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Gadgets Microsoft Likely to Include Free Games Rather Than Drop Price of Xbox 360
Marcus Yam (Blog) - September 28, 2007 3:04 AM

52 comment(s) - last by Locutus465.. on Oct 1 at 1:03 PM

Reportedly Microsoft marketing images showing the new bundles (Source: Kotaku)

Xbox 360 to come with Forza 2 and Marvel for free this holiday season

Although manufacturing costs of the Xbox 360 will be cheaper than ever after the switch to the 65nm CPU platform codenamed Falcon, Microsoft will likely stick with its current pricing throughout the rest of the year. But that’s not to say that there won’t be some value added to help entice those on the fence to choose Microsoft’s console.

Briefly spotted on Best Buy’s online store, but now removed, were two pages that listed new bundles that added Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance to both the Xbox 360 Elite and Xbox 360 Premium SKUs. Both consoles were listed at their current prices, indicating that the two games were an added value package.

Gaming blog Kotaku uncovered marketing images for both the aforementioned bundles mid-August, and the appearance of such bundles in Best Buy nearly confirms their pending existence on the market.

The packaging shown in the images also matches up with previous information provided by Microsoft’s marketing, which added taglines “Go Pro” to the Xbox 360 Premium system while the Xbox 360 Elite displays “Go Big.”

Bundling games with the Xbox 360 is already standard practice in Canada. Best Buy in Canada is selling Xbox 360 Premium with Forza Motorsport 2 and Amped 3, while Wal-Mart substitutes one winter sport with another by adding in NHL 2K8 with Forza Motorsport 2.

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Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Acanthus on 9/28/2007 6:28:18 AM , Rating: 5

That doesnt overheat so bad it warps the motherboard and consumers would be more apt to picking them up.

I know that a lot of my friends, and myself, are reluctant to get one because of our other friends that are on their 1st and 2nd RMAs after under a year.

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By ryedizzel on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By zombiexl on 9/28/2007 7:33:10 AM , Rating: 5

Actually you are uninformed (or under informed).

I recently had my second one replaced (with a refurb, not a new console). Guess what my DLC doesnt work under any other account on that machine. Also if I dont log into live I cant use it.

This includes arcade games, media and more importantly oblivion content thats i've shelled out over $50 for.

MS has told me they woudl fix the problem, by moving my DLC registration to the new console serial. Guess what its been 2 weeks and they still havent. They were also supposed to call me back within 48 hours and never did.

I love my 360, but this is a major issue IMHO.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Aikouka on 9/28/2007 8:15:47 AM , Rating: 2

Just to help clarify, when you download DLC off XBOX Live, the content is registered (DRM'ized) in two ways:

1) It's set to your current console.
2) It's set to the currently active XBL account.

If both of these go away, the DLC is rendered useless. If 1 goes away, as the user reported, you must be logged into that XBL account to use the content.

This is one of the reasons why I won't buy a new console.... I mean, I already have a 360 Premium, but I like my console to be black (matches the rest). Unfortunately, it's not worth the hassle to do so :(.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Samus on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

By Samus on 9/28/2007 8:12:59 PM , Rating: -1

people its a fucking game console, give it a break. how often is anything voluntarily recalled in any other industry unless it's safety related.

NEVER.

Why don't you go whine about Nintendo's NES using aluminum interconnects instead of copper resulting in cartrage and console corrosion (hence needing to clean the pins, blow in the console, etc, every friggin time you want to play a game.

How about the PS1 and PS2's twenty-something revisions. I mean really, they have the SCPH-1000, 1001, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 5000, 5001, 5002, 7000, 7000-1, 7200, 7500, 9000, then three or four versions of the PSone.

The PS2 wasn't any better, it had at least 10 revisions, EXCLUDING the PStwo.

Never a recall for what was obviously design flaws being corrected here and there.

It's like your complaining about a free microsoft handjob every time you bitch about something that happens in every industry that Microsoft well-naturedly desided to correct at its own expense.

And after all that, I have a launch-day XBOX360 I use daily, and it has worked flawlessly since.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By misterk2dt on 9/29/2007 9:26:17 PM , Rating: 2

My wife couldn't access any of the DLC (Live Arcade games) on a replacement console with her XBL account until I redownloaded the content to my original HD. It actually didn't download the entire content but just updated the console link - after I did this all the DLC was relinked to the replacement console and we haven't had any problems. I wouldn't wait for a call from MS - I've found they aren't very responsive.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By daBKLYNdoorman on 9/28/2007 8:52:57 AM , Rating: 5

Yes, you are correct that people don't lose money by sending their console to Microsoft for repair, but thats not the problem. The problem for most users is the amount of time and stress that it takes to send the console to Microsoft for repairs.
I don't know about you, but when I buy a product, I expect it to perform perfectly well. Its okay if new products that have hit the market recently break, but products that have been on store shelves for more than a year? Come on... And why should I buy a cooler? If it's something that is required in order to keep your system alive, then it should be included by the manufacturer.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By mdogs444 on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

By mdogs444 on 9/28/2007 9:42:55 AM , Rating: -1

While in a way I do agree that the most PITA part of warranty service is the amount of work you go through to get the repair, but what you are searching for is entirely unrealistic. Granted, some types of products perform well for longer periods of time than others, but we must always hope for the best, plan for the worst.

For instance, lets take a look at automobiles. Spending 15k, 20k, 30k, even 50k+ on a new car is alot of money - now whatever category you deem expensive is dependant upon what you can afford. But no matter how much you spend on a car, you are still hoping that it performs flawlessly for the life of the time that you own it - even beyond its warranty period. But is that realistic? No, its not. And if you are expecting the product to perform flawlessly throughout the life of the product warranty, then why even have a product warranty? Regardless, the point of the warranty is to provide customer assurance that in the case something does happen, you did not waste your money on something that is unusable by a manufacturers defect. Once the warranty period is up, well - unfortunately, its a crap shoot from then on. That's because everything gets worn down over time, and whatever you buy, you have to expect that and realize that things are not made to last forever. If they were, then there would be not as much of a need to keep improving and releasing 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations of all products - not just video game consoles. Now if your car has a 50,000 mile warranty on it, and something goes wrong before you hit that mileage, are you going to out and throw a fit that the car did not perform perfectly, and you have to take it in to get fixed for free? It may not be an enjoyable time, but the fact is that the company is doing their responsibility by fixing the problem that you encountered while in warranty.

I agree with you about the cooler - there is no reason you should HAVE to buy it in order to make your product work. But the fact is, you DONT have to buy it to make the product work. Whether you buy it or not, there is still a chance of system failure, but you at least have assurance that your product will be fixed by the manufacturer free of charge.

quote:
The problem for most users is the amount of time and stress that it takes to send the console to Microsoft for repairs

What i find quite funny and over the top is your choice in words. Is your life so relaxed, that the only place you find stress is if your video games dont work? Is your life too crazy, that even video games stress you out? I dont get it. Chill out, its just a video game. Its a means of entertainment. Im sure you can find something else to do for two weeks - like go running, lift weights, play an outdoor sport, watch tv, perhaps even use that time to get ahead on your studies.....or hell, even read a book.

Lets not make the fact that a video game system may break, the end all, be all, of the world.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By MrPickins on 9/28/2007 12:09:36 PM , Rating: 3

Your analogy is flawed.

If the a company in the automotive industry had a product with the defect rate of the 360, it would have been recalled.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By MrPickins on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By mdogs444 on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By MrPickins on 9/28/2007 2:44:05 PM , Rating: 2

The difference is that with a recall they offer fix your item before it breaks.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By bozilla on 9/28/2007 8:17:56 PM , Rating: 2

eh? Did you even own a car? I mean are you for real?

I own 2 Audis for example..one of my Audis is A6 2005 model. The car had a known issue about the start/stop engine button. Mine didn't. I went to a dealership and asked them to fix it as it was noted it's clearly a problem.

They said, if it breaks, we'll fix it, otherwise we'll have to charge you for replacement.

Btw, this is same practice with all manufacturers, unless the problem might bring you a risk of harm.

Get real, Xbox 360 problem is not a huge pain. If it happens to me, I'll go get a new console and wait for my repair to go through, then I'll return the console I bought. Simple as that.

Second, someone who said that your content is tied to you Xbox 360 is a complete lie.

Your content is connected to you XBox Live account and your harddrive. This is why when you upgrade the hard drive, you can't use the old one on the same console.

So when you sent your stuff in, you should not have problems getting anything you downloaded or bought to play.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By gus6464 on 9/30/2007 8:35:25 PM , Rating: 2

My wife has an 06 Jetta. It only has like 30k miles and the transmission is already acting flaky. Think it's time we look into the new Camry.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By mdogs444 on 9/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By zombiexl on 9/28/2007 10:39:31 AM , Rating: 1

The use of the cooler actually will void your warrenty. There have been many post about this in the XBOX support forums.

Basically if you use one and dont tell them you should be OK as long as it didnt cause the damage (fire, etc).

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By darkangelism on 9/28/2007 2:11:48 PM , Rating: 2

Well they have a new cooler, so the RROD is much harder to get on new consoles

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By pheffern on 9/28/2007 3:05:34 PM , Rating: 2

My XBox RROD'd in February, about two months after I had it. I found the exchange process almost completely painless. I had a replacement, which has worked flawlessly, back in a little over a week.

Some people have had worse experiences, but this seems to be a pretty common account of the response.

I don't view the possibility of an RROD failure as a viable sole reason to decide against buying the console, and I think you're lying to yourself if you claim it is - other factors play a part in your decision, i.e. games selection, cost, ideology.

The coolers do nothing. Some people with them have had no RROD, some people have had one, some people have had several.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By AmbroseAthan on 9/28/2007 7:31:04 AM , Rating: 2

Just because both sides of the story need be represented:

I have owned the 360 since launch day, and it is still running flawlessly. It once sat inside a TV stand system, and for the past year and a half it ahs been sitting in my newer TV stand which is completely open besides the shelves.

Also, I think the newer systems are suffering less failures then the early productions, so your chances of getting a bad system now seem to be pretty low.

Has anyone heard of an elite RRoD-ing? Or the newer HDMI Premium? I feel like the stories tend to pick out the older productions.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By zombiexl on 9/28/2007 7:34:30 AM , Rating: 2

Go read the XBOX support forums, there have been elites and new pro's going bad.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By killerroach on 9/28/2007 8:40:11 AM , Rating: 2

Not only are some going bad, some are going bad in an astonishingly short period of time. Just like there are people with launch PS2s that still work, there are launch 360s that still work flawlessly after all this time... but the odds of it happening aren't as good as most would hope.

As far as the pack-in titles go, however, Forza 2 is a great one to include (IMO, the best reason to get a 360 at the present time), and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, while it has the name going for it, is only an okay sort of game. That being said, I don't think it'll do much to spur sales, but it will help Microsoft keep a pretty good sales position regardless of what their competitors decide to do.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Locutus465 on 10/1/2007 1:03:20 PM , Rating: 2

Weird, my premium (new HDMI version) doesn't seem at all unresnobly hot, despite running almost all the time... I haven't checked the forums, I'll probably have to do so...

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Jimmybones on 9/28/2007 9:31:05 AM , Rating: 1

All there systems are prone to death.

The 65nm will probably only help minimal. Since it is pretty widely agreed on that the GPU is the issue with excessive heat production. Only the CPU is getting reduced in the Falcon version.

They have also started adding additional heat sinks for the GPU so this maybe alleviate a bit more, but currently anyone who has purchased a 360 can expect it to fail from a design flaw.

You can check youtube there are several videos of RROD on the elites.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By mdogs444 on 9/28/2007 9:49:21 AM , Rating: 2

Im fairly certain that most people who buy the 360 have the mindset of "hope for the best, prepare for the worst".

I dont own any consoles right now, because, well...i just dont find video games that much fun anymore, and dont have the time to waste being unproductive while working 60 hrs per week and studying while in grad school.

However, with the fact that the RROD possibility is widespread and the system may fail, I would still probably rather buy a console at a cheaper price($300-400 vs $500-600), that has a 3 year warranty in that case that it breaks, versus a console that doesnt have many known issues but only a 1 year warranty.

With today's electronics, I almost expect things to break/die without early notification. Thus, id rather have the assurance of 3 years on a product that i expect to fail in that time frame, rather than 1 year on a product that i dont expect to fail in that time frame. Only because if im spending 400, 500, 600 dollars, i would expect a guaruntee of over 1 year - especially on something that is so complex.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Christopher1 on 9/29/2007 12:03:21 PM , Rating: 1

Something that you are paying over 600 dollars for should come with at least a 5 year warranty, like my father's HP computer came with.
Though, his Toshiba notebook I am typing on right now, only came with a 1 year warranty.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By MGSsancho on 9/28/2007 1:30:45 PM , Rating: 2

when they goto 65nm, M$ and every other company uses the chance to redesign mobo, use other parts (nics, ram, etc), heat sink layout casing, fan, other cooling, almost everything. so I do not think anything has really changed with the eleits besides the ANNA upscaler + hdmi port. if anyone with more first hand experience in mobo manufacturing wishes to rebute my claims on how this works, you are welcome to do so

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By weskurtz0081 on 9/28/2007 2:06:00 PM , Rating: 2

Actually, the board has a number of changes to it. The PCB is the same shape but printed differently. They have changed the layout of the caps along with the size of them, they made many components on the board smaller. This stuff was done to help increase circulation. It's not vastly different but the board does have other changes to it.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Samus on 9/28/2007 8:17:48 PM , Rating: 2

anything is prone to death.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By augiem on 9/28/2007 2:05:18 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not buying one until the 65nm's come out, period.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By GoatMonkey on 9/29/2007 1:10:30 AM , Rating: 2

Apparently, you won't have to wait very long...

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/28/65nm-xbox-360s-...

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By crazyblackman on 9/29/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Snuffalufagus on 9/29/2007 6:19:47 AM , Rating: 2

I love crazy black men, especially ingorant schmucks such as yourself. I'm on my tenth one. But I don't care. I'm hooked. It's the games. I don't mind spending upwards of 300 dollars and hoping I get my money's worth out of a product. It's just money. Who needs it. I love the crazy black men.n I love the crazy black men games. The games are so great. I love crazy black men. Their games are the best. They have really, really good games. well, here comes the UPS man. gotta go.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By crazyblackman on 9/29/07, Rating: -1

RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Locutus465 on 9/30/2007 2:17:18 AM , Rating: 2

My HDMI premium never over heats... In fact just last night it was playing host to several hours of constant Halo 3 slayer matches (we're talking 4+ hours of constant operation)... Get over it, RROD is already getting to be a thing of the past... Most consoles I hear of having heat issues are older models already known to be flawed, not the newer (i.e. elite MB layout) versions.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By gus6464 on 9/30/2007 8:37:23 PM , Rating: 2

My wife's little brother has an elite and has yet to give him any problems. Only thing is that its so damn loud, like a little lawnmower.

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RE: Maybe if theyd release a 65nm one...

By Locutus465 on 10/1/2007 12:59:02 PM , Rating: 2

No, it's not quite as quiet as a Wii, or even (I'm sure) a PS3... But honestly, I don't think it's overly annoyingly loud (at least not for me). Then again perhaps they choose quieter fans for the newer HDMI premiums? Who knows... Probably I'm just not as bothered by it as the average person...

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