: November 20, 2005 : Igniq Gaming News

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Xbox 360 Goes for Over $10K on eBay - 23.11.05

Amid a shortage of Premium Xbox 360's in brick and mortar stores in the U.S., the console is selling like hotcakes on eBay.com, which has a special advertisement on its front page directing visitors to the site's section for the console.

Currently, there are over 20,000 360's up for auction, with some starting bids as high as $3,100 for a Premium bundle + extra game and controller shipped within the day by FedEx.

Meanwhile, a completed auction yesterday saw a lucky seller shift his Premium unit for a ridiculous $10,600:

The highest price paid on Tuesday was a staggering $10,600. A gamer placed the bid in a one-day auction ending on Tuesday afternoon which promised overnight shipping to allow the new owner to receive his premium unit on Wednesday.

While $10,600 is clearly an exception, dozens of systems sold for around $3,000, mostly in auctions ending early on Tuesday morning in the US.

One listing, in which an Xbox premium was sold for $3,050, advertised the system with the comment: "Buy early and save money."

Gamers shell out up to $10,600 for Xbox 360

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Poor Framerates Trouble Quake IV on Xbox 360 -

The fourth instalment of Quake for the spanking new Xbox 360 has earned some fairly lacklustre reviews on both Gamespot and 1UP.

What sound like appalling performance issues helped to earn it a 6 or "Playable" rating on 1UP, while Gamespot went so far as to call the framerate problem "atrocious in spots", despite any points in favour of the game which include a full Xbox 360 version of Quake II included on the bonus disc:

At some points, it gets so bad that the whole game starts to slow down, as well. You'll know when that's happening because the rate of fire on your weapons slows way, way down. Even when there's no action onscreen, just viewing the environments is enough to make the game run at a noticeably choppy rate. While there are still some cool-looking areas, the frame rate troubles drag down the entire experience.

Gamespot: Quake IV Xbox 360 review - 1UP.com review
Via Xbox 360 Fanboy

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Reports of Crashing Xbox 360's -

A number of popular posts have cropped up on Xbox-Scene.com of new Xbox 360 owners complaining that their console is defective. Some users have been getting an "Error 64" message after the 360 logo appears, while others are reporting on the system crashing or freezing up while loading or playing games, still others report that the much-anticipated Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before the end of the first lap. It's unclear what percentage of the Xbox 360's sold are having these problems, but it certainly isn't great press for Microsoft:

I also get error 64 after I see the xbox 360 logo go up. I was watching a dvd on it and it kept stopping and I finally rebooted it and I havent been able to do anything since. This is ridiculous for on the first day to have so many problems like this. Even before this happened I was saying that they should wait until they could meet at least half the demand, not to mention testing their product before shipping. I now see that these problems have been wide spread and MS will lose customers because of it.

What Is Error 64
Xbox 360 Crashing Like Mad?
Defective Xbox 360 ?, Anyone else have one?
Xbox 360 Glitches/ And / Or Bugs?
Xbox 360 Crash =(, Crashes on every game via Slashdot

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17 Yr-Old Robbed for his Brand New Xbox 360 - 22.11.05

The first instance of crime related to this morning's launch of the Xbox 360 is being reported by the AP. Just after midnight, a pair of thieves set upon a 17 year old boy in Minot, North Dakota and robbed him of his brand new console:

The boy was attacked by two males around 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, when stores nationwide began selling the new Xbox system. The attackers took the game valued at about $450 and fled on foot.

The boy suffered minor injuries to his face, police said.

Minot boy assaulted, robbed of new video game via Digg

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PS2 Price Drop Rumour Revisited -

The rumour that Sony will dramatically cut the price of the Playstation 2 in order to put a dent in the success of Microsoft's Xbox 360 has made a return with a new article on CNN/Money.

Author Peter Lewis finished up an analysis of the XBox 360's threat to Sony by suggesting that Sony might cut the PS2's price to as low as $100 to make the $400 Xbox 360 seem "less attractive".

This would be great news for gamers, and Sony still has time to announce a price-cut before the Christmas season arrives, but at the moment it appears unlikely this will happen - back in August, Sony's U.K. chief Ray Maguire revealed the company were pushing to try and reduce the cost of manufacturing the console, but insisted that a price-cut was not on the cards before Christmas.

Should you wait for the PS3? via Joystiq

Related:
Sony: No PS2 Price-Cut Before Christmas (29 Aug)
Sony Expected to Announce PS2 Price-Cut (16 August)
PS2 Pricecut Trick for Xbox 360 Launch? (30 July)
Bill Gates Appears at Store for Xbox 360 Launch
Discussion >>

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Bill Gates Appears at Store for Xbox 360 Launch -

As thousands of U.S. gamers lined up outside stores last night waiting for 12.01am to arrive, Bill Gates himself was on-hand at a Best Buy in Seattle to greet the first customers for his new Xbox. According to Kotaku, the Microsoft boss took part in a few rounds of Bizarre Creation's amazing Project Gotham Racing 3, though there's no word on how he fared against the other players.

MSNBC also have a short interview with Gates from the store, where he declared the Xbox 360 the centrepiece of his strategy for customer's living rooms, though he also admitted he's not best described as a hardcore gamer:

I’m not a heavy gamer, I’m a light gamer — something to do with my job
[..]
The people on [the Xbox] team can all kill me within about 60 seconds on Halo, so I try and avoid them.

X marks the spot for giddy gamers - Images over on Kotaku

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NES Controller as MP3 Player -

Gizmodo has linked to another cool hack for the dusty old NES controller's you might still have laying about the house. A group of bored Austrians have hollowed out the innards of the controller and replaced them with a bottom-rung flash MP3 player, whose functions they hooked up to the controller buttons.

Pics and translated page

Extra bonus NES link - NES Synth Covers: An album of classic rock covers created using a synthesizer based on the NES's audio system. Via Metafilter

Related:
Commodore To Make A Gaming Comeback
Sucky Nintendo box art
Nintendo nut sells out
Micro-Sized NES Controller
Michael Jackson - Famicom Hero
Tetris Shelves
Giant, Working GameBoy
Discussion >>

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Xbox 360 Last-Minute Buyer Tips - 21.11.05

With the Xbox 360 due to fly off shelves at 12.01am tonight at thousands of retail stores across the U.S., those who said they'd skip the launch and get theirs later might be suddenly getting second thoughts when they imagine how left out they'll feel seeing their friends playing the brand new console tomorrow.

As such, Kotaku has compiled a last-minute guide for those who want to get their hands on a 360 early but haven't made any plans on exactly how to do it:

• Waiting in line is for sucks, but if you’re going to do it, bring some water, warm clothes, and your DS and PSP. • Try and return unwanted, bundled games and accessories. Some stores will allow this, and it does not make you an asshole. • Be prepared to spend upwards of $1,000, especially at stores that force bundles. • If you can’t be arsed to stand in line until midnight, try other stores tomorrow. • Small retailers have smaller crowds (and smaller allocations of inventory).

And the final, most important tip:

• Product shortages, while possible, are often engineered as a marketing stunt. (See: the Sony PSP, which “sold out” while thousands sat on store shelves.) If you don’t get an Xbox 360 in the next 24 hours, don’t worry. I promise you that Microsoft will be happy to sell you one for the next, say, four years. And if you wait, you’ll even be able to buy an Xbox 360 plus a game you actually want, not one of the many launch titles that will have to do.

Xbox 360 Last Minute Buyer’s Guide

Meanwhile, the new Xbox 360 Fanboy blog has compiled a list for us European gamers entitled 10 things to do in the next 10 days as we wait for the 360 launch to spread to our part of the world.

Related:
TeamXbox: Xbox 360 Arrival Spawns Midnight Madness Frenzy
Got $2000? Check Out the Xbox 360 Omega Bundle
Bizarre Creations Push The Limits of Xbox 360
Xbox 360 Peripheral & Price Listings
Xbox 360 Information and Resources Links
Discussion >>

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How to know if you play MMOG's too much -

Some people get so engrossed in MMOG's like Second Life that it's difficult to tell if they're actually talking about a game or something that's happened in the real world. Richie's posted up a perfect example - read this account of a player whose heart is truly broken when her baby fails to be delivered, bearing in mind it's an in-game baby akin to a tamagotchi:

I was thrilled when I got married. I had dreams of marital bliss and many babies.
Just a few short weeks after I got married, I went to a well known baby place and I oohed and ahhed over all the cute baby things, the sweet sounds that the babies made, the adorable little babies themselves. I asked my hubby if we could start our family. When he agreed, I made the purchase of the baby. Only the baby, though. I was told that since it was only the baby, that it wouldn't take long. Excellent! I made my own shapes, since that is what I do. My friends and my hubby shared my excitement. We couldn't wait on the birth of our first son. Friends were giving me gifts, my mother in law was spoiling me to no end. I even bought us a new house. Made one of the rooms off the master bedroom into an adorable little nursery with a set that I had bought at the clinic. Such a beautiful nursery.

Read on

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