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Fans Line Up to Buy New Xbox 360

 

Fans Line Up to Buy New Xbox 360: Gaming fanatics turned out overnight across the country to buy up Microsoft's Xbox 360 as it went on sale today. GameStop, EB Games and Best Buy opened hundreds of stores across the country for midnight launch events. Buyers also lined up at 24-hour Wal-Mart stores.

Most retailers have refused to say how many of the consoles they have in stock, but Microsoft Corp. has conceded that an ambitious plan to launch the console worldwide within a few weeks will mean fewer consoles initially in North America.

While many of the eager buyers were focusing on the system's high-definition graphics and gaming aptitude, executives at Microsoft see video games as just the beginning.

The new consoles, which also can play music, display photos and show DVDs, are at the center of a strategy that will eventually tie in elements of Microsoft's new online initiative, called Windows Live, said company Chairman Bill Gates.

"In the living room itself, Xbox 360 is our centerpiece and a product that redefines what goes on there," Gates said.

Gates said Monday that he expects Xbox Live, Microsoft's service that allows gamers worldwide to play one another, to eventually work with a Microsoft instant messenger that is slated to become part of Windows Live.

Windows Live is Microsoft's newly launched effort to better compete with free, advertising-financed Web services like e-mail and search technology from competitors led by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Microsoft already offers limited ways for people on Xbox Live to communicate with those on Microsoft's messaging software, but the new offering — not yet slated for release — would expand that significantly.

Gates said he's also expecting a new Xbox service called Microsoft Points, which lets people prepay for things like virtual armor or other game-related items, to eventually work with Windows Live, so people could use a single account to pay for offerings there, too.

Source: AP

 

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