Game: “Xbox 360”
Xbox 360 Games for Gold Announced for August
Well, August has hit and this months games have been announced.
Xbox Live Gets Hockey Night in Canada
Canadian Hockey fans rejoice!! Xbox has announced the introduction of CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada to their list of Apps as well as special Gold Unlocked access to other sports apps this weekend.
Microsoft Kinect For Xbox 360 – In Depth Review
As you might have heard, Microsoft released a fancy little accessory to the Xbox 360 known to the world as Kinect. Microsoft has managed to hype up this little machine with a $500 million dollar marketing campaign to make sure that moms, dads, children and pets all know of the magic that they are bringing to the world of gaming. In the weeks before launch, the hype engine was brought to full speed ahead, with… Read On »
Kinect Sold Out On Amazon/Best Buy – Resellers Taking Advantage
As reported earlier this week, Amazon and Best Buy appear to still be sold out on Kinect sensor pre-orders. As a matter of fact, checking on Amazon’s list of sellers under “See My Buying Options” reveals that their third party resellers have now upped the price over $200 for their Kinect pre-orders.
Another check on eBay reveals that sellers are doing the same there. Charging anywhere from $159.99 to $300 for a pre-order there.
Savvy Shoppers should know that if you instead go to sites such as Newegg, or Walmart with their $199, two game bundle, or Gamestop instead of these other third party resellers.
While I would like to believe that it’s the innovation in the new product and its easy to use interface, I’m much more inclined to believe that these sell-outs are largely happening due to the Oprah and Ellen effect.
Best Buy Sold Out Of Kinect Standalone Again
After hearing that Kinect was sold out on Amazon.com, I decided to check out the usual haunts and found that Best Buy is again sold out of the standalone Kinect unit, and still has not restocked their Kinect 250GB Console Bundle.
Newegg and Gamestop appear to still be taking orders however. Looks like Microsoft continues to underestimate demand for their product. This is the second time that the largest retailers of Xbox products have run short of Kinect Standalone units in just a few weeks.
Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 On Tour In Canada
Hey Canadians! Want to try out Kinect? It’s on tour in Toronto and Montreal right now.
The deets:
Toronto – At 207 Yonge Street
Montreal – At 677 Rue St. Catherine O. (That’s St. Catherine Road West for those of you who don’t speak French. Which in Canada I think is two of you.)
Schedule and further info here.
Source: Kinect Central Canada
Major Nelson Reveals Xbox.com Makeover Releasing Tomorrow
Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson just blogged new screenshots of the makeover coming to Xbox.com. Per Major Larry, “Tomorrow, Xbox.com will be getting a massive facelift and I want to give you a preview of what you can expect. In addition to support for the 9 new Xbox LIVE regions that will happen next month, Xbox.com will get a brand new look as well as some new features.”
Here are some highlights:
Browser based Avatar editor: Edit your avatar and preview avatar items before purchase
Combined views for messages, friend and game requests
Improved notification of your account subscription
Leverage Family Reports to understand what your family is doing and how they are using LIVE
Play web games with your Xbox LIVE friends on the web or on Windows Phone 7
Marketplace: More powerful search and more intuitive ways to browse and filter
Direct linky to screenshots are here. Looking very nice if I do say so myself.
Avatar Editor Via Web Browser – Credit: Major Nelson’s Flickr
Per Major Nelson, the changes will begin to take effect at 0500 ET/0200 PT/0900 GMT tomorrow, October 20th. While they make the updates, access to Xbox.com and the forums will be unavailable, but the Xbox Live service will not be affected.
Source: Major Nelson’s Blog
Kinect Selling Out All Over The UK. What about US?
Reports that Play, Amazon, and other retailers in the UK are selling out of Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 are big news on the web. But what about at home?
A quick websurfing does show that online retailer Newegg is sold out of the standalone device (stock# N82E16874103199), the 4GB Xbox 360S bundle (stock# N82E16868105044) and the 250GB Xbox 360S Bundle (stock#N82E16868105045). However, Gamestop, Amazon.com (not to be confused with Amazon.co.uk), and most other major retailers are still offering pre-orders.
What does this mean?
While it’s fantastic news that the Kinect sensor is doing so well in the UK, this most likely means that the number of Kinect units that have been allocated to the UK was significantly lower than what has been allocated in the US.
Newegg is not a huge retailer of Xbox items in the United States. And thus, they have most likely not received a large portion of the units allocated for the launch. So they most likely have just hit their limit. However, the larger retailers who make up the bulk of Xbox console and software sales should be granted the largest share to hand out to the consumer.
A twist!
However, after surfing BestBuy.com. I found this:
Updated 1:18PMEST
I called Best Buy and verified that they have indeed stopped taking pre-orders for the Kinect 250GB bundle, and the standalone unit. They did say that they have gone to Microsoft and requested additional units to be allocated. So while this is not likely a long term issue, it does look like for the time being they are out of stock. However, the 4GB units are still available.
Continued checking does show that Gamestop is still accepting orders. More news forthcoming.
While I was going to say that it’s most likely just going to be the smaller retailers that would sell out, it would appear that Best Buy has thrown a monkey into my wrench.
Update 7:04PM – Best Buy now has the standalone unit available for pre-order, however the 250GB consoles are still sold out.