MasterofDVD

I figured the bundle talk had begun already. If GameStop tries to push a bundle on me I will certainly be camping out at Wal-Mart the night of release. None of the games in the bundles interest me at this point.

Apollo

This is turning out cheaper than my XBox preorder. At $699 and the bundle contains games that I want.

I notice that the ship date is Nov 15, I wonder is that the official date?

Ispep Aloc

I would have gladly paid for a bundle, however there's no mention of Madden at all and the only other game in the bundle that I would consider buying is Perfect Dark. I'm gonna try my luck preordering at a local eb to avoid the bundles.

hail2dking

I preorderd at GameRush yesterday, they only have the $399 system....no bundle required

ChrisHicks

no bundle for me. I only want the system and 1 game to start with. everything else (extra controllers + more games) will be at a later date.

joshd2012

That's actually not too bad. As far as I can tell, those are all Microsoft bundled accessories, non of the 3rd party crap they usually make you buy. And if those games are launch games, that's a damn good line-up so far.

Josh H

I don't see why anyone would pre-order a bundle. With the $400 price tag I'd be shocked if it wasn't easy to walk into any store not taking pre-orders on launch day and pick one up. Unless MS simply ships a miniscule number at launch, which doesn't seem likely.

flashburn

Apparently you got lucky. They sent out a company wide memo yesterday stating not to let people preorder the systems yet. They told me today that they should be accepting them by the end of the week and want a $100 deposit.

I don't really mind paying $400 for the system, especially after all the great Gamerush tradein deals, I should have a decent amount of titles at launch.

sdcrym

EBGames might be getting themselves in trouble if they don't fix what's in the preorder bundle. They say the Universal Media Remote is included and even include its picture in their bundle.



However, that remote costs $30 and isn't included in Microsoft's $400 system. For a limited time they are including a non-universal remote in the $400 package. It looks like you'll be able to use it to play DVDs, navigate throught the 360 dashboard, and access a Windows MCE PC, but not any other components like the universal remote will.



Unless EBGames is planning on including the $30 as a seperate accessory, some employee hasn't been doing his or her homework.

Flay

Ebgames adjusted the price of some of the games to $49.99 also.

Michael Corvin

Well the actual $30 remote would be more in line with the pricing. Isn't Kameo a Rare game? Two rare games released on time on the same day? I don't think so.

Adam Tyner

The vaguely funny thing -- if the first party games wind up being $49.99, even if you assume DOA4 is $59.99, this bundle actually winds up being somewhere around $8 more than if you bought everything individually. Um, unless I'm really screwing up my math.

flashburn

Also need to remember that they are including the 'Limited Edition' version of Perfect Dark which is $59.99

Adam Tyner

Sorry, I missed that at first glance. So the revised version is that you're saving an astonishing $2 off MSRP with the $700 bundle.

sdcrym

But EBgames doesn't list the $30 remote as an accessory that's included in the $700 bundle. It lists it as a subset of the $400 Microsoft 360 SKU that, according to all other information, includes the "reduced media" remote.

Obey The D

These bundles are getting out of hand. If I'm going to have to pony up $700, at least let me choose what games I want in the bundle (like EB did with the PSP release).

Centurion

Just a gut feeling...you're not going to have to do this for this launch.

Michael Corvin

Yep. I'm thinking the same thing.

MasterofDVD

I do a great deal of things that I don't have to do. I'll just add this to that list.

DJ_Longfellow

Yeah, I really don't want a bundle either....although, I'd probably eventually buy everything in that package. I'm going to GameRush this week to place my pre-order anyways

Noonan

Exactly. I have no problem with what's included or the price, but I want different games. I'm basically buying the system at launch just for Oblivion, so that would raise my price to almost $800.

DJ_Longfellow

So, what kind of production run do you think there should be on the XBOX360? I know most stores are taking pre-orders, but will it be like the PSP (REALLY hyped), but was readily available after launch

PixyJunket

I'd imagine as much. But the holiday season is so unpredictable you can really never know what will happen.

remjim

From IGN:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/644/644432p1.html

J Allard Talks Pricing, Compatibility

At German show, Allard says 360 backward compatibility requires hard drive, bigger HDs will appear in the future, and hinted at a black 360.
by Douglass C. Perry

August 22, 2005 - Simultaneous witht the German Game Show, Microsoft lifestyle writer Major Nelson conducted an online chat/Q& session with Vice President and Chief XNA Architect J Allard about the recent Xbox 360 price announcements. For the most part Allard repeated the mantra "it's a great value for the money," but the articulate executive also tackled the more pertinent issues of backward compatibility, high definition uses and the AV cables, memory cards, the necessity for having a hard drive, upgradeability, and more.

The most crucial element of the conversation revolved on the subject of hard drives. Allard admitted the HD is a necessity for backward compatibility to play Xbox 1 games. He said backward compatibility will require a hard drive, rendering the thriftier Core System far less useful for gamers intent on playing backward Xbox games.

"Because we didn't abstract storage in the first generation Xbox, backward compatibility [on Xbox 360] will require a hard drive," Allard said. "The good news is that the core system owners can upgraded if they decide to update at a later date."

Allard explained the hard drive can help speed load times, but Microsoft has worked with developers to ensure games load efficiently without it. Allard pointed to the efficiency of the system's dual-layered 12X DVD.

Allard touched on potential buyers of the Premium Package who don't own an HDTV yet. The AV pack in the $399.99 package contains component and composite cables so you can connect to both standard and HDTVs.

"This means it will pretty much work with all HD and SD sets out there," he explained. "The other cool thing is that you can take that cable between high def and standard def TVs."

Engaging in the upcoming battle for standardized formats, Allard said the future will be "interesting." "When we designed the initial Xbox many people asked if SACS or DVD audio would be the successor to the CD format for music. As everyone knows the real successor was mp3 and digital distribution with things like Napster, Ipod and MSN music. While there is a lot of talk about this in the industry it will be interesting to see what the exact future of this is for movies. Of course I think there will be a need for higher capacity optical media for storage applications. We prefer HD-DVD to Blu-Ray in terms of the flexibility it offers to different applications as well as the infrastructure costs to the market."

When addressing wifi, Allard explained that the power of the CPU and GPU were the bulk of the design investment, emphasizing the importance of "kick-butt games."

"We had a fixed budget and could not do it all," He said. "In the end we had a budget and had to offer wifi as an option, but we did decide to add "a" as a standard in addition to b and g. We are also compatible with existing devices already on the market."

When asked why Microsoft even offered the Core System at all, the talkative executive explained that the Core System wasn't designed around "you guys," i.e, the hardcore gamers in the chat room.

"Similar to the shuffle, the Boxter, the 4:3 TV, the 1mpix camera, we designed the core system as a way to get folks to come into the family at a cheaper prices and decide if and how they scale the system," he said. "The great thing about our approach, unlike these examples, is that the core owner can upgrade the system and match the capabilities of the premium system when the time is right for them."

Allard mentioned that while there is no current plan for a black Xbox 360 at launch, but that customer feedback will help Microsoft detemine faceplate designs and additional console colors: "I expect down the line we will get feedback that people want other colors and we will provide it."

Finally, on the subject of the $399.99 package, and its steep pricing, Allard put the 360 I perspective.

"I think that the capabilities we are offering with Xbox 360 are unmatched in the history of videogaming. It's a great value. And the system that most of the folks in this chat room are going to prefer. I saw a posting earlier today where someone looked up the historical prices and capabilities of games systems. It was worth noting that the ps2 launched at $368 (in Japan) with no hard drive, no online service, no memory unit, no wireless, no voice, no network adapter, no remote, and only support for two controllers. That's not the reason we priced the system this way but it does provide a comparative frame of reference for what you are getting. When you consider you are getting the most powerful games system, best CD player, digital media player, movie player, etc. it's a great value."

I have a feeling that there will be a lot of parents who will buy the 360 for Timmie or Susie for Christmas without knowing about the backards compatibility issue.

On pricing: while I feel that 400 is a little too much for a system, I think that Allard has a valid point. The PS2 was 300 when it launched here and it had no bells & whistles. Still, there's something about charging 400 as opposed to 300 that draws a line in the sand for most people.

joshd2012

When the PS2 was released, it had all the bells and all the whistles compared to its only competition - the DC. It had a DVD player for crying out loud.

It just seems to me that the money tight gamer who can only afford the core version would be the one who made most use of their old Xbox games.