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November 10, 2006

Amazon To Sell Xbox 360 for $100?

Michael Arrington

192 comments »

If you are thinking of buying an Xbox 360 in the next few days, don’t. We’ve gotten information that Amazon may be putting the $300 Xbox 360 bundle on sale for $100 in the next week or so as a promotional move for the holiday season. We don’t know if this will be limited to the Xbox or will include other items, or exactly how many will be put on sale - but it came from a rock solid source. More as this develops, including coverage at Crunchgear.

On an unrelated note, if you live in Seattle you can win a Zune on CrunchGear. Or if you don’t live in Seattle, CrunchGear is giving away a Zune nationally as well.

Update: See Amazon’s announcement of this here.

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Comments

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  1. Mark

    November 10th, 2006 at 3:32 pm

    The link is for the Xbox360. Is the rumored deal on the original, or the 360?

  2. Michael Arrington

    November 10th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    yes, sorry. corrected text.

  3. Hornswaggled

    November 10th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    This is better than the jellyfish smack of the day when they had the 360 on. Hopefulyy this will be a 360 and not just the old xbox.

  4. Alaska Miller

    November 10th, 2006 at 3:38 pm

    a lot of people are going to be a lot of money

  5. ryos

    November 10th, 2006 at 3:45 pm

    this is gotta be some kind of mistake. but I’ll keep my eyes open anyways. thanks for the heads up, Michael.

    btw, PS3 went on sale in Japan. Akihabara is in the midst of madness chaos as we speak…

    http://www.asahi.com/business/.....100395.jpg

  6. Jason Cox

    November 10th, 2006 at 4:01 pm

    YES! I’ve wanted one of those for awhile!!!

  7. Sean

    November 10th, 2006 at 4:37 pm

    I think collectively Microsoft and Amazon will lose about $600 on each one sold.
    Bezos is a smart guy though, I’m sure there’s some upside to it. Does he still drive a Honda Accord?

    Check it out!

  8. sidereal

    November 10th, 2006 at 4:59 pm

    Looking forward to it, but keep in mind that this is the ghetto “Core” bundle. It does not contain the wireless controller(s), the hard drive, the HD A/V cables, or the headset.

    It looks like all that can be bought for around $200 (depending on whether you get the wired or wireless Live headset), so what you’re looking at (assuming my math is correct) is either staying at $300 Core for $100 (great value, but you miss out) or upgrading a la carte and getting the $400 bundle for $300. Still a good value, but not quite as exciting. I wonder if the ‘promotional move’ is related to having a large stock of unsold Core bundles.

    I might end up waiting a few more months for the good bundle to drop in price to compete with the PS3/Wii

  9. David Mackey

    November 10th, 2006 at 5:12 pm

    Wow. That’d be sweet.

  10. Todd

    November 10th, 2006 at 5:47 pm

    Maybe we should all buy one…and never buy any games…now that would not make Microsoft happy.

  11. mathew

    November 10th, 2006 at 5:58 pm

    Mmm, illegal dumping by convicted monopolists. Tasty.

  12. Dave

    November 10th, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    Sounds like it could be one of those spend x amount of dollars and be able to buy the Xbox for $100.

  13. peter

    November 10th, 2006 at 7:07 pm

    is Canada included, too?

  14. Angel

    November 10th, 2006 at 7:33 pm

    I already have a 360, but I definitely would get another to put in the bedroom for gaming and especially streaming video.

  15. Josh

    November 10th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

    Dumping is when you dump things into another country for anti-competitive purposes. Frankly your language doesn’t apply in any context related to the Xbox 360 even if it was in another country but nice try.

  16. John

    November 10th, 2006 at 8:36 pm

    Mr. Michael Arrington: Do not start ridiculous rumors. You should be ashamed of yourself for typing such BS.

  17. Sage

    November 10th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

    This is FALSE. My friend works at Amazon and she clearly told there is no such thing and even asked her head supervisor.

    What’s with these rumors these days.

  18. Jim Bob Davis

    November 10th, 2006 at 10:42 pm

    It would make sense to sell a core unit so cheap, if combined with a second purchase say a zune.

    It would also be possible with a trade in of an Xbox or PS2. Other than that possibly on Black Friday or Nov 17th PS3 day to do this as a distraction to PS3 madness!

  19. Agent

    November 10th, 2006 at 11:33 pm

    This information is nothing but a rumor. How do we know this isn’t just a scheme to get Dugg?

  20. Ryan Stewart

    November 10th, 2006 at 11:45 pm

    Calm down people, the Core system isn’t worth even $100.

  21. Had

    November 11th, 2006 at 12:02 am

    Alas! I see someone other than me actually studied in economics classes.

    I see no cost benefit to do this other than eat about $175 dollars. MS is not going to do a deal like this with Amazon because they will tick of their other channel partners. Nobody will eat that much margin- if true, perhaps there is an addtional purchasing catch to this.

  22. Poor

    November 11th, 2006 at 4:23 am

    Poor fake story - linkbait to get additional traffic.

    Not a chance the Xbox will be reduced this much

  23. Alex

    November 11th, 2006 at 6:12 am

    Oh my god, shutup people.

    Why all the haters? Michael doesn’t post crap for no reason. Remember the GooTube fiasco. Everyone was calling out TechCrunch for baiting traffic yet alas Michael comes out and proves you all wrong. He broke the story from insiders. He took a chance because he heard something and the chance worked.

    Why do you come here? For information. If Michael and the team has something to write about then they will post it. Most of the time it is correct. If it isn’t, who really cares? He is posts what he hears and he posts what he knows.

    He can’t always get the scoop, but he so often does. And it is his editorial duty to post what he knows.

    If you have a problem with that go read some other lame blog that aggregates all of their information from such mines as TechCrunch.

    Lame.

  24. Chris

    November 11th, 2006 at 7:18 am

    MS can and will profit off of this.

    Most people with an Xbox360 probably get Live right? I don’t know the cost exactly but I think that’s like $70 a year or something around that. That leaves $130 left to recoup. You’ll probably buy two or 3 games within a few months of owning the system, if not more. Games, minus the development and publishing costs, are the biggest kind of profit that they can make (well, not considering that the $70/year is a good deal profit as well, they just have to host some servers…). So even if they only make 50% profit on a game (what the margin is exactly I’m not sure), within 6 months you’ll most likely have brought up the profit for MS to the cost of the system, possibly even buying a hard drive and other accessories, and you will eventually become profitable, even with buying the $100 system to start out with.

    Now, in your quest to profit MS, you’ll be $200 behind the game, but you will most likely do it eventually. And MS isn’t broke, so they can afford to wait a year or two, and if you keep renewing your Live membership, they have continual guarenteed profit in the future also.

    MS is doing the xbox 360 moreso to compete anyway as opposed to pure profit. If all they were concerned about was raw, net profit, they wouldn’t have gotten into the games business. In other words, they are here for strategic reasons at the moment. But as the PS3 releases and is possibly set to fail, MS has a chance to take the top spot (in America anyway), something Nintendo hasn’t been able to do for awhile. So while the Xbox didn’t profit MS that much if at all, the Xbox 360 and/or future incarnations may slowly but surely turn into huge moneymakers, and they had to exist in the market as a literal nonprofit first to get there.

    Disclaimer: I don’t claim to know what I’m blabbering on about, these are just observations that seem pretty apt at the time ;)

  25. Dave Zatz

    November 11th, 2006 at 9:01 am

    No way would they sell a 360 for $100 by itself. Maybe it you commit to three years of Live or buy a $200 accessory pack with. Also it would probably require a rebate which only have about a 50% fulfillment rate. Lastly, I would wonder if they’re collaborating with MS on this and if the Core system’s days are numbered - maybe they’ll drop the 20GB package by $100 and introduce a 80gb model at $400. Either way, MS is obviously prepared to battle Sony this month.

  26. MaHan

    November 11th, 2006 at 9:31 am

    OMFG…..finially..my lil bro can get his own 360 and he wont have to use mine…yay…lol

  27. JoeB

    November 11th, 2006 at 10:08 am

    You all realize that if you clicked that amazon link TechCrunch stand to get an affiliate commision on all your purchases from Amazon in the next 30 days (check out the amazon affiliate ID in the link).

    Nice idea for linkbait Michael.

  28. Jason Weisberger

    November 11th, 2006 at 10:28 am

    Whats wrong with Mike making some money off sharing this news with us? I’d never have known and the price won’t be any higher to me — Amazon should pay people for helping get the word out.

  29. Kohn

    November 11th, 2006 at 11:01 am

    This has nothing to do with Microsoft…

    Amazon just wants to empty out the Core stock since no one buys the cores… This will get people to buy them.

    I know, my friend works for Amazon, and says this is going to likely happen if they can’t get rid of more of the cores.

  30. LIES

    November 11th, 2006 at 11:14 am

    Its a scam made up by a Sony representative to kill xbox360 sales this christmas by lying to the community to not buy xbox360s till they “find out” that it MIGHT be on sale for $100

  31. Bryan

    November 11th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

    The reasoning behind such a move is quite evident. Whether or not we actually see this happen is another.

    Arrington: Good job. No matter what anyone here says, the fact of the matter is that we are all here to read news, right? The news isnt always right but we have to trust the journalists to provide us with authoritative “rumors” and if the Google- Youtube deal is any indication, it would seem that Michael and the rest of the TechCrunch team prefer to post only that which they believe to be true.

    And true it was, in regards to Gootube - so why is it that everyone is so quick to jump to conclusions such as TechCrunch is linkbaiting and just trying to get Dugg. Has it occurred to anyone that TC is dugg several times a day? I seriously doubt that Team Arrington decided they needed at least one more article on Digg.

    And for those who are complaining about the affiliate id in the Amazon link… Who cares? Are you paying for TechCrunch? Somebody is, and that somebody needs to make the money back. It doesnt affect you in any way personally, so why bother to waste time, effort and a few kilobytes of bandwidth to complain about such a thing.

  32. Big Dog

    November 11th, 2006 at 12:30 pm

    Jason Weisberger said: “Amazon should pay people for helping get the word out.”

    They are, it’s called affiliate commission. However, if it turns out to be link bait, all the visitors have just been duped into clicking the amazon link.

  33. Big Dog

    November 11th, 2006 at 12:32 pm

    Also, Microsoft DONT want this. It devalues their brand to being the bargin alternative to the PS3 which is not how they want to position the XB360.

    It’s well known economics that a cheap price doesn’t always mean good value in the consumers mind.

  34. DavidGX

    November 11th, 2006 at 12:58 pm

    Sounds like bs. I wouldn’t believe it.

  35. Michael Arrington

    November 11th, 2006 at 1:14 pm

    There is no affiliate link in any of the links in that post.

  36. KLOZ

    November 11th, 2006 at 10:44 pm

    So what’s the word, is this some joke. Or you are 50% sure about it? either way If you are not 100% sure what’s the use? I was about to buy a system this week just after I bought my High Def projector And I ran across this thread and thought I should give it a few days but I need to experience some major Gears of War!. So is it worth the wait man. Please fill us in more  or just e-mail me the insight lol. I don’t think I can wait two weeks. I just might have to freeze myself!

    {KLOZ}

  37. smash

    November 12th, 2006 at 11:38 am

    this is a hoax to generate refferal fees for ‘pd_bbs_sr_3′

    every single blog has this id inbedded in the link.

  38. plonk420

    November 12th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

    if you’re so paranoid about referrers, just paste in
    http://www.amazon.com/Microsof.....000B43OXU/

  39. Justin Silverton

    November 12th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

    I will be very interested to see if this is actually true. It might be a bait-and-switch type of deal. They only allow let’s say 10 or 20 people buy it at this great low price.

    Also, it’s a great marketing tactic. It gets the name “xbox” in major internet headlines

  40. lazyboy

    November 12th, 2006 at 6:10 pm

    Its would be so kool if i happened on Tuesday and i got one … would be a great bday present.

  41. 2FR3SH

    November 12th, 2006 at 11:42 pm

    will it be this week or next week?

  42. others

    November 13th, 2006 at 12:37 am

    “pd_bbs_sr_3″ isn’t a referral link, it’s a reftag. Amazon uses them internally to track links around its site. (In this case, it refers to “search result #3″ — try searching on Amazon.com itself to verify this.) Referral links are the ones that look like “something-20″

  43. smash

    November 13th, 2006 at 1:13 am

    an unreal claim, coupled with a denial of an affiliate link when one is explicitely present?
    thats not paranoia plonk, thats common sense.

    also once the ref link is utilized the ref id still receives a smaller bonus for up to a week or so for ANYTHING purchased at amazon, even if its not followed with a ref link afterwards. i know this because i myself am an amazon affiliate.

    original link:
    http://www.amazon.com/Microsof.....videogames

    “There is no affiliate link in any of the links in that post.”
    - Michael Arrington

    “I’m not a crook!”
    - Dick Nixon

  44. conspiracy

    November 13th, 2006 at 1:26 am

    I love it! You cry conspiracy based on a referral link in the url? You expect us to believe that tens of thousands of users clicking the link will find the system at regular price. . .and buy it?

    Morons. . .

    Either way the deal does sound too good to be true. Here’s to hoping. . .

  45. smash

    November 13th, 2006 at 5:06 am

    since youre the only one to cry ‘conspiracy’ in this thread, does that by your own post make you a moron?

    blog spam is not a ‘conspiracy,’ its just annoying.

    kind of like posts that insult a point of view only to admit sharing that point of view by the end of them.

  46. Amit

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:09 am

    Any update on this?

  47. Foo_per

    November 13th, 2006 at 11:10 am

    I have a strong suspicion this move is only to liquidate stocks of existing XBOX360s. There is probably a second generation XBOX360 in the works (probably with a built-in HD-DVD player to counter PS3)

  48. ripple2662

    November 13th, 2006 at 12:01 pm

    updates??

  49. stupid

    November 13th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    i fell for it

  50. plonk420

    November 13th, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    @smash, who cares if he gets money? if him having readers click on links too often that don’t offer what he says they will, he’ll lose readers. don’t like it? don’t click on the link/article

    @foo_per, there’s no reason for MS to make an xbox with HD DVD built in. it’s just an extra $50-150 piece of hardware that not everyone will make use of. i like that you can just get the drive if an old one breaks. however, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether MS will stick to “their word” that no games will come on HD DVD. (a company’s “word” seems to be going to shit in the current generation of mudslinging and outrageous claims .. but it’s mostly Sony’s word i don’t trust at the time)

  51. smashysmashy

    November 14th, 2006 at 11:21 am

    @smash: A deal sounding too good to be true, doesn’t necessarily equate to some affiliate scam. you explicitly said this is a hoax to generate referral revenue. maybe you need to look up the word conspiracy.

  52. Mr. Shiney

    November 14th, 2006 at 1:15 pm

    I’m highly suspicious about this post as well. But I still signed up for the RSS feed for the Xbox 360 @ Amazon.

    I doubt this is a amazon referral scheme. Amazon doesn’t pay for page views, it pays for sales. So the poster would only make money — as others have said — if people click thru on his referral (which I understand isn’t even there), add the xbox to their cart, and then buy it.

    I think it is more likely — if the poster really is looking for ad revenue — that he is taking advantage of all the pageviews for his inline ads — some of which may pay a very small amount per page-view. But then again, if he is, so what. It’s his blog he has the headache to maintain, and presumably he pays the bandwidth bills — so why shouldn’t he post revenue. At least he labels it as a rumor — and if it turns out to be a hoax — well it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened, has it?

    – Mr. Shiney

    http://mrshiney.froppy.com/blog/

  53. smash

    November 15th, 2006 at 8:04 am

    @51. in no way hoax equals conspiracy. a conspiracy can and more often than not is a hoax but the other way around is alot more exlusive. feel free to investigate dictionary definitions for this…

    my original post was a responce to michaels claim that there were no affiliate links in that post, which i desputed by poiniting out the exact part that was identifying the affiliate. anyone with ad funded blogging experience would recognize this.

    and if you think that the refferer gets nothing if that xbox is not bought at the ful price (which its still at right now) you are wrong again. as i mentioned in my original post as well, the program still gives you a % of any other purchases the duped visitor makes on amazon withing a few days after clickign the refferal link. this is to give a benefit of a odubt tha tthe shopper was reffered to what ever eother purchase he/she made by following the original link. only difference is the percentage is alot less.

    calculate the amount of exposure this claim made (i saw it reffered on at least 8 other blog sites, with the exact same referal link in it) and the potential of a good refferal bonus grows exponentially.

    i have an abandoned site with an embedded link from 1998 which still makes me about 100$ a year from the scant few visitors it gets who dont even buy the things i have on it.

    if you are going to despute something, atleast bring some insight to the table. dont waste your time with claims that have already been addressed before hand.

  54. pat

    November 15th, 2006 at 10:53 am

    how do you sign up for the RSS feed for a product at amazon??

  55. Marco

    November 16th, 2006 at 5:06 am

    Here’s the link….

    http://amazon.com/gp/holiday/cv/homepage

  56. Chris Campbell

    November 16th, 2006 at 7:23 am

    Check out the product page. It will be offered for $100 and there will be a quantity of 1000 on Thanksgiving day only, if it is the winning vote in their Customer Votes campaign.

  57. Chris Campbell

    November 16th, 2006 at 7:27 am

    Here’s the link to vote, in case any body is interested. It is winning so far with 70% of the votes.

  58. j

    November 16th, 2006 at 10:03 am

    stop posting about it people, the more people who find out about it, the less chance you have to get one

  59. Ethan

    November 16th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    seriously, does anyone actually believe that they’ll be able to get one? This deal is everywhere on the web right now. I suspect that tens of thousands of people are going to be hitting the site at the designated time - thereby making it damn near impossible to actually load the page (let alone actually getting one of the cheap systems).

    I absolutely hate that Amazon is pulling this. If they want to really give their customers a deal they should do a one customer/one unit kind of thing. That way anyone who really wanted one would actually have a chance of getting one.

  60. Justin Timberlake

    November 16th, 2006 at 3:43 pm

    cry me a river ethan

  61. hammer

    November 16th, 2006 at 9:44 pm

    Smash… Search anything in amazon.. and hover over the links one by one.. you will see that “pd_bbs_sr_3″ will show up in the link for the 3rd link… in the 2nd link it will be “pd_bbs_sr_2″.. and the 1st “pd_bbs_sr_1″ and so forth..

    You did not point out the exact part that identifies the affliate link as you said.

    There’s the insite you wanted to be brought to the table.

    ps This doesn’t mean it isn’t an affliate link. All I’m pointing out is that what you’re using as evidence is wrong. Who knows, it might be an affiate link(I could certainly see him doing that) but “pd_bbs_sr_3″ surely doesn’t prove that.

  62. rehold

    November 16th, 2006 at 11:45 pm

    smash you sure you are not working for Sony and not Amazon?

  63. Pierre

    November 17th, 2006 at 12:41 am

    Amazon is doing it guys. 1000 pieces.
    Actually that’s a sustem of vote but so far 88% for a xbox360 at 100$ !!!
    Only sign customer can vote!
    Here is how it’s work (from amazon website)
    How This Works

    * Only the deal elected by customers will be offered. Every customer may vote once per week.
    * Only the quantities listed will be available at the winning price.
    * All products are brand new.
    * Voting closes Tuesday at 9 p.m. Pacific Time, and the winner will be announced Wednesday at 11 a.m. Pacific Time.
    * The winner will go on sale Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. Be here!
    * Increase your odds of scoring the deal by reading our buying tips.

    I’m so buying it next thursday!

    Cheers!

    Pierre

  64. Pierre

    November 17th, 2006 at 12:43 am

    my bad I didn’t see the other comments, so that’s not much a surprise then…

  65. ME

    November 17th, 2006 at 2:39 pm

    My guess is that they are all going to be sold by 11:01 on Thanksgiving. I’ve been practicing my clicking skills. Watch out.

  66. E.T.

    November 19th, 2006 at 9:04 am

    Well on Ebay people are claiming and selling links to this deal. They say you will need to get this special link to get the 100$ deal. Anyway if you want to accually have a chance log on to amazon now and wait because if you wait you will never even be able to log in. There will be atleast a million people tryin to log in that day and time. It’s a great scam for amazon they will release only a few at the 100$ special and I’m sure they will have other so called specials available if you miss out.

  67. Bob

    November 20th, 2006 at 1:56 pm

    Can you do the single click to buy or do you have to fill out all the information again

  68. Bob

    November 20th, 2006 at 3:29 pm

    nevermind i found it on the website

  69. Peter

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:04 am

    Funny how everyone was so convinced this was fake earlier.

  70. Josh

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:08 am

    Well, it’s 11:00 and the site crashed. Looks like nobody’s getting one.

  71. Dan

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:10 am

    Their servers are so bogged down I can’t even connect

  72. Matt

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:10 am

    It is 11:08 and the deal went live at 11:00. I still haven’t been able to get the page or any other part of the site to load … in otherwords, Amazon has created a DOS attack on themselves.

  73. Alex

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:10 am

    Can anyone get on? This is bullshit.

  74. George

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    Stupid stuff sold out before my page even finished loading. F you amazon for making me get up @ 11 am on a holiday!!! I wonder if the site will crash next week when people rush into buy earrings or a power drill!!!

  75. Isaac

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    It is sold out. =p

  76. Armik

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    As soon as I got through (11:10am) I got the message that it’s Sold Out. How could anyone possibly log in?

  77. V

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    How much money do you think Amazon has lost on this?

  78. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:11 am

    I was logged in and waiting at the page for 30min.

    But when the time came, nothing happend.

    Hit refresh and nothing, just spinning wheels, that was 12min ago…

  79. Gary

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:12 am

    Well, that was useless… the site was completely unreachable, and now that it is, the deal is gone…

  80. Lee

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:12 am

    Its all bullshit, appeared to be sold out at 11:00:12 (according to my clock).

    1000 units my ass.

  81. Justin

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:12 am

    BASTARDS! I was waiting since 10:45…reloading, and the site never let me in past 10:57. Sold out. How could that be !?

  82. Lee

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:13 am

    Because its a scam.

  83. Justin

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:14 am

    Such bullshit.

  84. David Sissitka

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:14 am

    What a joke, Amazon should have been prepared.

  85. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am

    Well, who knows if Amazon even has to prove they sold any.

    With only 1000 available and millions trying, who can prove if they really had 1000 available.

  86. f amazon

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am

    Amazon didnt even sell the units, i bet it was a trick.

  87. Justin

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 am

    I’d like to know what made those 1000 people so special.

  88. f amazon

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:16 am

    i hate amazon. i wasted thanksgiving for this. its 2:16 here.

  89. Larry

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am

    How did anyone even process a transaction to even buy one???? The site was down for 15 minutes basically.

  90. J p

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am

    the website went black at 1:58 Est, then 2:06 sold out, theres something really shady.

  91. f amazon

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am

    even the runner-ups were dead

  92. Jimmy R.

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:18 am

    If they had 1000 units, it’s likely that they were never sold since NOONE could get through. I made it to Amazon, but the links are “dead/not refreshing”
    We will see….

  93. GAME ON

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:18 am

    LETS ALL START A RIOT AND STEAL XBOX 360’s !!!!!!!

    haha

  94. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:18 am

    I came in right at 11:00:15 and it was availble. Once we inputted the answer it asked (maybe 20 seconds), amazon said that they were out of codes.

    I think that it is cheap.

    Seriously, who could login (I was already login) in 35 seconds and get one that fast. Apparently 1000 people.

    It’s not very fair, but I guess that’s life.

  95. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:20 am

    Seriously, I was logged in and waiting on that site hitting refresh every few mins half an hour in advance.

    Right around 10:56pst I hit refresh and the thing bogged down. Never got a new screen until just now 11:18.

    How anyone could have made it through is beyond me given how early the bogging started.

    My guess is that either they didn’t really have 1000 available, or hell, they set them up for friends and family and just claim they were there for us to try to get.

  96. Isaac

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:21 am

    There were tons of hits ansd some made it through. Sucks for us.

  97. Fraud

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:21 am

    There should be a fraud investigation into this. Send the AMAZON BASTARDS to JAIL !!!!!!!

    SCREW YOU AMAZON BASTARDS - SCREW YOUS ALL

  98. Nick

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:21 am

    Althougth I didn’t actually get the XBOX, I was actually able to get to the deal. I clicked on “get this deal”, and was then asked to answer a simple math question (12+18). This was almost exACTly at 2pm EST, and as soon as I answered the question, agreed to the terms, anc clicked ‘Continue’, I was told they were sold out. Very frustrating. If anyone actually got the XBOX, let us know so we know if it was a scam or not.

  99. AJA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:22 am

    Yeah, that’s pretty ridiculous, so far it seems that no one got in at all since the site was basically unloadable.

  100. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:22 am

    What I wonder is, did the promotion come out helping them or hurting them more in the end?

    Does Amazon get brownie points for trying to offer “Exciting deals” or get hammered for pissing off alot of people with a situation that made them all feel unfairly treated?

    I didn’t really expect to win one, assuming they were available the odds were small, but like they didn’t know the kind of traffic to expect?

  101. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:23 am

    I actually was waiting since 9:00 for the promo. I had firefox extensions check if the page was updated. But then firefox couldn’t connect so I used IE on another compy

  102. Sour_Shopper

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am

    I hate amazon. I think this is a scam. The site stops responding between 10:58 - 11:10 Am and then the deals shows up sold out.

    Amazon Sucks.

  103. J p

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am

    i wonder where amazons servers are at. it would be funny if all the xbox’s sold are in california or washington. Also think about it Amazon website cannot handle as much people as they think. I think they need to go back to the drawing board and rethink this customer vot.

  104. Obasanjou

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am

    Yeah I’m pretty salty about this site bogg-down garbage, but I’m still trying to figure out, from a technical perspective, how some people can get through and others couldn’t. Is it possible for someone, using Firefox, Explorer, or the Opera browser to set their configuration so that they received preference when making site requests? Rumer has it that this thing was sold out in 15 seconds. If 1000 units were really sold in that time frame, somebody had to be using a better process than us!

  105. Scott

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:24 am

    So does ANYONE know anyone who got one?

  106. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:25 am

    The servers are located in downtown seattle next to wizards of the coast.

  107. Kyle

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:25 am

    Same here, got logged on, got offered the deal, answered the stupid question and then it said I couldnt have one.

    Nice

    To me thats false advertising. Perhaps we should all buy something and then say screw it - I dont want it.

  108. caruso

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:26 am

    You probably needed to refresh about 10:59:45 so that your browser hit it at exactly 11:00:00…all luck. I hit the “Get This Deal” button at 11:00:05 and by the time I answered the question, they were gone….maybe 11:00:20. I had four different browsers open on three computers, BTW, and Opera was the fastest.

  109. MH

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:26 am

    I think this contest was all a joke, plain and simple. I think Amazon.com fooled us into thinking they really had 1,000 XBox units.
    Even if you wantedto get the system, it was basically the Core System, not the full package that’s in stores for $400 (the 20 GB hard drive). So if you missed out this time, don’t worry: The Nintendo Wii will be on sale for $100 in six months.
    Still, these contests should not be taken seriously!

  110. Josh

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 am

    My original page couldn’t load quickly enough, but I opened a 2nd window and it got me to the Get This Deal button, which (after a few minutes) got me to the Verification page, which took 5 more minutes to tell me that there were none left. Dang! My hopes were up because I got past the 1st page!

  111. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 am

    I think they advertised this so they could get ad money.

    See the aim ad on the right side of the promo page.

    Big bucks.

  112. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 am

    No, but then again, how could they prove they did.

    If you want to go really conspiracy theorist on it, how hard would it be for amazon to send a few employees to post in a few forums that they “won” just to keep people quiet.

    I never expected to win, just hoped, but what I did expect was a “chance” to win.

    I was in early, at the page ready and waiting, and 4min before it became available until 18min after I was completely unable to connect.

    Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

    My guess is whatever publicity they got from this stunt will be contrasted by just how many people ignore any subsequent “offers” because they believe it’s either a scam or pointless to try.

  113. Kyle

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:28 am

    Amazon is dea to me.

    Screw them all to hell is what I say.

  114. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:29 am

    By the way, while I was waiting for the promo to start I had the firefox extension click to check notify me that the page was changing every min (it only reloads if there is something changed on the page).

    Odd that it would change so much right before the promo

  115. Nick

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:30 am

    I guess it’s possible that it was a scam of some sort. But I mean, lets be honest - if Amazon offered another chance an XBOX 360 similiar to this, we’d all likely be there with bells on at the chance to win =P Not that this makes it right, just sayin.

  116. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:30 am

    I was using opera myself. It was reloading way faster than Firefox.

  117. Mike

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:30 am

    I waited from 1:45-2:20 pm ESt and could not load the page after 1:57. By The time it finally loaded at 2:12, everything was gone.

    I’m extremely disappointed in Amazon and more so disappointed that I’m estimating 800/1000 units sold (if any) will be on eBay in a few hours for $299.

  118. Mike

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:31 am

    I got three Xbox 360’s. I got one, my friend got one and his friend got one. Boo-Yah! We’re on a univeristy connection, which may have helped. Or, it could be cause our friend works for Amazon… he gave us a few tips.

  119. George

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:32 am

    i don’t care that i didn’t get one–i kind of expected it to sell out fast–concert tickets sell out in seconds with more available for less people.

    But I do care that the page wasn’t responsive for over 10 minutes. A company their size should’ve known that they’d get hammered, and had the resources to keep it smooth. Even though I didn’t get to purchase anything, it was a frustrating online experience! Especially planning time on a holiday for it. At least when getting up tomorrow morning to fighting the lines, I’ll get to see that someone actually got what I was looking for.

  120. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:32 am

    CHEATER!

    I bet your “friend” actually made it so you and your friends accounts all get one.

    Grrr..

  121. Chas

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:33 am

    I’m so pissed but, I don’t think this was a scam. Remember, only 1000 units and this promotion has been viral on the ‘net. Almost every coupon site/message board was showing this deal. So, it would be safe to say at least a million people were hitting the site. I was waiting 30 min before. I started hitting refresh at 10:55am. My last refresh was at 10:58am (I used the time on my cell phone with is accurate). Did not see the page again until 11:12am and it was sold out. During that refresh, I also opened other browers after 11am. No luck. I am in California too! I think I was really who got the luck of the straw. I did not even get to answer the Deal question like some. Anyway, I am still pissed. I was going to buy the 20g hard drive for $89 too. That would be $189 for basically a premium system and I don’t need the HD cables or X-Box live features since I won’t let my son play online anyway. I guess I’ll just get a good bundled system at Sam’s Club or Costco later…

  122. Steve

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:33 am

    No doubt they’ll mostly be ebayed.

    It’s like any deep discount limited amount sales they have in stores now a days. People who actually want to buy it to use it get beat out by opportunists who just want to turn a buck on ebay.

    Sure it’s legal, but just rubs me wrong. Companies offer the deals to consumers, some scalper jumps in, grabs the stash and then trys to sell it to you to line his pocket.

  123. caruso

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:33 am

    They seemed to take the page down at 10:58:00 or so and then put it back up at 11:00:00. It was a digital lottery. Now Amazon gets free coverage on CNN tonight because of this, which is worth a lot more to them than the few thousand of us who are pissed because we didn’t hit refresh at the right time.

  124. Ethan

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:33 am

    yup - ditto with me. Managed to hit the page at the right time so it actually loaded (miracle of miracles). Logged on, answered the silly question…only to be told I couldn’t get one. Yes, this is just a game console (not the end of the world or anything). Yes, I’ve got sour grapes right now. Yes, I know this is capitalism. However, I think that Amazon royally screwed up on this one. I feel very cheated.

  125. Mark_P

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:34 am

    Well, I wasn’t looking to get the XBox 360 anyway, but I tried to get one of the systems just to see what would happen. I couldn’t log on the system either and my computer froze. Oh well, I’m not really an XBox fan anyway, since they continue to be outsold by the PS2 (a second-gen console)! But Amazon.com screwed everyone and there is no reason to shop there if they continue deceptive deals such as this. Amazon.com SUCKS.

  126. Nick

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:34 am

    So, Mike, what were these so called ‘tips’??

  127. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:35 am

    caruso: I so agree with you. I really wanted a Xbox 360 because I could play burnout revenge on it (I love that game) but I guess this scam was a waste of time.

  128. Farooq

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:36 am

    Yeah, we had 3 PCs and 3 people in the family try at the deal, my sister got all the way past the question and it said it was sold out.
    http://www.beconvinced.com

  129. MASA

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:39 am

    Farooq: same here. And I got in right at 11

  130. Paul Fed

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:39 am

    I am so pissed I will not order anything at Amazon for the next year.

  131. Nick

    November 23rd, 2006 at 11:39 am

    I have to agree with Steve. I’ll bet that people like Mike are employed by Amazon (or know people who are) and are simply going to turn around and resell these systems for less than the retail price, but more