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Xbox 360 Worth the Wait for LSU Students

Posted on: Saturday, 10 December 2005, 15:00 CST

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State University video gamers gave the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console good reviews more than two weeks after its much-anticipated release.

Will Harris, a philosophy freshman, said being one of the first to play the console was worth the extra time and money.

He was one of the many dedicated gamers who camped outside of Best Buy electronics store the night before the Xbox 360's 9:00 a.m. release on Nov. 22.

"We ended up waiting for 17 hours total," he said. "We arrived outside of Best Buy at 4:30 p.m., and by 10 p.m., the sidewalk was full of people."

Harris said the festive atmosphere made the wait better than expected.

Eric Dugal, a physics junior, was able to buy his Xbox without having to wait over night. He bought his console at the Wal-Mart at Cortana Mall after a six-hour wait.

Dugal called the new Xbox "great" and said he had already played all of the available games.

But he did not like the effects the console had on his studies.

"I probably shouldn't have gotten it before finals," he said.

Microsoft touted the Xbox 360 as "the most powerful console with amazing digital experiences and a flood of hot new game titles."

The company said it does not release sales figures, but PJ McNealy, an analyst from the nonprofit American Technology Research organization, released a report estimating that more than 300,000 Xbox consoles were sold during the first few days.

Despite the strong Xbox sales, the Sony Playstation 2 still holds about 62 percent of the video game console market, according to Forbes magazine.

A 2004 Pew and American Life Project study revealed that college students represent the largest percentage of video games users.

An estimated 65 percent of college students regularly play video games, and more than a third admit to playing video games during class.

Although video games are sometimes perceived as an isolating or antisocial activity, one in five students responded that video games help them socially, either by helping them make new friends or by improving existing relationships.

About half of the students agreed that video games keep them from studying "some" or "a lot."

(C) 2005 The Daily Reveille via U-WIRE

Source: U-WIRE

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