Buying an Xbox 360 in Qatar
So I’ve decided that my gift for myself this Christmas would be an Xbox 360. Yep, after 2 years of its launch, I’ve decided to bite the bullet even with all the TRoLs (Three Red Rings of Light) which renders your Xbox into a piece of big paper weight. Why now? Because it is Christmas! Because I’m going to miss out on all the games that have been coming out which are surprisingly making the Xbox 360 the most playable console for gamers. Not to say that Wii gamers are not really “gamers” but the Wii is more like a console for kids and those who are more into casual gaming.
Anyway, if you’re in Doha, Qatar and want to buy an Xbox 360, I’ve been making the rounds and would gladly tell you the best way to get a your 360.
Warranty
As mentioned above, the first and foremost concern for your Xbox 360 would be the TRoL. The only real solution for this is warranty. WARRANTY. There, more emphasized. You don’t want to go crying back to your mom with the TRoL after spending 2000+ for your Xbox do you? The only stores that I’ve seen that carries a limited one year warranty for the Xbox 360 are Virgin, Carrefour and Toys R Us. If your unit breaks down, you could send it back to the store you bought it and have them contact the main supplier for you for repair and/or exchange. This is the best that you can get for now as there is no Microsoft Service in Qatar. There is one in UAE but have emailed them 3 weeks ago but never got an email back. That means it’s pretty useless.
With this, buying from other stores means buying your 360 without any warranty at all. If it breaks down a day after you bought it, say goodbye to your well earned money and welcome in your new bulky paper weight.
Legit or Not Legit
There are a lot of issues with going legit or not when it comes to playing your 360. Going the softmod (firmware hack to be able to play copied 360 games) way, it would be cheaper to buy games. A typical original game would cost about US$50 or in Qatar, 250+ rials. For the pirated game, it would be about 20-40 rials. Big difference uh? Well, doing a firmware hack also invalidates your warranty. Also, you may get banned from playing Live, the online gaming service by Microsoft. If you don’t have any intention of playing Live, then you could probably do with the hack. But experiencing playing LIVE is much different from playing the game by yourself and finishing its single mission. For an extra US$50 and an internet connection, you get to play with other gamers around the world, real people and not AI’s. And that’s basically the only reason you want to go legit; no mods, no hacking.
You can have your Xbox 360 modded in the Souq area or if you’re near Mergab/Merqab, there is one shop across Turkey Central which might do it for you. It would be on the corner of that block. The place is Golden Disk. You may call them at 4437430.
Games
As you are basically buying a European version of a 360, it is already 220V. With the games though, it’s region locked. That means you should only be able to play games which are encoded for Region 2. Of course it would be safe to check the game that you are buying by looking at the back of the game case as there are other shops that sells games which are encoded for region 1/ US. The thing is, a lot of shops imported goods from the US which meant that they also needed to buy games encoded in Region 1. But if you’re buying from a reputable seller (namely Virgin, Toys R Us and Carrefour), you can be sure that you games would be encoded in Region 2.
However, there are also games which are region-free. They can be played on all systems, no matter where you bought it from. So if you plan to buy your games in the US, you can do so but make sure that the games you are buying are region-free. Some of the A-list games that are region-free include Halo 3, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter, Bioshock, and Rainbow Six. A complete list can be found here.
Although I haven’t bought my Xbox 360 yet, I am actually waiting for the delivery of some games I ordered thru Amazon last Black Friday. Gears of War, Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas were on sale so I didn’t pass up the chance. Sadly, NBA 2K8 and NBA Live 08 are region encoded so I have to buy them here. If you’re ordering 3-4 games from the US, it would be cheaper even if you’re paying for the shipping especially if games are on sale. I got Rainbow Six for only $20!
Xbox Live
You can connect through Xbox live buy buying a MS Live card which entitles you to 1 year of service. Golden Disk has one for QR250. It’s actually a 12+1 card giving you 13 month of Live Gold access. You can also buy MS Points card of 1600 for QR120 so you can buy your downloadable content from Microsoft.
Advantages of buying it locally
The advantages of buying your Xbox in Doha are more than buying one from the US. Again, warranty would be your major concern. Secondly, since it’s a UK version, it would need 220V instead of the 110V sold in the US. No need to buy a converter. Although it would be $100 more expensive, shipping from the US to Doha would also cost you that much. The Xbox 360 Elite costs QR2050 in Virgin. That’s like USD558.
Hopefully, I’ll be getting my Xbox next week or the week after. I would be starting off Gears of War and COD4 and then probably Halo 3. I’m not too excited about Halo 3 yet as I feel it would just be a rehash of Halo 2. Plus, if you’ve played online as a novice, you’ll get killed as soon as you spawn if you’re haven’t been really playing it. So, for those who are in Qatar, send me your gamertags so we can play online once I get my Xbox 360.
Anyway, if you’re in Doha, Qatar and want to buy an Xbox 360, I’ve been making the rounds and would gladly tell you the best way to get a your 360.
Warranty
As mentioned above, the first and foremost concern for your Xbox 360 would be the TRoL. The only real solution for this is warranty. WARRANTY. There, more emphasized. You don’t want to go crying back to your mom with the TRoL after spending 2000+ for your Xbox do you? The only stores that I’ve seen that carries a limited one year warranty for the Xbox 360 are Virgin, Carrefour and Toys R Us. If your unit breaks down, you could send it back to the store you bought it and have them contact the main supplier for you for repair and/or exchange. This is the best that you can get for now as there is no Microsoft Service in Qatar. There is one in UAE but have emailed them 3 weeks ago but never got an email back. That means it’s pretty useless.
With this, buying from other stores means buying your 360 without any warranty at all. If it breaks down a day after you bought it, say goodbye to your well earned money and welcome in your new bulky paper weight.
Legit or Not Legit
There are a lot of issues with going legit or not when it comes to playing your 360. Going the softmod (firmware hack to be able to play copied 360 games) way, it would be cheaper to buy games. A typical original game would cost about US$50 or in Qatar, 250+ rials. For the pirated game, it would be about 20-40 rials. Big difference uh? Well, doing a firmware hack also invalidates your warranty. Also, you may get banned from playing Live, the online gaming service by Microsoft. If you don’t have any intention of playing Live, then you could probably do with the hack. But experiencing playing LIVE is much different from playing the game by yourself and finishing its single mission. For an extra US$50 and an internet connection, you get to play with other gamers around the world, real people and not AI’s. And that’s basically the only reason you want to go legit; no mods, no hacking.
You can have your Xbox 360 modded in the Souq area or if you’re near Mergab/Merqab, there is one shop across Turkey Central which might do it for you. It would be on the corner of that block. The place is Golden Disk. You may call them at 4437430.
Games
As you are basically buying a European version of a 360, it is already 220V. With the games though, it’s region locked. That means you should only be able to play games which are encoded for Region 2. Of course it would be safe to check the game that you are buying by looking at the back of the game case as there are other shops that sells games which are encoded for region 1/ US. The thing is, a lot of shops imported goods from the US which meant that they also needed to buy games encoded in Region 1. But if you’re buying from a reputable seller (namely Virgin, Toys R Us and Carrefour), you can be sure that you games would be encoded in Region 2.
However, there are also games which are region-free. They can be played on all systems, no matter where you bought it from. So if you plan to buy your games in the US, you can do so but make sure that the games you are buying are region-free. Some of the A-list games that are region-free include Halo 3, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter, Bioshock, and Rainbow Six. A complete list can be found here.
Although I haven’t bought my Xbox 360 yet, I am actually waiting for the delivery of some games I ordered thru Amazon last Black Friday. Gears of War, Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas were on sale so I didn’t pass up the chance. Sadly, NBA 2K8 and NBA Live 08 are region encoded so I have to buy them here. If you’re ordering 3-4 games from the US, it would be cheaper even if you’re paying for the shipping especially if games are on sale. I got Rainbow Six for only $20!
Xbox Live
You can connect through Xbox live buy buying a MS Live card which entitles you to 1 year of service. Golden Disk has one for QR250. It’s actually a 12+1 card giving you 13 month of Live Gold access. You can also buy MS Points card of 1600 for QR120 so you can buy your downloadable content from Microsoft.
Advantages of buying it locally
The advantages of buying your Xbox in Doha are more than buying one from the US. Again, warranty would be your major concern. Secondly, since it’s a UK version, it would need 220V instead of the 110V sold in the US. No need to buy a converter. Although it would be $100 more expensive, shipping from the US to Doha would also cost you that much. The Xbox 360 Elite costs QR2050 in Virgin. That’s like USD558.
Hopefully, I’ll be getting my Xbox next week or the week after. I would be starting off Gears of War and COD4 and then probably Halo 3. I’m not too excited about Halo 3 yet as I feel it would just be a rehash of Halo 2. Plus, if you’ve played online as a novice, you’ll get killed as soon as you spawn if you’re haven’t been really playing it. So, for those who are in Qatar, send me your gamertags so we can play online once I get my Xbox 360.
Comments
Posted by: Hossam Khalifa | December 17, 2007 10:29 AM
Posted by: Xtian001 | December 18, 2007 09:52 AM