Am I the only one that doesn't think the Arcade is a waste of time?


Xbox 360 Arcade  

149 members have voted

  1. 1. The 360 arcade is....

    • ...a waste of time
      16
    • ...a scam for the uninformed
      28
    • ...an alternative
      105


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On a nearly daily basis, I'm always coming across comments or articles where someone's claiming that the 360 Arcade is a waste of time, money or in some cases, an outright scam. I never see anyone disputing this, either and I'm seriously wondering what it is that I'm missing.

Before I explain my reasoning, I'd like to point out that I'm a Premium/Pro owner and love the addition of the hard drive, I personally wouldn't settle for less so hopefully this will be a somewhat unbiased viewpoint.

The main contention with the Arcade seems to be the lack of hard drive. That's pretty much the only thing separating an Arcade and Pro, but it's enough to get people riled up. There also seems to be this idea that the Arcade is for "casual" gamers only, which is understandable given how it's been named, but I still don't believe this is the case. What's more, people seem particularly annoyed that Microsoft advertises the 360 with a "prices starting at..." slogan that always quotes the RRP of the Arcade. People are saying this is misleading the consumer and that's probably where the whole "scam" thing comes from.

I genuinely think people have missed the point of the Arcade almost entirely. The first thing I'd have to ask is, do all 360 owners actually NEED the hard drive? Many people would be quick to say yes, but for what, exactly? The unanimous answer is always "Live". But that's just it, how many people are actually ON Xbox live right now? I don't have exact figures, but recently (around november time) Microsoft announced that the 360 had finally outsold the Original Xbox, a figure of around 25Million Units. Not long before this, they announced that Live had about 15million subscribers (gold AND silver). Even if we're assuming that 1 xbox contains 1 live profile (but I myself know a few people with multiple accounts on the one box), that still means there's 10million 360's out there that have never been connected to Live.

Why have they not been connected? Who knows, maybe the person doesn't have broadband, maybe they don't feel it's worth paying for, maybe they just don't care, it doesn't really matter, the fact remains that around 40% of 360's aren't connected to live. Now, I ask you, what do they need a hard drive for? I certianly don't believe they're "casual" gamers, I bet there's quite a few arcade owners with a huge collection of games out there, but just have no interest in playing on Live with others. You and I may think that net play is the bee's Knees, but not everyone shares the same view. And the worst that person will have to contend with is deleting the odd save game (or buying a bigger memory card), which is definitely nothing new in the gaming world.

People seem to think that the Hard drive is some integral part of a gaming console for one reason or another, but only one console in the last generation actually had one as standard (And didn't exactly outsell it's main competitor, the PS2, which didn't). The PS2 had an optional hard drive addon, which hardly anyone bought. But suddenly, this generation REQUIRES one for it to not be a scam? Psh I say!

Sure, there's a couple of 360 games that require a hard drive outright, but you can count those on one hand (rather like the PS2 games that required a console outright). Quite a few require a hard drive for online play, but as we've established, enough 360's don't connect to live, so what's the issue? Why is the Arcade such poor value?

At the end of the day, it'll play 99% of 360 games out of the box, it even has a memory card for your game saves and if you ever DO decide to connect to live, Microsoft's "Live starter kit" contains everything you need, including aforementioned hard drive (admittedly this is only a recent addition, but you could buy 20Gb HDDs for a while now, they serve the same function, they just don't come with a headset or live subscription).

I also believe that the "It's scaming the uninformed" thing is a load of rubbish as well. Everyone knows Microsoft makes more money on the premium and (especially) elite consoles, so why would they rather people bought the cheaper one? Even the store Clerk should be there to inform whoever's buying it exactly what they're getting, after all the store will make more money on a more expensive purchase as well. And if at the end of the day, the person buying decides that they would like a premium, but can only afford an Arcade, well...the upgrade option is there and costs about the same as a newly released title.

I really don't see what the issue with the Arcade is, I think there's enough people out there that simply don't need or want anything more.

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Kushan, stop trying to wall of text people like I do :laugh:

My feelings summed up briefly for once - No it's not a waste of time, it's ?129, quite often ?99. For most ousb> though it probably is (unless you're Mr Pirate and need a replacement Xbo:laugh:h:), as we'll use hard drive space, but last I heard MS is actually offloading 20GB hard drives to arcade users on the cheap. Then all you need to do is mod your own 120GB drive in.

Back in the day though if you went arcade, you'd have quite a hefty expense upgrading to a hard drive, therefore I'd always say save your pennies a bit longer, and save yourself ?20-30 in the long run getting a pro/premium.

It's a very good marketing ploy, as you can say your console starts at ?129. That attracts soccer moms, and general buyers out from behind trees/bushes/walls and wherever else they all hide behind till Christmas.

That IMO is probably the most important task of the arcade, to make the 360 sound dirt cheap, regardless of the additional overpriced 1st party accessories might need to buy.

If you undergo studies into consumer behaviour you're going to find many many many people just don't bother to add up any additional expenses in the long run, it's just here's what's in my wallet, what's the cheapest in the shop? That's why it's such a money maker for console companies to offload you with massively overpriced 1st party accessories. Consumers buy the console first, then moan their faces off about additional product pricing afterwa:ps :p

Edited by Audioboxer
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Nah, it's not a waste of time. People like us at neowin and elsewhere on the internet seem to easily forget what the actual market that these consoles are being sold to looks like, and the truth is that the majority of the people in that market can probably get along quite well without a hard drive.

-Spenser

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Sometimes I actually think the "scam" is the other way around. I know a couple of people with 360s that never play on Live, but decided to buy the premium because they didn't want "the crap one". But as I said above, the premium makes Microsoft more money, so how does that work out?

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I think it is a waste of time, personally. But I'm sure to many consumers it's a viable option. Many people, I'm sure, just want to play their games. They don't want to download demos, arcade games, videos, or anything else. They just want to play some games here and there and they can easily save their progress on a memory card.

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I've been behind the Arcade sku the whole time. It was a fantastic choice/decision by MS to create and continue to sell it :yes:

I had your cookie dude, but I accidentally ate it because I was hungry ;)

:p

Probably shouldn't have, by 1am tomorrow I'll probably be munchied out my face :(

You should have a party in town, I'll be visiting the residences in capitol for one!

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But I'm sure to many consumers it's a viable option. Many people, I'm sure, just want to play their games. They don't want to download demos, arcade games, videos, or anything else. They just want to play some games here and there and they can easily save their progress on a memory card.

Agreed (Y) There has to be that "market" out there if people continue to buy that SKU. Smart move by MS if you ask me.

I had your cookie dude, but I accidentally ate it because I was hungry ;)

:p

Ok I have to ask. What in the heck do cookies have to do with a 360???

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I think it's a fine alternative. Some people legitimately don't need a hard drive. They'll never plug it in online and just need something to save games to -- so they get a memory card. Or, there are people that just don't want to spend the extra $50 all at once but rather wait until they need it.

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I think initially it was a bad move from Microsoft. After last generation where each Xbox had a HD, it was something admired by the other two consoles. I think this time they were looking at cutting costs a little, but I think if they could go back, they would stick a 20gb on there in a heart beat.

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couldn't care less about the hard drive or network card the main thing that ****es people off is the lack of hdmi support :p we had to stick with poor resolution from the xbox because we didn't have microsoft overpriced cable to convert to hdmi where as the premium ones do have a hdmi port (which we have spare cables for) and don't cost as much as microsoft like to sell theirs for...

so yeah scam for the misinformed

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I think it was a right decision by MS. I recently bought an arcade model since it is cheaper than the Wii and I really don't need a hard drive now since I don't care about downloading demos, trailers, etc... maybe later on once I have some extra cash so I can install some games onto it:)

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To start off, props to Kushan for the great OP.

Now, when the 360 was first launched I believed that the Arcade was a rip off, I mean the price difference betweent he Arcade and Premium bundles weren't too far off and the Premium bundle has so much more included (Wireless controller, ethernet cable, hard drive) all of which back then were really expensive add-ons.

Nowadays the Arcade includes a wireless controller and comes with a few arcade games, which seems way more worth the money you buy it for. Also now with the Jasper motherboards being rolled out in the Arcade models anyone would be silly to not buy one if they were looking for a console now. Arcades with Jasper boards are still extremely hard to find in the UK but they are out there and no doubt will become more popular in the new year, so why wouldn't anyone buy one and then a 20gb hard drive? Even then they can upgrade themselves to a 120gb HDD if the person knows what they're doing.

Even for people who's 360s have bust and need to pay ?60 for repairs, like me as my 360 was bought second hand and MS refuse to repair it, an arcade is a brilliant choice. Sure it's another ?100-?130 I will spend on an XBOX 360 but I'll be happy knowing my 360 has the newer motherboards and overall a lot more reliable than the previous 360s I've used.

BTW, I'm opting to buy a new Jasper Arcade rather than paying ?60 and having an old refurbished console because I would rather the reliability of a new console and extra add-ons (wireless controller).

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Ok I have to ask. What in the heck do cookies have to do with a 360???

They both taste good? :rofl:

It's just a joke with Munky, as he's right, he's always said the Arcade was a worthwhile venture. Hence me going to offer him is award cookie!

I know, because I used to argue with him about it :laugh:

Nowadays I do agree it was a smart move, unlike in the past.

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couldn't care less about the hard drive or network card the main thing that ****es people off is the lack of hdmi support :p we had to stick with poor resolution from the xbox because we didn't have microsoft overpriced cable to convert to hdmi where as the premium ones do have a hdmi port (which we have spare cables for) and don't cost as much as microsoft like to sell theirs for...

so yeah scam for the misinformed

ERm....all 360's have a HDMI port now. It's been like that for over a year (And I'm sure that when they switched from Core to Arcade, all Arcades has HDMI ports).

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can you buy an arcade version and then crack it open and slap a hard drive in it?

No need to mod the console, you can buy a hard drive accessory. All 360's have a removable hard drive bay (Y)

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Just as a side note, it is technically possible to mod a 360 (any 360) to have an internal hard drive, but you'll still need to use a legitimate 360 Hard drive (or one of the special "modified" WD BEVS drives, i.e. you can't just use ANY hard drive) to do it.

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I think it's a fine alternative, but I don't think it should be pushed as the low end option as most people don't know what they're (not) getting. It should remain an option, but be less prominently pushed at the low end by retailers. But that will never happen. As a device, it's fine, there are uses for 360s other than XBL gaming - Arcade boxes make great MCE extenders.

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It's not a waste of time per-se I'd say but I think it was still a bad decision overall. I think there are some developers that would have legitimatly made use of a HDD install had it been optional.

Also while a good number of users don't use Live, as pointed out in post 1 of this topic, if every user had a HDD those that currently don't have one may be far more likely to get a gold subscription or download content than they currently are. If people don't have the HDD then getting one just to see whether they like live or to get a single downloadable item is a big financial ask and I imagine that the lack of HDD would discourage many arcade owners from using live.

I think having it there would be like holding a golder carrot under the users nose. Sure they may not be sold on live now but if one after noon they get the urge to randomly download a movie for the first time or get a DLC addon for their game then they can. It'd help push live as a service even if not all users would utilise the HDD.

Yes theres costs benefits too but overall I'd have liked a more streamlined product. It's also good for future developments such as any games that require disc swapping or even just things such as NXE which required core owners to be distributed further memory capabilities.

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