There were dancing girls.

An artificial festival was created in the Mojave desert for 3,000 people.

Paris Hilton was photographed carrying one.

On an extended MTV talk show, the product was introduced by Elijah Wood with the reverence due to an exiled monarch.

All for a games console?

Before it even hit the shelves in the UK, problems with the Xbox 360 were already becoming known in the US. Despite having made 3 million units in 4 months there simply weren't enough to go round. The same happened at the UK launch on December 2; Microsoft's rush to market to ensure a foothold in 2005 - to preclude the chances of a Sony entry with the Playstation 3 in 2006 - has meant that all the units it's put in the market have sold. Already, premium models are going for upwards of £600 on eBay.

However, the lack of stock wasn't an issue in Japan, where only 62,000 units were sold in the first two days. In the Far East the 360 doesn't simply have to battle against a mediocre launch line-up and limited stock, it has to battle against the inherent prejudice of the populace in favour of Sony and Nintendo. Early reports have only 1 in 3 of the Japanese launch machines selling, so it's safe to say, barring miracles, it'll fail over there.

Numerous technical problems crop up with any new system; let's not forget the PS2 has had several generations to deal with its tendency to scratch discs, and initial waves of the Xbox had famously dodgy DVD drives.

The question is not whether there are technical issues with the Xbox 360, but whether they're issues that are endemic, and what threshold would they have to reach before Microsoft would admit to them and do a recall or replacement units? Microsoft's official response is clear: "There is no systemic issue with Xbox 360. Each incident is unique and these customer enquiries are being handled on a case-by-case basis."

A Chicago man disagrees, and has initiated a class action suit against Microsoft claiming the product was rushed to market and is "defective."

Why? There are two issues that could categorise the 360 as defective. The enormous brick-like supply can cease operating if it gets too hot, crashing the system; but keeping it well-ventilated solves this. There's also a disc issue, which occurs to some units when turning the 360 while it's accessing a disc; this is solved by not turning it.

These issues seem relatively rare and easy to fix. Thankfully, no serious software problems have been reported yet, and the Xbox Live software offers users an easy way to update the machine.

"We've received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected," said a spokesperson. "The call rate is well below what you would expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity." New electronics tend to have a fail rate approaching 3%; it does appear, despite the Internet furore, that the 360 has had many less failures than this. If you have problems with your 360, Microsoft is offering to replace defective units, but you will have to wait until spare stock appears. With the aforementioned supply problems, that may be a while.

Microsoft needs to win with the 360. Its core software market looks threatened by user complacency (who needs Vista?) and Internet competition, and it lost $4 billion on the first Xbox. It sees the 360 not simply as a step into video games, but into the living room, the wider home entertainment arena and a whole alternative revenue stream.