Microsoft will treat you to a nice seafood dinner if you buy an Xbox. Sort of.
Microsoft is trying to woo the wafflers who aren’t sure which console to buy this Christmas with a special holiday offer and the promise of the upcoming Xbox Experience launch. For an estimated retail price (ERP) of $199.99 ERP (U.S.), the Xbox 360 Arcade holiday offer comes with “Sega Superstars Tennis” and five Xbox LIVE Arcade games. The Xbox 360 console ($299.99 ERP) and Xbox 360 Elite ($399.99 ERP) holiday offers pair the consoles with “LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures” and “Kung Fu PandaTM” at no added cost.
Here’s what we can expect to see on November 19th:
Xbox LIVE Party. I remember hearing stuff about being able to watch movies with friends if you invite them into the same room… but I’m not seeing specific details in the press release about this. It just says: “Xbox 360 allows you to create a virtual party on your TV with up to seven friends. With LIVE Party, voice chat while you play games, share photos in real time and entertain friends all over the world.” You can already voice chat with friends while you play games so I’m not sure why this is a big deal, but whatev. Guess this is really targeting people who don’t know anything about the 360. Note: in order to do the picture sharing deal, the footnote says you need to have an Xbox LIVE Gold membership ($49.99 for 12 months.)
Avatars. You can create a customizable, animated avatar to use when you’re hosting a LIVE Party or chatting. I’m not sure I like these. They’re very Mii Wii-esque and anyone who has had a Wii for awhile knows how quickly those got old and boring. They just feel too cheesy for me, but I again - I think Microsoft is just trying to expand their 360 demographic.
Screenshot of the Cheesy McCheeser Town Avatars
Netflix Partnership I really want this to be awesome, but I’m worried about the download times. I’ve got a T1 internet connection and yet it still takes several hours to download movies. I used the “watch it while it’s downloading” feature on the PS3 and that was buffering hell. I’m hoping the 360 does a better job with this. We shall see. In order to take advantage of the Netflix library, you have to have a LIVE Gold membership and an unlimited plan with Netflix (cheapest one is $13.99 a month.)
Games for the community, by the community. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public. The Community Games channel on Xbox LIVE will include games made by students, hobbyists, and average people all around the world and will be exclusive to Xbox LIVE.
So - if you don’t have an Xbox yet and you want to take advantage of all the new stuff, you probably don’t want to go for the Arcade version. It doesn’t come with a hard drive (?!) and the New Xbox Experience requires a minimum of 256MB of memory. The 512MB memory unit will set you back about $50 putting the cost up to $250 at which point you may as well go for the Xbox 360.
Xbox 360: $299.99
Gold membership (1 yr): $49.99
Netflix membership (monthly): $13.99
Total initial cost: $363.97
Entering the joyous world of Xbox ownership: priceless
November 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I am SUPER stoked for the Netflix deal!
November 6th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I’ve had the NXE since Oct 30th. I was chosen to participate in the Fall Flash Program. I can tell you all right now. That you’re gonna love it. It’s loads everything faster and looks awesome. I really love the colors in the guide menu. Which by the way is awesome! It’s also fun to use and your choices now seem more attractive and appealing.
Making my Avatar was fun, but right now your clothes and accessory choices seem pretty limited, but MS said they’ll be adding more with updates. Oh and girl Avatar’s get to use makeup. Netflix must be downloaded. Once you do. It loads pretty fast and choosing movies is fun and easy.
My NXE Preview Pics
November 7th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I’m mostly excited for the gameshow features they talked about at E3.. I think they specifically mentioned 1 vs. 100.
November 9th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
“I remember hearing stuff about being able to watch movies with friends if you invite them into the same room …”
Is it just me or could that statement launch a whole discussion as a social commentary?
Rofl my one English prof would seriously pass out …
November 9th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Typically you already could private chat, but with only ONE other person, making a total of two. SO the appeal to me, is the fact that you can pretty much have private chat rooms as opposed to just one person.