Xbox 360 Elite to arrive on October 11th in Japan - Europe Late August Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox 360 Elite to arrive on October 11th in Japan - Europe Late August? Posted by XanTium | July 4 20:52 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From tech.co.uk: [QUOTE] The Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite is to be released in Japan this coming October. Microsoft Japan made the announcement today, sparking even more rumours that a European release could be close. The Xbox 360 Elite will hit Japanese shelves on 11th October. Microsoft will be hoping that it has the same impact there that it did when it launched earlier this year in the United States. Back in March, we reported that the 360 Elite was set to launch in the UK at some point in the late summer. Then an HMV spokesperson spoke to Eurogamer, and said: "All we understand is that it's at some point perhaps around the late summer, but we don't know anything beyond that. Then last week came the rumour that the Elite would launch in Europe on the 24th of August. That fitted in nicely with the earlier 'late summer' statement by the HMV man. [/QUOTE] Full Story: tech.co.uk

[RiPpN-N-TrIppN]

Screw Japan wheres Australia
and i want the new chipset too i dont want to hear any more 3 ROD shite
Rip

[Elemino]

That fitted in nicely with the earlier 'late summer' statement by the HMV man.

Ok, that's enough out of me.

[Boiker]

Microsoft will be hoping that it has the same impact there that it did when it launched earlier this year in the United States.

So Microsoft will be hoping that the addition of a HDMI port, bigger HDD and being black will boost sales of the console in Japan? The difference is that the 360 is actually popular in the US so ofcourse an updated version will be as or more popular than the original. Expect sales to be very low I would say.

A well placed release date for the UK methinks

[midnightcharger2]

My opinon is it will be a flop in Japan. My strong belief is due to me living here and knowing the gaming commpunity and the culture (lived here for 5 years)

It's not hardware failure keeping the sales down in Japan. Its the lack of the folloing

1. Loyalty, Sony is a major company and its well known that many Japanese will favor Japans products over foreign. The ps2 is still extremely popular in Japan and paying almost retail for used units is to be expected. There is a large software library for this unit with new games constantly being released.

2. Price. The sony Ps3 can be found at many used gaming shops. Used units range slightly below retail price. The console is extremely expensive for many Japanese buyers. compared to the home console Ps2. On a salary of about 3000 a month most Japanese think I am a rich buisness man(I wish i was). That shows that most workers make considerbly less then myself (the average for my area is 1600-1900 a month for many J-workers)

3. Cultural differences. I have rarely heard of any of my students (upto the teenager demographic) allowed to do marathon sessions on their gaming consoles if they even have a home console at all. The culture here focuses on their children getting a quality education and look at the consoles as wasteful. I worked around kids in the elementary to High school ranges and was shocked to learn the amount of hours they spend at school along with for most of them after school clubs / music classes etc. Most students from higher paid families attend JUKU'S (cram schools in Japanese) for mainly English and Math. Some students do this routine upto 6 days a week. This is the norm for this country which leaves them with little time for their personal lives.

4. Advertising. I watch J-tv frequently. The amount of advertising for gaming here is next to none. As conpared to the states where I was plagued with commercials on upcoming released games and consoles, we really never see any frequent advertising on new releases.

This is the main reason the portable gaming is popular. The DS is a winner here due to being inexpensive and also the amount ot titles released constantly. Many students prefer portable gaming since they are out of sight of their watchful parents eye. They can meet each other at school and huddle around each other to show off their newest games and swap games between classes. It is not common place for kids here to hang over each others houses

Honestly, I think both Sony and Microsoft have lost touch with the Japanese. I see it as they are both standing at a cliff and throwing their products over the edge hoping that someone will be at the bottom to catch it.

Frank
Nagano, Japan

[wadsy]

Whats the point of a Elite in PAL region we don't get any updates to video market place so unless you plan on downloading 120GB of demos or have a large collection of mp3s without network access theres no point, unless HDMI makes you squirt.

This post has been edited by wadsy: Jul 5 2007, 05:48 AM

[FCTE]

Whats the point of a Elite in PAL region we don't get any updates to video market place so unless you plan on downloading 120GB of demos or have a large collection of mp3s without network access theres no point, unless HDMI makes you squirt.

Even in NTSC I don't see a reason to use the 120GB drive.

I mean if you download and play a demo, don't you either decide you hate the game or want to buy it and do so soon after? Who leaves a bunch a demos all over their drive?

Movie rentals are only good for 14 days and then 24 hours after you press play so they vaporize after you view them, so no point in keeping that on your drive.

Music? Yes, let me drag out all of my CD's to re-rip them in a horrible WMA format. You can just use an external drive in Fat32, so that's out.

The only reason to have a drive that big is for possible huge add ons you'll want to keep around, like maybe Final Fantasy or Oblivion, etc. Other than that I see no reason to get the bigger hard drive.

[comhen]

Has anyone had ring of death on the Elite xbox?

[Archalien]

Fcuk all those WORLDLY releases, we need a re-release here.

I Live in Silicon Valley, have ~30 gamestops/EB games etc along with another 30 GameCrazys about 10 each bestbuys, CircuitCitys, target and walmarts, And 6 Frys all within 30 minutes of driving.

We aint got shi!t after launch which saw these stores get meager quantities like 4 or 5.


Why world launch when u cant even supply domestic demand?????

[pinkerton]

I would take what the HMV spokeman said with a pinch of salt, I used to work for HMV when Tim Ellis (said spokeman) was our area manager, he probably made it up to it make sound like he's got "insider" information,
after all he is a scouser.

This post has been edited by pinkerton: Jul 5 2007, 09:03 AM

[ivota]

Has anyone had ring of death on the Elite xbox?

I wonder too.
Yes, X-clamp is still in x360.

[bucko]

Why, is Europe last on everything?

It sucks living in this part of the world.

[sheru89]

it's also going to be some $90 cheaper in Japan than it is in the US

[steveju]

it's also going to be some $90 cheaper in Japan than it is in the US

Yup, nothing wrong with low prices. Too bad the European version of the Elite is going for 1:1 exchange rate it seems... this means that it costs $165 more in Europe than in the US of A.

[oriku]

If this is a different Elite, as in with a new chipset and quieter DVD drive, I'm gonna be all over this.

It'd be really nice to start using the 360 to upscale DVDs (I wonder if it's as good as the PS3's upscaling).