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Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Demonstrated in Stores.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Reaches Retail Outlets

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 10/24/2005 | 04:01 PM ]

Microsoft Corp.’s demo Xbox 360 systems are scheduled to arrive to Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores across the

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U.S. on Monday, several web-sites reported. The systems will not be sold to customers, but will be able to demonstrate the power of the company’s new consoles to gamers.

“Mcrosoft has notified us that October 24^th is the receiving date for Xbox 360 working demo models in the entire retail chain of BBY,” an anonymous employee of Best Buy network told Voodoo Extreme web-site.

The software giant will officially launch the Xbox 360 game machine in North America on November 22^nd. The release will followed by a December 2 launch in Europe and a December 10 launch in Japan, according to a news-story published earlier.

The unnamed representative from Best Buy said that the Xbox 360 systems would be set up on Tuesday and gamers would then be able to experience the new game machine from Microsoft Corp.

“While most of these won’t actually be put out till Tuesday due to labor and Microsoft reps not being available in general around the country tomorrow; these demos will start springing up all across the country this week. My store will have theirs up tomorrow right after it comes in,” he said.

According to GameSpot web-site, Wal-Mart stores will also have their Xbox 360 kiosks. Some of the stores, however, were forced to not allow gamers to use wireless controllers of the console due to interference between the Xbox 360 devices with Wal-Mart’s wireless “hand scanner” inventory system. Microsoft said it identified the problem and within 24 hours had deployed new software to Wal-Mart stores. The software company claims that the Xbox 360 will not cause interference with home consumer electronics.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine will provide a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. Depending on the bundle, Microsoft Xbox 360 will cost $299 or $399.