The Xbox was released in Australia 10 years ago today
by Matt Keller on Mar.14, 2012, under News
10 years ago today, the Xbox launched in Australia for $649.95. It was actually a failure at first, selling less than 10,000 units on its opening week. Microsoft pulled the damage control lever, dropped the machine’s price by $250 just two weeks after launch, and sent out two free games and a free controller to everyone who bought one in the first two weeks.
And people thought the 3DS launch was bad.
The move worked for Microsoft, who sold close to 700,000 Xboxen in Australia – their best marketshare for the console in the world.
Why not share your experiences of the Xbox launch and your memories of the console with us in the comments section or in the forums.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
-
Howdy. Welcome to Retro Gaming Australia!
Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed. See ya around!
March 15th, 2012 on 19:55
The Xbox was my return to console gaming, after a long stretch with the PC. My console before that was the n64. The Xbox came out after its other 3 main competitors, so for me it was the logical choice to get the one with the latest and greatest features. The first time I logged into Xbox live I was amazed at how far console gaming had come. I still have the same console, which is modded running XBMC in the spare room. The stuff modders did with this thing just shows how awesome it was. Microsoft really knew what they wanted when they created that controller too. The first version may have been to large for some people’s hands, but I found them extremely comfortable. And the second revision perfected it even further. One of the downsides to the console was the look. Pretty big and bulky, it wasnt as pretty as the dreamcast, but I guess that’s what you get when you put a PC inside a console.
March 15th, 2012 on 21:02
I quite enjoyed my Xbox days. Personally, I did find the original controller a tad too large for my liking but once the smaller revisions came out I was in my element. I never enjoyed the size and weight of the unit but that didn’t hinder my gaming experience in any way. I still have my original Xbox however the DVD drive is dead, yet I still use it to run emulators and other great homebrew.