Xbox 360: Who hit the melee button?

[Borgboy]

According to the Associated Press (via CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/23/xbox.scuffle.ap/index.html)), a Wal-Mart in Elkton Maryland canceled their sale of the Xbox 360 due to a "melee" amongst the crowd which was awaiting the sale.

A crowd of about 300 people waited as much as 12 hours for the game, considered a must-have item this holiday season, to go on sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. But an announcement from a store manager that the Xboxes would be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, instead of using a number system devised by customers, triggered the mayhem.
If you were Microsoft, would you consider people fighting over your console a success? Oh...And, happy Thanksgiving. :)

[makkura]

thats a shame, i waited only an hour and a half to get mine, the temperature was real nice too (and i live in quebec mind you) i was really impressed how smooth that launch went, my hats off to best buy for making this a really enjoyable day.

[Roc Ingersol]

meh. people fought over plastic sheeting and duct tape.

they're not all that smart.

[Morratut]

I wish this was caught on video. It would have been so funny.

Manager:-'Everyone! We are implementing a first come first served basis with the 360!!!!'

Crowd :- ' Holy Shit! Every man for himself, real life deathmatch for a 360!'

Horrible noises of war can be heard.

[wudi]

meh. people fought over plastic sheeting and duct tape.

they're not all that smart.

Raise the terror alert to orange and the collective IQ of America takes a huge hit.

Anyway, that's a shame about the fighting, but it makes me feel better about not being out there in that mess to get mine.

[Vandenh]

3...2...1.... FIGHT!

A pity DOA is not out yet.

[Serapth]

They canceled their sale? That means they still have 360's! First come first served... brawl!

[KhitomerRouge]

Raise the terror alert to orange and the collective IQ of America takes a huge hit.It's not as if it was fairly high to begin with. I mean, it was a scare tactic that worked for the elections, didn't it? Shit, I live right next to DC, and we've only had two orange alerts in the last 12 months, and they were limited to us and NYC. The one right after the London bombings had to be brought about by serious complaining by city officials. Thanks, extra-useless, money-sucking Department of Homeland Security!

[Hieremias]

meh. people fought over plastic sheeting and duct tape.

they're not all that smart.

Well, they were Wal-Mart customers, after all.

[bboy]

Frankly, I think MS should be held accountable for all the violence and people hurt during this shortage. They intentionally created this frenzy to pump up demand. They should be held responsible.

[Vandenh]

>Frankly, I think MS should be held accountable for all the violence and people hurt during this shortage. They intentionally created this frenzy to pump up demand. They should be held responsible.

ROFL. Class Action!

Make those Chinese/Mexican children works 24 hours to produce those damn 360s! Well said bboy! Lazy b*st*erds.

[NeuroMan42]

Sorry for the language, but this kinda thing makes me FUCKING disgusted that I am a Human.

It freaking sickens me to no damn end.

[phantomhitman]

way to take it too seriously

[Royal Fool]

*people in line chanting*

MUST CONSUME PRODUCT MUST CONSUME PRODUCT MUST CONSUME PRODUCT

The power of suggestion always works.

[Chimpbot]

Frankly, I think MS should be held accountable for all the violence and people hurt during this shortage. They intentionally created this frenzy to pump up demand. They should be held responsible.

If any actual proof could be found to support this, then I might have to agree with you. Logic demands that while they might artificially create a slight shortage, any large, widespread shortages created by them would end up costing them in the sales department; every unit not out there is essentially a lost sale, after all. Sure, demand would be sky-high...but eBay vendors would be pulling in the monies from the "I must have this at any price" crowd, not Microsoft.


With that said, that crowd disgusts me. It's just a friggin' video game console, after all.

On a side note, I guess I should be glad that one was obtained for me...although it's the core system. The "real" 360's were all sold out, so they went ahead and got one for me anyway. I can't complain, because my parents randomly decided to get one for me two weeks before launch and pulled it off. Of course, they had to go into Canada to actually get it for me(which isn't that big of a deal, since we live in Northern Maine...right on the border). They're trying to get a hard drive...and I'm pretty sure they'll get ahold of one by December 25th.

[Citizen Philip]

I believe the actual fighting was done by Sony Ninja's imported from Japan. Getting them to gain 80 lbs and wear flannel was the hardest part of their training for this mission.

[MasterKwan]

BBoy, even if Microsoft held back the 360's for marketing reasons, trying to blame them because some red-necks in Elkton can't control themselves is just stupid. By your logic, the beer companies are responsible for drunk drivers and game companies are responsible when some twisted fuck decides to emulate GTA.

The people FIGHTING are responsible for their actions.

[HotCoffeeDude]

Heh heh. That means they've still got their 360's, waiting to be sold. So when they do go on sale, I'd be willing to bet the same folks are going to be back in line, and they're going to remember each other. 2nd round!

It was kinda foolish to tell a group of people (who probably weren't standing in line but in just a crowd) that it's first come first serve.

[Schnoogs]

It's a Walmart...what else would you expect.

It's the Mecca for white trash.

[Stormwatcher]

I still say that the "artificial shortage" theory is REALLY stupid. It's dumb. It only makes sense for one shot stand alone products (i.e. an Elmo doll), not for a very expensive piece of tech that not only is sold at loss, but depends on other stuff to make money (the games, Live). MS desperately needs those machines to be at people's homes, so that they can start earning back the cash they lose with each Xbox 360 sold.

[Cyrano]

Just to add some skepticism, am I the only one who remembers that stories of a riot at a Walmart last year turned out to be completely false? It was reported all over the world, but it was a complete lie. Also, whoever wrote the story for the Associated Press is an idiot, because he calls the 360 a "game" rather than a "console".

[Heretic Machine]

Frankly, I think MS should be held accountable for all the violence and people hurt during this shortage. They intentionally created this frenzy to pump up demand. They should be held responsible.

How is it their fault? I think that Wal-mart manager should be held responsible. Basically telling everyone to enter a deathmatch to get their 360's was sheer incompetence, and quite frankly such an action should be criminal.

[MasterKwan]

Why are you in such a hurry to blame people who DIDN'T riot for the action of the rioters? It doesn't matter what walmart did, it doesn't matter what Microsoft does. The people who cause trouble are the ones to blame.

[Heretic Machine]

Why are you in such a hurry to blame people who DIDN'T riot for the action of the rioters? It doesn't matter what walmart did, it doesn't matter what Microsoft does. The people who cause trouble are the ones to blame.

Doesn't always apply in mob situations. I mean, I don't think mob violence should be immediatly forgiven, but in this case it is blatantly the fault of the manager. He basically ensighted a riot.

[The Iron Weasel]

Frankly, I think MS should be held accountable for all the violence and people hurt during this shortage. They intentionally created this frenzy to pump up demand. They should be held responsible.

Yeah.....no....that makes no sense at all, thats like saying if a comedian wrote a joke so funny that the people he told it to died, then he should be held accountable.


Hehehehehe, monty python.......

[Loganrapp]

A person is smart.

People are stupid.

[MasterKwan]

Perigon, What the rioters needed is a wood shampoo administered by some beefy cops. Getting the shit beat out of you for rioting is a good way to reduce people's tendency to riot. What's wrong is that here in the US and world wide we aren't taking a strong enough stance against violent protests.

[Vulture]

A person is smart.

People are stupid.

Proof that parallel processing without adequate interconnect bandwidth actually lowers capacity. :eek:

[Pumped'Up]

Well, they were Wal-Mart customers, after all.
I sense you are suggesting that those people are idiots...therefore, the 360 is nothing but an idiot-magnet! Shit, the absolute truth hurts doesn't it eh?

[The Iron Weasel]

I sense you are suggesting that those people are idiots...therefore, the 360 is nothing but an idiot-magnet! Shit, the absolute truth hurts doesn't it eh?

QUIET SONY BOY! :)

[Redline]

People let themselves be manipulated. Time for some personal responsibility. Anyone who fights for something that isn't required for survival is a moron.

[Heretic Machine]

Perigon, What the rioters needed is a wood shampoo administered by some beefy cops. Getting the shit beat out of you for rioting is a good way to reduce people's tendency to riot. What's wrong is that here in the US and world wide we aren't taking a strong enough stance against violent protests.

If nothing is seriously wrong then there will be no need for violent protest.

[Nintendo Revolution]

"If you were Microsoft, would you consider people fighting over your console a success?"

This answer is so obvious. Microsoft knows exactly what they have done. You can't even begin to imagine the amount of angry customers that haven't even been reported.

Nationwide, Microsoft gave retail stores numbers to base their reservation cap on. Microsoft then changed this number once the reservations were already booked. What does this mean? This means, that all around the country, many people were guarenteed a 360 on launch back in June and found out this week (or the prior week) that they would not be getting one...until December...at the soonest.

This is no joke, I've had customers yell at me and my employees and even throw things.

[Borgboy]

Nationwide, Microsoft gave retail stores numbers to base their reservation cap on. Microsoft then changed this number once the reservations were already booked.

I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember multiple people who work at stores selling 360's said that Microsoft told them nothing about the number of consoles they would get. Of course, that's if you believe my memory, and the people who I remember saying it. Does anyone else remember (or know) otherwise?

[MasterKwan]

Man Perigon, what fantasy land do you live in? Idiots around here will riot over a sporting event, rioting over a game console is just as insane.

[Deadend]

I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember multiple people who work at stores selling 360's said that Microsoft told them nothing about the number of consoles they would get. Of course, that's if you believe my memory, and the people who I remember saying it. Does anyone else remember (or know) otherwise?

I think that's how it went, maybe with some 'hey guys, were going to TRY and make 3 million by the end of the year, were not quite sure if we can, ok? and remeber, were doing a world-wide launch'.

Later MS calls everyone up saying 'you know that impossible goal of starting production on the systems in early fall for a late fall release? Yeah, it isn't working perfectly, so your not getting a fuckload, but you should be ok... right? It's not like you went out preselling a X360 to every motherfucker out there, did you?'

It's not that fucking hard to do presells right. You wait until you have CONCRETE numbers, then pre-sell. Otherwise your taking stupid risks.

[SnappyCrunch]

Damn. Elkton is this tiny little town, too; barely big enough to support a Wal-Mart. I wish I had gone to their launch. I haven't been in a fight over merchandise in a long time...

[buzzfunk]

It's a Walmart...what else would you expect.

It's the Mecca for white trash.

Hahah classic. :D