Xbox360Launch
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Viva Brasilia! 360 in Brazil next month [update 1]
Microsoft announced its plans to launch the Xbox 360 in Brazil yesterday. Microsoft's launch will mark the first time that any company has officially introduced a console in Brazil. Until now, gamers were forced to import/pirate their gaming goodness. The Brazilian 360 bundle will be available on December 1st and will include a Premium 360, a media remote, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, and Project Gotham Racing 3. The price for the bundle will be R$2999 (US$1400!). The price seems exorbitant, especially considering 360s are already unofficially selling for half as much. Games will run R$169 (US$79). According to our tipster, many titles will be available (in Portuguese) this year -- including Gears of War. Xbox Live should launch shortly after launch.Speaking of the launch, David Cervantes, Director of Microsoft's Latin America games and entertainment division, said, "We have learned in Mexico and Colombia that when we come ahead of our competitors, our market share can double just by being the first. If we get a critical mass, it's very difficult for us [to] lose our lead."Microsoft's continued policy of launching in as many territories as possible -- they launched in India last month -- may have a profound effect on how the next generation pans out. With more international money to be made, the 360 will only become more attractive to developers. Also, this gives foreign developers a reason to develop games for their own territories as well. With games coming mostly from Japan, America, and western Europe for decades, it will be interesting to see how many more international players join the 360 development scene. Would any of our Brazilian readers care to comment?[Via Joystiq. Thanks, Lobato]Update: Brazil will be recieving PGR3, not PGR4. Unless they have a form of time travel of which I am not aware.
Xbox 360 launches in South Africa
If you're a gamer living in South Africa, chances are that your visual periphery was dominated this past weekend by Microsoft's Xbox 360 launch and its accompanying marketing campaign. Nearly a year after the system's first-worldwide launch, the Xbox 360 became officially available to eager shoppers at the stroke of midnight on Friday, 29 September. Playable in-store kiosks, radio advertisements, campus tournaments and vaguely sinister cardboard stands announced not only the arrival of "the next generation of gaming," but the expansion of choice.Unless you wanted to import the original Xbox or stick your hand into the awkward and tangled mess of Gamecube distribution lines, the PlayStation 2 was the only console the average gamer could reliably and affordably find in game stores. The merits of Sony's system have long since been established and it's easy to argue that South Africa got the best console out of the bunch, though "best" loses much of its meaning when it becomes interchangeable with "only." Consider for a moment how your gaming habits might be affected if two out of three consoles weren't readily available to you. For comparison's sake (and because we didn't have much else to do) we attended one of the midnight launches at BT Games (Northgate) in Johannesburg, taking care to snap pictures and generally harass people who simply wanted to pick up their pre-orders in peace. Several midnight events took place all over the country, coinciding with the beginning of rAge -- a gaming expo we'll tell you about later.
Microsoft to launch Xbox 360 Core in Japan [update 1]
Having already launched the Xbox 360 twice in Japan, it would seem that Microsoft's efforts to woo gamers in the East are due to take a turn for the desperate and slightly non-sensical. Reuters Canada reports that the Redmond giant plans to release a "simpler version" of the console on November 2nd, one stripped of a hard drive and equipped with a lower price (a drop of 10,000 yen, or $86). Savvy gamers will immediately recognize this as the Xbox 360 Core system and promptly recoil in horror. We can only imagine the marketing meeting that spawned this strategy:"Sir, I don't know if you've heard, but we aren't doing too well in Japan.""Japan?""It's a country. It's where Mario, the Italian plumber comes from.""Of course. Why aren't we selling millions over there?""My analysis of the situation reveals one of two reasons, sir. Number one. We haven't been giving the Japanese gamers the genres or the popular franchises they want. We have no Final Fantasy, no Dragon Quest and no Metal Gear Solid.""........."".............""Bwahahahaha!""Hahaha!""But seriously, I figure it's just because they hate freedom so much.""Well then, we should stick to our guns and give them freedom. Lots of it. Let's send them choice and our cheaper Xbox 360.""But sir, that didn't even sell well in the countries that do like the Xbox 360. The normal version did much better. Oh, I see.""That's right. The good Xbox 360 sells well here and the crappy one sells poorly. The good Xbox 360 sells badly in Japan, so therefore ...""The crappy one should be a huge hit! Amazing!"Cracking the Japanese market isn't an amazing or an impossible feat, but assaulting it with the squeaky toy hammer that is a $255 (29,800 yen), feature deprived console is unlikely to be terribly effective. Consider that since its original launch in Japan, the Xbox 360 has sold 158,654 units -- about as much as the DS Lite sells in a week.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.][Update: IGN notes that the system includes Ninety Nine Nights and Project Gotham Racing 3. Does that make up for the 16,275 yen (roughly $130) value of a seperate hard drive and headset? Thanks, A Master Ninja.]
Xbox 360 invades South Africa next month
Better late than never news now, as Microsoft sends out word that the Xbox 360 will be launching in South Africa this September. After gifting upon the world Nelson Mandela, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlize Theron, Dave Matthews and frequently delicious koeksusters, it seems only fair to reward the third-world country with a shiny new games console. Local marketing manager, Cindy White, explains that South African gamers are a hungry bunch: "South Africa is a country where the appetite for console gaming is growing in leaps and bounds – expanding to Africa allows us to build a successful business ecosystem for our partners, and to bring more gamers amazing next-generation gaming and entertainment experiences."What she fails to mention, however, is that the entertainment experience arrives with a significant bite taken out of it. According to the online variant of NAG, a local gaming magazine, Xbox Live will not be "officially" supported within the first 12 months of the system's arrival. Stopping short of physically removing one of the analog sticks on the 360 controller, this move seems to leave quite a significant gap in the console's appeal. Live itself will still function -- the hardcore group of currently connected South Africans can attest to that -- but it will likely be impossible to purchase Live subscriptions from stores or perform marketplace transactions in South African currency.Both the normal and core editions of the Xbox 360 will launch on 29 September for R3,699 ($519) and R2,699 ($378) respectively. Until then, South Africans can enjoy reading irksome generalizations and ignorant remarks ("You wont ear people talking thats for sure , all you will ear is clicking sounds , cant wait to play againts Shaka Zulu") on the official Xbox forums. After the break: This entire post written...in the Afrikaans language!
