Australian Xbox360 Launch Date and Pricing

After the launch party in Sydney for the Xbox360 here in Australia a few are reporting pricing and dates. From the press release:

Sydney November 22, 2005 - It’s only ninety-nine sleeps until Australians can get their hands on the world’s most powerful games console, the Xbox 360.

Microsoft today announced that two versions of the console will go on sale from 12:01am on March 2nd, 2006. Consumers will be able to choose from the Xbox 360 at RRP*$649.95 and the Xbox 360 Core System at RRP*$499.95.

So $650 for the decent 360 pack, it does seem expensive but when you look at what you get it puts it into perspective.

Xbox 360 is the first console that lets gamers enjoy the freedom of wireless gaming, as standard. The Xbox 360 offer will include the console, 20GB hard drive, media remote, wireless controller, component high-definition cable and Ethernet cable. Xbox 360 Core System delivers the same powerful gaming as Xbox 360, but starts with the basics and lets you expand at your own pace. The Xbox Core system includes the console, composite AV cable and wired controller.

Now I would be willing to drop $500 on just a Xbox360 core pack, so with all the added extras of the Xbox360 (lets say premium pack) that I would probably purchase anyway, it's only and extra $150 and you get some decent gear. Though compared with the US price, it might seem we are being charged a tad more. Though I think its on par with the UK pricing.

So 3 months, start you clocks and let the countdown begin.

The Madness Begins

So after visiting Starbucks on the weekend for a bit of Christmas cheer, in the form of a Peppermint Moca Frappuccino, I headed into the EB that's nearby.

So what's the first thing that catches my eye as I walk in, Xbox360 pre orders. My first reaction was "wow, cool", but then I just thought "hang on, wtf?!". I mean the thing has no release date or price, aren't people just going to ask stupid questions all the time about it.

So the guy working in there is a friend of mine and we get talking about it as usual. He lets me know that they aren't supposed to be doing it yet, but for some "sales numbers" reason they are. Still with no clue of a release date or price, we kinda figures it might be March with a price of say $600. Though if you do the math on the US price it works out to about $550. That seems like a better price to me, say the Xbox360 is $550, then the core pack is $400, it just seems more sensible.

They also had four games you could pre order, Project Gotham 3, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero and also Oblivion.

So yeah, I put down a pre-order.

I'm quite interested to see the Australian release list now, I guess it will appear sometime early next year.

Being the nosy sod I am, I'm just now looking on The Office of Classification's website and what do I find Ridge Racer 6 is listed . So I would say that it's getting a release. If you do a search a lot of other 360 launch titles are also listed there, which makes sense.

It's interesting to note that all the dates for the classification submissions are dated back in October.

It's Back

Alright I'm back. I think anyone who used to read this site will know that the lack of updates were due to the fact that I started to play WoW. I'm still playing it and now have a lvl 60 Warrior, but I thought I would try and start posting again.

I have to admit there hasn't been a great deal going on in the gaming world that isn't next gen related. I know a few things came out but I've really not been that interested, it's pretty much too little too late for me. The only thing I've ordered recently was Guilty Gear XX #Reloaded for the PSP, so I might post some impressions of that when it gets here.

My main motive is to try and post as much info about the Aussie release of the Xbox360. Currently Microsoft seem to have denied us any information regarding the release date and pricing of the unit, and subsequently seem to have placed us low on the list of release candidates. Current speculation is that we will see the unit sometime in early 2006.

If that wasn't bad enough, the current release list for the US and UK are different. Which isn't a big issues, except the main game that I, and many people are interested in "Ridge Racer 6" is missing from the UK list. Now at the moment I'm not getting too worked up about this because by the time we see the unit I'm hoping that RR6 will be a release title for us, only time will tell though.

I'm also currently trying to decide if I should buy a new TV that supports HD. From what I have read it seems that if you play the Xbox360 on a normal TV it just looks like Xbox quality, so a HDTV is a must. I'm just wondering if I should bite the bullet now and do it, or wait to see when the 360 is getting a release and buy it closer to that time when the price may drop again.