Pre E3 2005: Microsoft confirms Australian 360 release date

360 News | 2005 or 2006 for Australia?

With Microsoft's announcement on Friday of the XBox 360's release, Australians were left a little in the dark about whether the console would launch in 2005 or 2006.

We contacted Microsoft for comment, and they have confirmed that the Xbox 360 will be released in Australia early 2006. This means we will be playing the XBox 360 within a year, but we get the console later than our European counterparts.

PALGN will have more information on the XBox 360 in the coming weeks.

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20 Comments

LeonJ

7 years ago

Marks out of 10 -> -5000. Makes me sad to be an Australian sometimes, always getting things very late and so much more expensive. They will not ship it till late March (which is classed as early 2006) and will be 4-5 months later then the rest of the world.

This probalay has no bearing, but sign this online petition and perhaps it may make a difference............

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/axb360/

Spanca

7 years ago

****ing bastards. I was certain they'd try and get it to us this year, as we wouldn't require that many units and they've treated us so well with the Xbox and been rewarded accordingly with excellent market share down under.

ObsoletE

7 years ago

more time to save...

and make decisions between the 3 new units...

(trying to look on the brightside...)

Cerebral

7 years ago

Poor bloody form. So much for a 'worldwide' release.

Matt

7 years ago

So, we're the only ones not to get it this year...

LordPaludis

7 years ago

I wonder what the reason for this is? the xbox was rather popular in australia, was it not? I suppose we're just too small to matter to anyone

Mark

7 years ago

LordPaludis wrote

I wonder what the reason for this is? the xbox was rather popular in australia, was it not? I suppose we're just too small to matter to anyone

That's not it. Xbox is one of the company's largest buying sectors (in terms of the size of the country and expected gamers), so that's clearly not the problem.

I would say that the date would be floating up in the air at this stage, but an early 2006 release isn't anything hard to believe. Although I'm surprised the Microsoft plan to release the console in all countries before the christmas break except for Australia.

LeonJ

7 years ago

Mark wrote

I would say that the date would be floating up in the air at this stage, but an early 2006 release isn't anything hard to believe. Although I'm surprised the Microsoft plan to release the console in all countries before the christmas break except for Australia.

I'm not surprised at all. I don't think we have ever got a console the same time as anybody else. I'd say the main reason is to fill demand in the big boy countries and then give the left overs to us 4-5 months later at an inflated price. I really hope this changes, cause it will suck seeing all my freind's list say "playing"Xbox 360 game".

frenzy987

7 years ago

I was a little bummed at first when I first read it. But like someone said earlier at least now we can make an informed choice of which next gen console to buy first. As much of an XBOX fan I am (bought first release 1.0 model) Sony might just get my money this time first up. But seriously M$ should start taking us a little more seriously, I mean come on if your already making Pal units for Europe, how hard is it to throw us 10000 units for the diehard fans. May just import one if the games work, I just did that with my PSP and saved money from what will be a damn expensive release in September.

XBOX360

7 years ago

F***ING Microsoft. How predictable, Australia is again low priority to those American F***ERS. 2006 RELEASE!!! DO THEY JUST WANT US TO SUFFER?! WHILE THE REST OF THE WORLD GETS IT EARLIER, AUSTRALIA GETS IT LAST!!!!!!!!!! And wouldnt it be more logical to release it before Xmas, because it would rack up alot more sales then than after. But obvious, Logical Marketing doesnt exist with Microsoft.

David

7 years ago

^^So the console itself is upset about itself!

Qbert

7 years ago

^^ Good call! lol

adam90001

7 years ago

I'm sorry, thats just friggin ridiculous. Why the rest of the world gets quoted a proper pre-xmas release month and Australia gets some pathetic, vague "oh 2006 sometime" is just lame. Sure it may end up being March, 4 months later isn't too long to wait, but the point is we shouldn't have to wait if it's already released in almost every other country. You will probably be able to buy this thing in Prague, Athens, RedNeckgoatfrakkerville South Carolina or even Khazakstan before Australia.

It's pissed me off as much as that big E3 2004 / EA Sports Xbox Live announcement. Oh yeah, Xbox Live for all EA Sports games, but oh wait, when the games got down here all the online code/features had been bloody taken out. Thanks for nothing you bastards. Oh we got FIFA online, that's a start eh and we should be happy we even got that i guess.

We buy 1,000,000 of the things (Xbox1), which means ONE IN TWENTY AUSTRALIANS OWN AN XBOX AT THIS VERY MOMENT and we don't even get a mention in the official launch, an exact release date, or the courtesy of being included in this 'supposed world wide launch'.

Face it guys. Nobody outside of Australia, ie: no foreign company will ever give a flying **** about this little arsehole country thats a days flight away from Redmond, and nobody ever will. This is just continual proof of that.

They got Halo 2 out worldwide, so no doubt the '2006' release date for the Australian Xbox360 launch is purely for marketing purposes alone and absolutely no other reason.

You're right, 4 months isn't too long to wait, if March gets confirmed, but the point that ticks me off is how we continually get shafted left, right and centre every time with things like this.

David

7 years ago

Umm, they've sold less then 500,000 xboxes in australia, not a million.

However, Australia is still their best market in the world (in terms of market share), so I find it odd that they piss us off by launching EVERYWHERE ELSE first.

Maybe they take australians for granted?

Worst of all, now they'll spend this christmas pretending XB1 is still the latest and greatest (even though there'll be no big games for it now or ever again since it's been killed off elsewhere), and then kill it early next year. How does timmy who gets one this christmas feel about no new games ever again?

In fact - Nvidia has ceased providing MS with xbox chipsets, meaning the finla XB1 will be produced very soon. Will they even have any consoles to see in australia this Xmas?

Qbert

7 years ago

I'm not trying to say all XBOX gamers are mainstream MTV people, but many of the people buying the 360 will not know that it has been out 3-4 months prior in other countries. They'll just be happy to see a nice shiny new console that they can get. And I'm guessing on this one, but maybe M$ won't get a profit from releasing in Oz so early.(Don't see how, but maybe.) And if that is the case, there would be no point just to make, not even, 5% of their marketshare happy.

Quigon

6 years ago

Why do we always get shafted here in Australia? If everyone in Europe can get XBOX360 so early, why can't we? What's so good about them? Also, what's the deal with "sometime in 2006"? They can't even give us a definitive date. One more thing, if New Zealand winds up getting it before us I'm going to have serious questions as to whether the world we live in is going forward or a long way backward.

Qbert

6 years ago

Well europe does have three quarters of a billion people and Australia has 20 million......

rossa14

6 years ago

that sounds cool but it is a shame it will not be out for christmas were it would make more sales anyway, but that aside i can't wait for the xbox 360 to hit aus. i will get the xbox 360 to stay true with the xbox brand considering that it comes out before PS3, wich then i will be thinking about getting the PS3 instead of xbox 2. but in the long run i will get the xbox anyway as i have the PS2 and the xbox at this time, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>power to the xbox, the better of 2 consoles<<<<<<<<<<<

themak

6 years ago

rossa14 wrote

Hi Rosa, I don't want to sound like a flame but...

ObsoletE wrote

2. Don't bump old and dead topics.
...without a good reason... on this board, an old topic tends to be more than a month old... please check the date before posting a new reply. that said, you are welcome to bump a post provided your post is valid, and still has some relevance to everyone else. if you have some new news on an upcoming game, your best bet would be to start a new topic. but always obey #1 when doing so.
.

Hope you stay on PALGN and don't quit after post 1.
Yep thats why I bear the -- moniker, someone nicked "alex" and posted: once.

**edited because of a typo**

cammy123us

6 years ago

Once released in US or Europe i will fly over to get one or two. Whats the best way to go as far as power compatability and PAL etc Any thoughts Cam

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