NEWS - Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Celebrating One Year of Xbox 360!
Memories of Launch Day 2005 One year ago today Xbox 360™ consoles hit the stores. Good times. Here are some of your Launch Day stories from the Xbox Community: I’m a U.S. Soldier and I’m stationed in Heidelberg, Germany. I pre-ordered my 360 in September and bought my parents plane tickets at the same time. Why? So when the 360 came out they could fly it over to me! I bought ten launch titles including Perfect Dark Zero™, Kameo™: Elements of Power™, Project Gotham Racing® 3, Need For Speed™ Most Wanted, Condemned: Criminal Origins™ … and I’m having the time of my life with it. The system is brilliant, I love it. I called all my soldiers and told them to come check it out and all of them fell in love with it. I also did the same for the first Xbox®. Microsoft has truly done an awesome job with the 360 because it is what they say; 360 degrees of entertainment and then some, from the marketplace to your rep to your achievements, it’s just sweet. Marion H. Germanyv Ok, so it was like 20 degrees outside with the wind chill. The line started to get really crazy the following morning around 6:30 a.m. Like me, they thought they could just sneak in line, but the original people that were in line worked as a team to make sure we securely held our spots. 9:40 a.m.: They hand out the vouchers for the Xbox 360. 10:00 a.m.: The sliding doors open and they file us in. After waiting 12 hours in the cold and rain, I was finally staring at my beautiful Xbox 360. We purchased the premium package with no games. I didn’t care, I just wanted the 360. 10:30 a.m. My first impression was the "new game console" smell. It smelled great. My second impression was the cool plastic wrap over the items. My third impression … I don’t think I had one. I was shaking by this time, and couldn’t resist tearing off the plastic for every item and laying it on my bed. This family next to us in line at Wal-Mart was really cool. They came all the way from Tennessee just to get a 360. Waiting got longer by every hour that went by. My friend and me took turns going to get drinks and random stuff aroundWal-Mart, and later onhe didn’t feel like standing and got a big chair that folded in to a bed. Everyone thought it was kind of funny. The McDonalds that was in the Wal-Mart made a goodsum of money off everyone around 6:00 p.m. It was one crazy night. When I got home I hooked up and played PGR3 all night. The 8 hour wait was worth it. I will never forget that night and it is going to be a story I tell my kids. Travis C. The wait was actually pretty enjoyable. Here were a bunch of people that all had one thing in common: A desire to have an Xbox 360 and who were willing to wait hours just to ensure they had it first. Wal-Mart was pretty accommodating. They brought lawn chairs, a TV, and even provided us with refreshments. The 20 of us that were told they had enough systems for were all a pretty happy bunch. We played cards and enjoyed good conversation for the next 10 hours until the release. My wife even came down to wait in line with me, allowing me to get food and have a restroom break. I had brought three books and an iPod to help with the wait, but I didn’t even need them. When I arrived home it was already about 1:00 a.m. and I still had to go to work the next day, but I wanted to see the system so I started into the box immediately. After setting it up I popped in Perfect Dark. As I watched the game load, that first look at Joanna Dark’s eye just took my breath away. It was so real. The colors and the realism are just astounding. I pre-ordered the 360 premium, PGR3 and PDZ from Blockbuster and I picked it up in the morning at 10 a.m. It was freezing outside, I wanted to get there quick, so I just wore a t-shirt and jeans. When I went into Blockbuster I hadn’t said a word and the worker there said one sec and told her co-worker to bring the 360 out. Then I got it and on the drive home it was on my lap and I wrapped my arms around it. My first achievement was Get a First Down for Madden NFL 06 and I have been addicted to gamerscore ever since. Thank you Microsoft for the greatest console ever and thank you for turning me back into the hardcore gamer I was. Jason D. I waited in line for 17 hours at Best Buy here in Toledo, Ohio. I got there at 3 p.m. Monday afternoon and brought a chair, coat, blanket, and my girlfriend. The temperature outside was about 15 degrees. From about 2 a.m. until 8 a.m. when they opened was the coldest part. The wind picked up and I just couldn’t keep warm. Finally, after I got homeI opened the box and I couldn’t have been happier. Well let me start by saying this is the best system ever made. I paid a lady to sit in for me at Wal-Mart. I had to work till12,so on my lunch I took her something to eat. She sat there till I got off. Thank god for her. I got there, gave her 30 dollars, and got my Xbox 360. I love it to death! John M. I could not get the box opened fast enough! However, when I did, I was amazed with the smell of plastic and the clean white look of the Xbox 360. I took it out of the box and the first thing I did was press open the flapto the USB ports. Ahhh yes, my heart and stomach were filled with excitement. Fumbling with the component cables and the power supply, it took me about 2 minutes to get everything up and running. At first I did not sign into Xbox Live®, the first thing I did was to check out the HD videos on the hard drive. First it was the Titanic and then on to the making of the Xbox 360.Although I had an SDTV at the time, I still enjoyed watching. Then it was a game of Hexic® HD and finally fooling around with the blades and getting my Xbox Live up and running. I then attached my mp3 player. I was amazed how the Xbox 360 recognized right away. I knew this was the system for me. All I can say is thatthis system was definitely worth the wait! Thank you Microsoft! So I call my friend who is waiting in line down at Best Buy: "Hey dude, how’s it going?" "HOLY CRAP! Its only 5:00 p.m. and there are like 15 people!" "Okay, I’m coming." So I head down and jump in line and save a spot for my friend. He comes down and we wait, talking for a while. Soon, 6:00 p.m. comes by. "Okay," I yell, "Count off!" There are already 30 people in line. By 12:00, we had 50 people. I live in Colorado, so after that the temp was dropping. We reached 5 degrees Fahrenheit. It was one of the coldest nights of my life. Well, 9 a.m. comes by and the 360s are starting to be sold. When I get home I find out I have bronchitis and laryngitis. It sucked, but I spent the next few days playing my 360! I put the box on my bed and just stared at it … Then I slowly pulled the tape that was covering the box flaps off. Then I slowly opened the box. It was like the perfect movie scene, where as I was opening it, you could hear "Haaallelujah! Haaallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Haaallleeeeeelujaaaaaah!" I picked the 360 up out of the box and thought of allthe stuff I went through while waiting for that moment: Reading game internet sites at 5 in the morning during the summer, watching the MTV special 30 times over, scratching my skin off the bone while waiting in school on the 22nd. It was all worth it. It was awesome. I love this thing!Source: http://www.xbox.com
