NJ Mom

I agree that there is probably somewhat of a wait-and-see attitude right now.

Earlier this year there were some who wanted all consoles on the market so they could make a comparison and then their decision.

And I'd imagine there are some who are waiting to see what bundles/pricing options MS will make available to counter Sony and Nintendo's respective launches, as well as any upcoming holiday specials.

A bundle option is what I'm waiting for right now... for my second Xbox 360. Or, rather, for a family Xbox 360 since I'm sharing mine quite a bit these days.

And my cube farm neighbor told me this morning she and her husband decided on an Xbox 360 this weekend; they'll be looking at the upcoming special offers and figure to be picking one up by Thanksgiving. Another co-worker and her family (husband, daughter) love their 360 and, to her surprise, her normally early-adopter husband (who has enjoyed all the Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles thus far) neither wants a PS3 nor Wii at this time. So now she's also thinking about a second Xbox 360, since the 360 is the only one that gets played and she'd like some game time as well.

While the 360 game line-up hasn't really had too many kick-ass titles in its first year, most entries have been reasonably solid and I've been pleased to see a good foundation in more genres than it would seem are normally associated with Xbox. My family has a huge range of gaming interests, so we've been pleasantly surprised at how much the system and XBLA offers all of us, not just me. That, along with the games we've already invested in and the games we expect to invest in (Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Alan Wake, Viva Pinata, Lost Planet, Gears of War, Stranglehold, BioShock, Assassin's Creed, Star Trek: Legacy, Lost Odyssey, and several XBLA announced titles, among others), are what make a second 360 (instead of a different brand console) the best direction for my family this year and next.

I don't think the Xbox 360's performance thus far should be measured against the early performance of other systems. The environment in which the original systems sold (society, gaming culture, economic considerations, politics, gamer ages, etc.) are different from the current environment; all things are not equal.

So in light of the upcoming launches, can Microsoft effectively market the Xbox 360? I'm really not sure, given the strength of the Playstation brand and the Xbox reputation as a "shooter only" console. However, being a parent working with other parents - many of them gamers and others with gaming children - I do know that not a single person is planning on a PS3 purchase any time soon. (The only PS3 candidate changed her mind after the price announcement and gave her son a DS Lite instead.) The only person getting a Wii is someone without kids, but who's totally into the Zelda games and wants to play Twilight Princess on the new system. So in that wait-and-see period people may not rush to the 360, but they'll definitely have time to see that the MS next-gen console is offering a great system and a wider range of games this time around. And maybe word of mouth will help it as well. My co-workers and I have already seen proof of that.