The BIG BOOOOMMMM of Gaming Consoles in India (esp. Kolkata)
Xbox-360 made a huge debut in India with M$ arranging for a live telecast of the show on MTV. They had roped in DJ Aqeel, MTV vj Cyrus and last of all Akshay Kumar.
Well u can read more in details here :
- Xbox 360 India Launch Coverage
- Microsoft Xbox 360 launch in New Delhi,India
- First ever Indian Booth Babes Seen at Xbox 360 India Launch
Now here comes the Kolkata or still fondly called Calcutta scenario.
Last week i went to Chandni Chowk with some of my friends on an errand. Chandni well famous for its stock of electronics goods and PC spare parts is one of my favourite hunting and time pass grounds.
What i saw was scores of shops advertising for Xbox 360 consoles with various xtra accessories and a few games to offer with the console. One shop i saw, even had a 32″ Samsung LCD display showing a demo of FIFA 2006. Some shops even stocked a special edition Xbox 360 in a red boxed carton… god only knows what lies beneath that carton. People of various ages (from as small as 15 yrs to as big as 55 yrs) were curious about the Xbox thingy and putting up their queries to the shopkeeper or his assistant or whoever was present at that time. To them it was some-thing very alien and a sort of eye candy which had just landed in the shops. The shopkeepers were trying to do a smart job of trying of respond to all queries. I even heard a certain bank was financing the Xbox 360 purchase with as low an EMI of Rs800/- to a curious and interested (read eyes popping out , saliva drooling from his tongue) consumer.
Now came the most unusual part. The various shops selling Xbox 360 had heard of the Xbox360 only.When i mean only i mean it.They had not heard of Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2,Nintendo and well spare the other consoles as well.One shop even said that those thing didn’t exist (or was he trying to say that he didn’t stock it ??? whatever!!!). One shopkeeper even did come out of the shop as i was leaving and asked me what actually the PlayStation2 was and whether it was another similar product from M$.
So from what i came to know, Calcutta is still lagging in console gaming. Console gaming has still been confined to those 8bit or 16bit consoles. PS1,PS2 Xbox are still far away from the minds of the people. People right now are fascinated by the Xbox 360 console. I wonder when will they wake up to the smell of the console which have/are still ruling the market and not to forget the looming danger of the imminent approaching of the much awaited launch of PlayStation3 in India which is set to take the console gaming world by storm.
the red box that you saw is actually a special edition xbox360 having PGR3 bundle. According to my sources, MS will be investing as much as 600 crores for advertising their console.
Well i later found out that the red box was for having PGR3 bundled.Anyways M$ investing 600 crores for promoting their consoles is a new news for me.