Black Label Suicides

According to IGN who has just been in talks with three US retailers, Microsoft plans to launch the Xbox 360 as late as Friday, November 25, the day after Thanksgiving, with software potentially hitting shelves earlier that week.

The three retail chains, all of whom independently pointed to Friday, November 25, as the hardware launch day, received email describing launch data late Monday. Launch day games have been re-assigned from early November to Monday, November 22, as potential first day ship dates. When contacted, Microsoft would not confirm or deny the information. In previous official announcements, Microsoft has said Xbox 360 will vaguely launch this fall.

Why the late date? Microsoft is hoping to give developers as much time as possible to finish and polish their games while simultaneously shipping their concave new box during the most active day in North America. Additionally, independent sources have told IGN that final dev kits haven't replaced the mid-summer beta kits, which has added to developers' frustrations.

Full story at IGN

I'm sadly confused. was'nt it going to launch on the 15th.

Nov. 15th was the rumor. Actually, all of the days listed are rumor, nothing has been comfirmed by the Big "M" ! There should be an official announcement soon!

What a fucking horible day to launch.  Now we've got to compete with Grandma who's going after the $20 DVD players and the other cheap shit they pump out for Black Friday.   I don't want to go to a store any time between Thanksgiving and new years.  Please release it sooner.

I'll sue. But really, its kind of messed up to release something like this so late in the game. Instead of eating worms I think I'll play far cry and lockdown to death.

Car, you've got it dead on the nose as far as that being possibly the WORST day for a console launch as far as buying one, second only to Christmas Eve...

However, that's probably the single BEST day to actually SELL them, as Day-after-T-Day has THE highest traffic for any retailer, and that single day nets most retailers between 10-25% of their YEARLY sales.

My fear is the rumor/fact that they've only got 3 retailers "launching" the system...either the number of consoles they're putting out there is so limited it's not even funny/fathomable, or the three are Best Buy, Gamestop, and EB, the latter two being the SMALLEST physically, and then trying to cram in tons of customers, there not only for the 360, but for the cheaper current systems and games.

Obviously, the launch of this system will be huge, and it will be around Thanksgiving, and MS probably won't announce anything officially until mid/end of this month.

My frickin family emphasizes christmas shopping the day after thanksgiving. It just shows how many crazies are in my area when I see whole parking lots filled up in five major malls on the 26th. Good I put $200 on the 360...In February!

There should be a rather large announcement Sept 27th 12:00pm EST. That's when the timer expires from www.origenxbox360.com.

Is that bunny really hiding a 360.

Yes, there does appear to be a xbox behind the bunny. If ya look in the backround there is a timer. Some pc/laptop screens it is hard to see ya might have to tip the screen fowards or backwads to make it more visible. The web site is another viral campaign from microsoft. It changes every week or so and they give little clues here and there.

It could be that when the timer expires they will annonce the FINAL HARDWARE DATE?

Thats a lot of minutes.