Sony made a better product and that product was a Sony Walkman cassette player.

[TheUndertow @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Anyone saying the "Xbox 1.5" crapola has bought into the Sony Hype machine. You guys are either crazy or haven't seen the system specs.

Think for yourself - question authority (and Sony)

[jack @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

This is not news: anything labelled or announced as a "Holidays release" -means- Thanksgiving in the US, it is the sole point to launch stuff for Xmas sales (anything released past the first week in December is very risky and generally won't do well, too last minute).

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

If you look at the hardware they put in the PS3 its costs more then 1250 dollars at least. So they cant sell it for less than 370. They wouldnt make anything. They just said that so people would just go and buy the 360 and not the PS3. There waiting so when the ps3 comes out then you want to buy that because you waited.

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

January: respond to public outcry when children catch on fire from exploding consoles.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

A sony exec has said the PS3 will probably cost $450 - $500. Which is immaterial since the console doesn't even exist yet. Pretty CG movies not withstanding. The PS3 will most likely have more power (raw number crunching) than the 360 when it launches, as well as some additional features (the much hyped blue-ray for instance, which still is only planned to be supported by HALF of hollywood and yay I get to by all my movies AGAIN for a format that might just loose the format war *cough* betamax *cough*) but I believe like the current generation the PS3 will be so hard to develop for that the 360 will probably still out-perform it for a couple years. The PS2 has been out for the better part of a decade and we're just starting to see it's total graphical capabilities. The xbox never really had the absolutly horrible looking launch titles sony is known for. I hope the PS3 is all it's hyped to be, but you have to understand that sony is only trying to smoke screen the consumer into ignoring a great piece of hardware and the absolute best online gaming console system around. Sony online is worthless, and I don't believe them when they say they're going to fix it.

[hecatomb @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

People still refer to Microsoft as "M$"? I thought that phased out years ago...

None the less, I'm not worried about the price points between the consoles. I'm prepared to spend $300 apiece, maybe $400 IF they come with certain add-ons in the box (ex. 2 controllers, or a built in HDD, S-Video instead of component cables, or *gasp* god forbid, a actual F'ing game)

I would, however have a problem paying $70 per title. I purposefully look at each game to see what console they're on, whether it be PC, PS2, XBox... if its PS2 or Xbox exclusive, I obviously have to pick, but if the tile is on the PC, I get it for the PC. Aside from *some* obvious benefits of the game on the PC, usually you can get it for $30-40 instead of paying $50. I'm not a tight-wad when it comes to buying games, I just wouldn't like spending $70 on a title that may not keep my interest for long.

[RYAN THE LOGICAL ONE @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

WHY DONT WE ALL JUST BUY BOTH SYSTEMS SO WE CAN ALL STOP CRYING ABOUT THIS SHIT..... IF 360 IS RELEASED @ HOLIDAY OF '05 THAT SHOULD GIVE YOU PLEEEEENTY OF TIME TO SAVE UP A FEW BUCKS TO GET PS3 IN SPRING OF '06..... HENCE THE NAME RYAN THE LOGICAL ONE!! THANK YOU!

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

thanks spick?

[Matt Rix @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

"Microsoft is notorious for rush jobs. and seeing as the games were still running on Macs at E3, I'm not too sure about this.
What I am sure of is that by the end of the year Microsoft will have had to fix some bug in their console and thus screw everyone who bought one early. *sigh*"

Um, PS2 had lots of issues... more than I've heard of with nintendo..


And PS3 is basically a fictional console for now... I don't understand what all the people are whining about with 360 running on macs. At least it was RUNNING. How can you compare that to PS3 which just had BS "concept gameplay" ... Ie. prerendered scenes

[insaneInTheMembrane @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

People should be worried about the 360 coming to market so quickly for the sake of being first since Mircosoft really hasn't had a great track record with products rushed out. Hell, it takes them forever to get Windows and its various patches out and they are still buggy. Do you really expect that if they rushed it out by Thanksgiving that it'll be fully stable? I'd expect that if they did release that early, there will be numerous patches coming over Live in the months leading up to the PS3 release.

[Andy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Sony should set the price of the PS3 to $360.01

[Tgunk @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Gamespy just released their top 25 games of E3 . The list was 75% 360 and PC titles (of which most will become 360 titles exclusively). They go on to gush about "Gears of War" and many other titles. Say what you want fanboys, but Microsoft is in great shape, regardless of timeline.

[Chris K @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#25, XBox fanboys aren't squirming too much, because their console actually exists in preproduction form. Sony showed absolutely nothing at E3. The PS3 could potentially not even exist at this point.

Please give up on all this juvenile fanboy-ism. You look like an idiot, and make the rest of us look like idiots by association.

[OutOfBubbagom @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Xbox = PC with PC type games = no new experience.

I don't need another PC with PC type games, I have 5 PCs on my home network already.

[Bob L. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

come on, lets think about this logically. how much of the u.s. console gaming market does sony have claim over? over 50% take any econ. class or not, thats a lot to overcome. who spends more money on advertising? ms. who still hasnt seen any money back on his investment? Gates. what is his real goal? to sell a product that will do everything entertainment-wise, like say play video, audio, connect to the internet, display pictures, blah blah blah and the lists goes on. he told time magazine that games are just the start. so which companies are really focusing just on games? sony and nintendo. who says that microsoft is going to do so much better because of an early release? didnt work for sega. now im not a fan of just plain having the most powerful gaming machine but sony did something smart. the kept to their original business model and added more power this time around. the only problem with the playstation and the playstation 2 was the fact that they hit their performance roof quicker than the other consoles. and who says xbox live is going to be the future of gaming? online games are fun sure, but thats not all people play. who would rather just have some friends over and all play in person than sit around by themselves playing a game with people they dont know? it gets old. mmorpgs aside. i still say sony is going to own the console market for at least another round. nintendo is still a joke at this point. though i wish they would just give in and sell out to sony cause they would more than likely make more money as a game development business entity than as a hardware producer. say what you will, but this is all based off the past few years of gaming. its still just as true today that you cant carry a single system on one game as it was back in the days of the n64. (yeah all you halo fans, i said it)

[TheUndertow @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

I can't understand why people would be so squarely on the PlayStation band wagon.

Sony has continuously over hyped and under produced for years.

Sony's claims that the Emotion Engine had "Toy Story" level graphical quality was a lie.

PS2's HDD add-on was supported by one game and basically rendered obsolete by their updated PS2 months after its release.

The PSP was released with underwhelming games and not many on the horizon. It has a litany of hardware issues ranging from a button that didn't work or became stuck because of a design flaw to LCD screens plagued with pixel issues. And yet they released a statement claiming there is nothing wrong and that it is perfection and a work of art.

I've been playing games for years, have flipped my PS1 upside down to get it to work and bypassed the PS2 era entirely in favor of Xbox.

I just can't understand why Sony has so much consumer support. Even going into other electronic avenues, Sony's reputation for hardware reliability is garbage. Mini discs were over hyped and abandoned. Their LCD Projection TVs have a host of problems...etc...etc.

[Bob L. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

yeah, guess thats why the vast majority of the developers are on the sony bandwagon huh? ever heard of flexible hardware? nintendo's never had it. microsoft doesnt care about games, it just wants in on a piece of the money pie... then it wants the whole thing. how much experience has ms. had with making hardware? and you cant tell me that you think windows is good cause ill laugh at you and tell you to go download the latest vital patch. hahaha! come on, would you honestly like it if microsoft was the only console company that existed? im not saying i want sony win the war, cause none of em should! we're all consumers, we should be happy for all the competition. otherwise you just get bad products like windows and internet explorer. (such banes on society!)

[hemmy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

If you were at Sony's Conference right before the E3 where people like Tim Sweeney of Epic Games demo'd the Unreal 3 engine running on PS3 hardware - his own words, they received the hardware two months ago, and it was realtime (camera was manipulated in the scene around the actors), and he said two months was all it took to port it over to the PS3, and that the PS3 was really easy to program for (no shit, OpenGL based + Cg chader language). So, developers have at *least* prototype/alpha PS3 hardware, not terribly unlike the G5 kits running the 360 game demos, and lamers saying the PS3 will be hard to develop for are talking out their asses.

[Jake @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Thank you hemmy for preaching the true word. THE PS3 IS EASY TO DEVELOP FOR!!!

[DanAmpX @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

#38
I was not talking about Sony's Playstation, I was talking about Microsoft's XBox,
Oh, and I don't understand why that statement was at all necessary. I never said "OMGZ MICROSOFT IS THE ONLY COMPANY WITH BUGS" I just made a simple prediction.
Chill out Sony fans. We come in peace... or at least I do.

[Tgunk @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

TheUndertow, it's painfully simple. The Sony Playstation came out first. People are pretty stupid (as seen in much of the comment here) and they bond quickly to mediocre products. The Playstation 2 is a fair gaming console; it's nothing special. But some great games were made for it, nevertheless. The Xbox is a better console and yet, although there were great games made for it, not nearly as many as were made for the PS2. Lots of people bonded to these PS2 games, and those customers became loyal to Sony. Microsoft learned a lot in round one and won't make that mistake again. They will get a strong console our well before Sony's PS3 and have a whole slew of great games like "Gears of War" for people to bond to. Imagine if Microsoft had a dozen exclusive Halo-quality games out? They would do extremely well. The list of games that were on Gamespy's top E3 25 were exciting-looking games. The reason there's so much BS being slung by Sony right now is that they know they're in trouble, and they have nothing to lose. So, expect all these vitriolic responses to increase in intensity as the 360 goes to market. Personally, I think this intense competition is good for gaming.

[Ken L @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

"who still hasnt seen any money back on his investment? Gates."

Like he needs to? But that's beside the point. If you've actually kept up with the news you would have known that XBox division turned its first profit this quarter. When introducing Xbox in 20001, MS did day that it was going to be unprofitable for three years and it seems that they are right on target.