"This week’s biggest event (in gaming) is without a doubt the launch of the XBOX 360. Whilst the thing might be just about invisible in stores all over the UK, there is no getting away from it on Internet forums, gaming and lifestyle sites and even in The Sun. XBOX 360 fever has gripped a very small proportion of the nation, but for most it seems to be passing them by. I was in Brighton this weekend to do some Christmas shopping, which provided me with the perfect chance to do some investigating...

I went to Dixons, GAME, Virgin Megastore and HMV and none of them had them in stock and nobody seemed to care. Outside every store was a little piece of A4 paper reading “Due to unforeseen circumstances we do not have any stock of the XBOX 360 at present” Now, I am going to take issue with one particular aspect of this statement: it is a lie. None of the circumstances are unforeseen; it has been common knowledge that the XBOX 360 would have stupidly low levels of stock for well over a month now. You know it. I know it. Joe Public will not know it. So, these stores adorned with green hoardings proclaiming the arrival of the next generation of gaming are lying a bit really. With no XBOX 360s left in the country and only hardcore gamers running around forums complaining about it, have Microsoft shot themselves in both feet and then continued to pummel themselves in the groin with a mallet?

The PS2 has been around for what seems like an age now and there is no denying that it feels about ready for a revamp. Sony tried it with the PSTwo, but gamers are after a huge leap in performance and experience, not just a little skinny box that overheats at the drop of a hat. Up step Microsoft and throw as much money at the problem as possible and out the other end of the Money-Magic machine comes the XBOX 360, the biggest rush-job of a console ever to grace the modern gaming industry. I’m not saying that Microsoft were wrong to release the XBOX 360 now, but was it all a bit too much of a rush?

Just for the sake of making Christmas 2005, the XBOX 360 has suffered from a very, very bad launch both here and in the USA. Even for a fist generation batch, systems are crashing far more than they should and there is a fair amount of bad press. If you can only make a certain number of systems (not enough to feed the demand), what is the point in bringing out the system for Christmas? Sure people might want it, but with very few consoles available over the coming weeks, wasn’t it all a bit pointless? Thus, Microsoft have shot themselves in the foot for the first time." [more]