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[TheJollyCorner]

Between the 'Every10Minutes' promotion, GameFly's new Free X360 A Day promo, the massive Comedy Central 360 giveaway, the Canadian promotion that I can't even remember the name of... that's quite a surplus of free systems. I'm sure the subject has been brought up in the million-post X360 launch thread, but I was hoping to concentrate the discussion.

With all the system prepays from eager gamers (and by prepays, I'm talking about way back in the summer) still waiting, how detrimental, if at all, are these free systems to the overall opinion of this launch?
Sure, the whole scenario is fantastic for Joe Schmo that gets lucky enough to get a free multiple hundred dollar system, but why isn't MS filling all of those prepays to their already established fanbase first and foremost?

Or is that the whole point? The fanbase will buy the system one way or another, in many cases their money was dropped down 5-6 months ago- but free systems get people normally not interested at all involved. Is this responsible, though... or is it just good business?

Those of you that prepayed in, say, June and won't get your 360 until early next year- how do you feel about this? Pissed off? Happy that MS is being so generous with FREE systems? I've seen various members here, who have prepayed for a 360, show a complete lack of sympathy for all the folks that waited in line for hours last Monday evening, into Tuesday morning and didn't get a system. "HOHO Should have prepayed!!" but when you have thousands of prepays that won't be filled until 2006, do you really blame them?

So what do you guys think? Should Sony and Nintendo follow MS on this? Is giving away thousands of free systems the ultimate way to grab market share? Naturally, giving away free systems is not a new innovation by any stretch, but the amount of FREE X360 promotions just seems ridiculously extensive.

...and for all you Billy Zabka fans:

 

[FiRez]

Yeah, I didn't get anything
They should give me at least a discount for supporting and making free publicity for the 1st xbox.

Spoiler

I was the pioneer of modding the xbox in my country

 

[bumpkin]

Ask me this question again when good fortune smiles upon me and I actually win one. Until then, I just don't care. :lol

 

[The Faceless Master]

hey, what's wrong with free systems?

 

[bill0527]

I love my Xbox360. The console itself gets a 10. The rollout and launch of it I would have to give 6/10 and that's being generous.


My EB pre-order got pushed back to the 2nd coming of Christ, so that was strike one - I don't care if it was Microsoft or EB's fault or the Pope's fault. The bottom line is, I paid in full for an Xbox360 in July and it still couldn't guarantee me one on launch day. I get a little pissed off seeing human wastes of good oxygen like Paris Hilton parading around with her free Xbox360, while someone like me who will actually support the system by buying dozens, if not hundreds of games for it over its lifetime, and recommend it to anyone that will listen, gets fucked in the ass.

Luckily I was fortunate to be able to camp Target and get one on launch day. Most people don't have that luxury.

My second big problem is the worldwide launch. I'll probably bring the wrath of the Euros on this board down on me for saying this, but I feel like all product should have been directed toward the North American market first. Microsoft is an American company, and more Xboxes were sold here than in any other region in the world, therefore it has its largest fanbase here. How fucked up is it that people out there right now want Xbox 360 systems, while I'm sure there will be thousands of them sitting on retailers shelves collecting dust in Japan over the next weeks.

Microsoft left a lot of money on the table by giving away so many of these systems for free, but they're probably thinking long term and word of mouth will pay off in the long run if they give a lot of them away to people who normally wouldn't buy one to start with.

 

[LakeEarth]

The 10 minutes contest gave away what, 9300 Xbox360's? And the Canadian version gave away 960 of them. That's over 10000 right there.

 

[Odysseus]

The every10minutes promotion probably raised Xbox 360 awareness more than anything they've done. It was totally a good move.

 

[Rorschach]

One local radio station here gave away 600 and another one gave away 200. The local target and best buy only got 8 premium packs each.

 

[Danj]

I wish there were free Xbox 360 competitions over here in the UK

 

[stewy]

It's not really MS' fault on the pre-orders. I mean...it's not like THEY were soliciting the pre-order stuff, and everyone knew way back early in the year that there would be a shortage.

The 360 giveaways were brilliant. They got loads of systems and buzz out there that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. They got an installed userbase of the non-hardcore out of it, which is precisely what they needed.