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The Xbox 360 Elite will come with one matching black wireless controller and headset. Black controllers, headsets and batteries will also be available in stores.

The new Xbox 360 Elite retail packaging.
Microsoft's new Xbox 360 Elite features a 120GB HDD, HDMI output and a $479.99 price tag

After months of unofficial information, Microsoft today has finally pulled the cover off its upgraded console—the Xbox 360 Elite. Corroborating on all previous information, the Xbox 360 Elite will feature a 120GB hard disk drive, up from 20GB in the ‘Premium’ console, and an HDMI output for connection to high-definition televisions.

The new upgraded Microsoft system will be easily distinguishable from the current Xbox 360 consoles by its color—the Xbox 360 Elite will come in a premium black finish for the console, wireless controller and Xbox Live headset. Additional Xbox 360 Elite accessories, such as the black Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit and the Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, will be available separately.

 “Today’s games and entertainment enthusiast has an insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Xbox 360 Elite’s larger hard drive and premium accessories will allow our community to enjoy all that the next generation of entertainment has to offer.”

Xbox 360 Elite will have an estimated retail price of $479.99 and is expected to begin arriving in U.S. stores on April 29. For existing Xbox 360 owners who simply want to upgrade their hard drives, the detachable accessory will be sold separately for an estimated retail price of $179.99.

The road leading up to the Xbox 360 Elite is a long and storied one. Whispers of a bigger hard drive—something that gamers have long demanded—started last fall when pictures of a 100GB HDD appeared in presentation materials for Korea. Shortly after, an 80GB HDD appeared in the flesh at a Microsoft press event pushing the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

What started off with rumors of a bigger hard drive morphed into rumblings of a more drastic hardware revision after pictures leaked in January of a prototype Xbox 360 with HDMI output and new scaling hardware. Microsoft’s Chris Satchell quickly responded saying, “At the moment, everything you might have seen is just looking at our experimentation back in Redmond, not really a product that we're thinking about announcing.”

After a couple months of silence, the rumor mill spun again after a gaming magazine leaked key details of an updated Xbox 360 console dressed in black. Then the very machines in question were snapped by a camera phone during their infancies on a Chinese production line. Finally, an XNA Developer made it all but official after replying to a question about coding on the new HDMI Xbox 360.

The shift to a smaller, cooler running Xbox 360 chips, however, is one thing that was unable to make it into the Xbox 360 Elite. Microsoft revealed plans nearly a year ago to shrink its current 90nm chips to the 65nm process, something that’s now slated for later this year.

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$179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By Hakuryu on 3/28/2007 1:55:55 AM , Rating: 4
I hate proprietary console hardware. Overpriced crap makes me stick with my PC.

I just built a Core 2 Duo system with 2 160GB hard drives... the drives were $53 each. For the same price as a 360 HDD, I can get 3+ larger drives for my PC. What in the world makes their hard drives so expensive? Is it just trying to make a buck?




RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By kelmon on 3/28/2007 2:36:18 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
What in the world makes their hard drives so expensive? Is it just trying to make a buck?


What do you think?


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By slashbinslashbash on 3/28/2007 2:46:37 AM , Rating: 5
Well, for one thing they use 2.5" notebook HDDs, so that bumps up the cost per GB. The cheapest 120GB 2.5" HDD that I can find on NewEgg is around $80.

As for the rest of the price, yeah, I guess MS is just trying to make a profit. The enclosure can't cost MS more than $10. And for $180 they'd better include a USB adapter to transfer files from the old 20GB drives. So I guess they're trying to make up for the loss they're taking on the Xbox360 console with a profit on the HDD upgrade.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By Spivonious on 3/28/2007 9:20:27 AM , Rating: 1
Plus it's theoretically an "external" hard drive.

The first one I found on Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... is $139.99. That makes $180 not too high of a markup.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By crimson117 on 3/28/2007 10:18:42 AM , Rating: 2
I then have to question the decision to use 2.5" drives... when you could have a 320GB external from the same company as that 2.5" you linked for $3 more!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

XBox 360 could have just had a standard USB port to attach another drive, and then you wouldn't have to get this proprietary thing.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By TheDoc9 on 3/28/2007 10:29:53 AM , Rating: 2
$180 not too high of a markup!!! HAHAHAHA This is price gouging at it's best, and micro$oft knows people like you will buy into it.

Now that the black x360 is out which is obviously a direct competitor to the ps3, I wonder how many people will sound off about the nearly $500 price tag. I wonder if it will be as many who complained about the ps3.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By darkpaw on 3/28/2007 1:18:40 PM , Rating: 4
I'm not a MS or Sony fan, but the $500 PS3 is basically non existant so it really needs to be compared to the 60gb version.

$500 is too high for the 360 though, if they update the premium to the new specs and lower the price on the old ones as rumored then it'll be worthwhile. I personally won't touch a 360 until the die shrink cpu goes in, assuming that solves the RoD problems. I'm not spending $300, $400, or $500 on something as problematic as the current 360.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By AntDX316 on 4/1/2007 5:19:49 AM , Rating: 1
whatever it takes to claim market share whatever it takes :)


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By deeznuts on 3/28/2007 12:48:04 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
The first one I found on Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... is $139.99. That makes $180 not too high of a markup.


Until you take into account the $139.99 is already marked up????

Also agree with the 2.5"/3.5" comment. Why in the world did MS not just go with a 3.5" drive for these prices? More plentiful and it's external anyway. I guess the issue is with the internal drives on the Premium. One part is much easier to handle.

Still think MS is ripping people off but I'll be damned if I don't get one of these black ones. I already have a PS3 so maybe I won't, but I can't resist a black Xbox since I think the white one is ugly.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By Belard on 3/29/2007 4:15:37 AM , Rating: 2
Because the 3.5" Drive is heavier, bigger - requires more space and tend to make a bit more noise than a 2.5" Drive.

The 2.5 Drives also make less heat and require less power.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By BZDTemp on 3/29/2007 8:08:10 AM , Rating: 3
On the up side, apart from price, a 3.5" is much faster and as for power needs it's nothing compared to the chips in the 360.

I really do think SONY is much nicer about letting people hook up stuff to their hardware. On the PS/2 the used standard USB ports and not the non-standard USB ones as Microsoft did on the XBOX and this time around it's the same.

Heck SONY even describes in the PS3 manual how to replace the hard disc with one of your own choosing and they also support standard memory like SD and so on. Oh and they let you dual boot the PS3 so you can run Linux on the thing :-)


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By hands on 3/28/2007 1:35:05 PM , Rating: 1
I happen to own a brand-name 120GB portable (external, 2.5") hard drive that I purchased for $80 (direct cost--no rebates). Basically, it's at least equivalent to what MS is wanting to charge $180 for.

I don't care what you say. The markup on that drive is ridiculous.

Then again, so is the markup on most things related to consoles because they make most of their money on accessories and games.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By Spivonious on 3/28/2007 2:30:25 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Then again, so is the markup on most things related to consoles because they make most of their money on accessories and games.


Bingo. Why do you think an 8MB PS2 memory card still sells for $25? I just bought a 2GB SD card for $25. That would make an 8MB card cost about 10 cents.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By JeffDM on 4/1/2007 7:45:44 PM , Rating: 4
They sold you a subsidized machine though, so it's a trade-off whether or not you will admit it.

They lose a lot of money on the core unit, and the business model is to make up for it with accessories and game licenses.

I wouldn't be surprised if they lost a lot more than $100 on each 360 console, so really, you are still getting a good deal on the total package.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By semo on 3/28/2007 3:10:33 AM , Rating: 2
i think console makers always try to make profit on accessories. the ps2 8mb memory card has always been expensive but it's price today is simply incomprehensible. same for the xbox 360 memory card (talk about taking a step back, the xbox didn't have a mem card).

nintendo might have the cheapest next-gen home console today but the controller i think is the most expensive of them all.


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By caqde on 3/28/2007 3:30:52 AM , Rating: 2
Your memory isn't serving you right there was an 8mb "memory unit" that went into the controllers for the Xbox. You can get one from amazon today for around $15US.

Otherwise I don't understand why microsoft needs the extra +-$80 for that 120gb harddrive. What are they giving it an awesome warrenty of over 5years? Is it gold plated??? Ah well all I know is they are reaming those that buy it....


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By xphile on 3/28/2007 6:03:06 AM , Rating: 5
If you open up the hard drive enclosure, remove the hard drive and open it, inside you will see the following label attached to the upper postion of the internal casing...

"Thank you for supporting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Your donation is greatly appreciated. We are thrilled that you share our belief in striving for a common goal of bringing greatly improved health and learning to the global community. Please attach this half of your hard disk casing to your tax return to claim any rebates associated with your donation of:

US $127.58

With our sincerest thanks
Bill & Melinda Gates
(Saving the children to save the world... oh yeah and that cheerleader too!)

Or so I'm told - of course it could just be a rumour...


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By KaiserCSS on 3/28/2007 11:11:44 AM , Rating: 1
Hey, if someone's willing to scrap their new $180 hard drive, I'd love to see pictures proving this is true. But ya know, it would really, really irk me if I had donated to charity without being informed.

This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke:

I went to a pizzeria, I ordered a slice of pizza, the f*cker gave me the smallest slice possible. If the pizza was a pie chart for what people would do if they found a million dollars, the f*cker gave me the "donate it to charity" slice. I would like to exchange this for the "keep it"!


RE: $179 for a 120GB Hard Drive?
By Lazarus Dark on 3/28/2007 6:10:37 AM , Rating: 3
Well, the way I see it, the wiimote should be the most expensive controller to date. Nintendo spent like 50 percont of their R&D for the wii on the controller so it makes sense that they would charge more for the most advanced controller ever, it has bluetooth, IR, gyro and accelerometer, four things no controller has used before and getting the ir, gyro and accelerometer all to work in concert must have taken a lot of development.

As for storage, the wii has it up on the competition, it accepts industry standard 2gb sd cards which can be had for twenty bucks. Of course, the Wii branded sd cards cost like 99, but you'd have to be completely ignorant of technology to buy one, or just have cash coming out of your ears; neither of which applies to any gamer I know. Though it doesn't have a hard drive, maybe nintendo will be the first console company to actually allow you to use those frickin usb ports and support standard usb storage at some point, I don't expect MS to do that (obviously), and I couldn't care less about what sony does with theirs, I think if you can afford a 600 dollar console, you can afford a 180 dollar hard drive.