Xbox 360 Launch date, price announced

[sybawoods]

Official SA launch, mid-night Friday 29 Sep
Cost: R3 699 premium / R2 699 Core

N.A.G.

Look, it's the weekend so we'll keep this short and to the point. Many of you already know most of this stuff already but now that it's official we can announce it here.

NAG Magazine and a few other select members of the press, the Microsoft Xbox South Africa team, their PR agency and the official Xbox 360 distributor, MI Digital, were all in attendance at an exclusive launch event in JHB city centre of all places. There amongst the tall buildings, cocktail waitresses and flickering screens we were all told about the next big thing in gaming in South Africa.

This is the important stuff

The Xbox 360 will launch at midnight on Friday, 29 September 2006. The launch is happening at rAge so make sure you get there [more information here: www.rageexpo.co.za] to see this amazing piece of hardware in action, with around 20 or more Xbox 360 games available to play on the show floor during the rAge weekend - it's not something you're going to want to miss. Many of these titles will also be available to buy at many of the retail outlets at rAge. Also keep watching the press and this website and the rAge website for more information about where, when, how, who etc.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Awesome news, a little bit higher than I would have liked but still far cheaper than the PS3 will come in at.

And the best part is it exists!

 

[Elfreako]

yeah, its about R200 more than I was hoping for...but if you look at a whole it is actualy quite competitive. Im sure there will be a price cut next year as well

 

[Gambit]

It would be cool to also find out how much xbox live will set us back monthly.

 

[Kryon_MC]

It will be interesting to see whether the sales of the xboxs take off!

 

[nivek]

R2699 aint bad at all...

now to find time to play

 

[playkiller no.2]

*Xbox Live will not be officially supported at the launch and the current rumour has Live about 12 months after the launch. Remember that the more technology savvy console owners will be able to connect to Live but you'll need a fast Internet connection [i.e. ADSL] to do this.*

You have to wait until local xbox live launches but you can connect to the uk servers.

 

[ShockG]

R2,700 is a great price. Much cheaper than when the PS2 first released in 2000 locally etc...

Not sure if this is cheaper than PS3 lanuch price whcih was slated at $499 which translates into about R3.5K for the big box. :/

Either way, can't wait to get my pours on a 360!

 

[Bondizzo]

The premium PS3 costs $599, its going to be priced around R6200-6800 according to ster kenikor

 

[BCO]

LOLZ. 6.8k for a console...

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Yeah $ony just killed the playstation. Never thought I'd see the day when I would say M$ honestly deserve to be in the lead in this market segment.

 

[lewstherin]

Prices are pretty competitive with what folks are paying for the 360 here in Aussie. Core system goes for AUD490ish here - roughly R2500.

Wait until the PS3 launches though - I bet M$ will drop the price to try get an extra boot in.

 

[noxibox]

It's about 30% more than the US price. Seems close to what everyone is getting charged.

SK are still ripping the consumer off on the PS2. If they want to charge R6k+ then just import your own.

I suppose we'll see how much the excesses of the PS3 hurt sales. There are a lot of Playstation fanatics.

 

[GavinMannion]

Happy Monday

Pity about the Live though, still UK servers are fine for now

 

[useless]

LIVE isnt really an issue if you play with locals, any local who hosts a server makes the gameplay lag-free.

i am very interested in the pricing for the games though, so Rage is definetly going to be a shopping spree!

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Looks like games will come in at ~R400 initially with prices dropping over time.

http://www.btgames.co.za/btgames/pr...0&rdates=0&search=&gosearch.x=30&gosearch.y=8

 

[derekc]

R400 is reasonable for a XBOX360 game. PS3 games might be over R600 (and possibly up to R1000) each.

 

[nivek]

PS3 games are going to be @#)$()#@ expensive

Blue ray dvd's?

wouldnt be surprised if sony decide not to launch the ps3 in SA.. at its price tag... and 99.9999% of the population wont benefit from blue ray

xbox 360 is the way to go in SA this time round

 

[Highflyer_GP]

I'm currently saving up for the premium version, can't wait to get my hands on one of these babies! I'm fed-up with upgrading the pc graphics cards every year too

 

[GavinMannion]

I'm going in for a month of sleep therapy.. I can't just can't handle this wait