The WINNER of the “Top Hosting Center” XBOX360 / GTA4 is Erica DeWolf, owner of http://ericadewolf.wordpress.com/

Congratulations Erica and we have forwarded your information to THC and will be needing details from you as to where to ship it.

Oh and Erica… we expect a nice big picture of you with your xbox when you get it

Additional Random Thoughts By Cow…

Ok so the contest is over and with all the hype over the new GTA4, it made us moo over a few things this last 24hours.

Think back to the end of 2005 when Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was on the verge of being released.

Do we all honestly remember the hype that came along with it? Microsoft’s ‘Great White Hope’. Okay but here’s the funny thing about what Microsoft did when the Xbox 360 was first going to hit the market. The hype around this console was utterly crazy. The day of its launch, people lined up outside of stores for hours just to be able to dash through (If they could), maybe try to stampede over some people, push them over a counter to be able to grasp that holy cow of consoles. The Xbox 360.

However if you take some time to think about Microsoft and what exactly they did with the Xbox 360, maybe we should all just give them a nice pat on the back (not really but there is something to learn from the evil empire).

Since we can remember, there has been a Console war of Xbox VS PlayStation. It’s been a large debate from gamers for years and generally it breaks down to just which console they believe is better.

See Microsoft knows about this debate, as does Sony and they took advantage of it. When the original Xbox was released, Microsoft came out with Halo: Combat Evolved. Now the only way you probably won’t know about this game is if you’ve been living under a rock in the pasture for the last, oh we don’t know…7 years.

Microsoft released Halo: Combat Evolved on November 15th 2001. Want to know their great marketing plan behind this? Unlike other games that are released for multi platforms, Halo was only released for the Xbox.

Now this worked out GREAT for Microsoft, due to the fact that Halo was dubbed “Game of the Year”. So all of the gamers who are hell bent on just owning a PlayStation; well now if they want to get their hoofs on one of the best killer app’s game’s around…

They had to fork out the mooney for the Xbox.

Another great marketing strategy from Microsoft was with the release of the game Halo 3. For gamers to be able to play Halo 3 they have to be able to purchase the new Xbox 360. Now many of us know that Halo is available for our home PC’s as well, however, Halo 2 and Halo 3… (When it becomes available for the home PC…don’t get your panties in a twist. There has been no word about a release date just yet… so you need an XBox for now to play them) …are available for…. are you ready for this…

Vista only!

So now’s the time that we should give Microsoft a pat on the back (or kick in the ass if you really want to); they know how to market their biggest features. By simply using one game and one game only. The largest selling video game in gaming history. They just ensured that gamers are spending anywhere from $99-$310 on a copy of Windows Vista or paying anywhere from $300-$500 for a version of the Xbox 360.

Not too shabby, right?

Check these Console stats out:

• Nintendo Wii – As of March 31st 2008 – Unit’s Sold World Wide – 24.25 million
• Microsoft Xbox 360 – As of April 25th 2008 – Unit’s Sold World Wide – 19 million
• Sony PlayStation 3 – As of April 21st 2008 – Unit’s Sold World Wide – 13 million

Are we seeing the hype that is coming from this?

So do we all agree? Think about how much mooney each of those consoles cost, and that’s not even including the biggest selling games of the year.

That’s a whole lot of Mooney!

Look at Grand Theft Auto IV. The newest game in the Grand Theft Auto series which was launched on April 30th 2008. Before this game even hit the shelves, people we’re already saying that it could bump Halo 3 out of top stop for selling the most copies during it’s first week (not likely). Stores we’re being opened at midnight on Monday night to allow gamers in and purchase what they had in stock. Gamers all around the world we’re taking days off school and work just to be able to play the game. The Movie Iron Man is worried that the hype of this game will hurt its opening weekend (look like a cool movie too).

Games and Consoles get amazing marketing hype before they even reach the shelves. We often see cool trailers for games or the console, it’s all over the media and we’re sure it doesn’t help that they have their own expo each and every year.

Do you know it? ‘Electronic Entertainment Expo’, well actually now it’s known just as E3. Everybody who’s anybody in the video game industry is at this expo each and every year showing the gaming world the hottest new items that are up and coming in the market.

So the question is this?

What are we doing wrong and how can we bring this sort of hype into our world?

If we can break into this tactic and achieve the type of hype that new consoles or video games can bring to the market…do you know what would happen?

We’d all be filthy stinking rich!

Here’s the thing however, sure hype like this can be great for sales. Being able to purchase a Nintendo Wii is becoming almost impossible due to the lack of consoles in stores and when they do come in, they only ship limited numbers.

Xbox 360’s and PlayStation 3’s are in stores and can often be found, but not everybody is going to be able to spend around $300-$600 on a console.

Speaking of PlayStation 3, does anybody remember when the console was first released?

Do we remember the news during the first week or so?

Check this out:

Can you say INSANE!!!