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Xbox 360 Elite Officially Announced
It should come as no shock that Microsoft has finally announced an upgraded version of the Xbox 360: the 'Elite'. The worst-kept secret in the videogames industry is now official, offering a 120 GB HDD, an HDMI port, and a smooth black finish for $479. The new sku drops next month, and to fill up that new hard drive Microsoft has lined up seven new partners for their Xbox Live video distribution service. Outfits like Paramount and Warner Bros. are nice to hear about, but I'm equally excited about the likes of National Geographic and ADV Films. 1up has the market cornered on commentary at the moment, with reactions from the staff there, a comparison of the new 360's value vs. the PS3, and a few words from Sony's Dave Karraker. If you're looking for even more coverage, there are several links available below.
So what you're really getting out of this product is a larger hard drive. Whether a bigger hard drive is worth an extra $80 to you is for you to decide. I fail, however, to understand how nothing more than a larger hard drive and a black paint job makes it elite.
I also wondered how *only* a black finish makes a MacBook $150 more expensive and "elite" but.. common sense isn't popular these days.
If enough companies do this, one morning I could wake up and really believe that black color is extremely expensive and worth the extra cost, who knows.
At my college, last generation the ps2 and xbox were pretty much in a dead heat for the top spot. Now though, the Wii is clearly winning over the ps3 and 360. The will may not be, by and large, the system you play by yourself, but it's the best system if you have people over. Also, the retro gaming is a huge hit here (may have something to do with it being an engineering and science school, maybe).
There's a weird cognitive phenomenon called "wishful thinking". Somehow marketing departments think they if they just state out loud what they believe their customers are after, it'll magically manifestate into reality.
So sad, really. Even further, since most people I know like both Wii and XBox, for different reasons. And the XBox marketing telling them "hey, you ALSO like Wii, so you're immature jerk", isn't going to win them over in their camp.
I have a 360 with HD-DVD drive and wireless adapter and a pair of wireless pads. If I was to switch to this just for the sake of HDMI and a bigger drive, bearing in mind that my HDTV doesn't support 1080p over HDMI, only over component and also I can't even see a difference between component and HDMI on the thing, I would also have to replace all the white extras. Oh, and I actually think the 360 looks better in white. Mind you, when I came to buy a new iPod Video I bought the white one because I didn't like the look of the black one.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
Seems a rather peculiar thing to say. Do you think the same thing when comparing VGA to DVI-D too? Even the best analogue signals is vulnerable to ghosting or slight interference.
As for the HD, it's feature the 360 should have had since the beginning. Too bad that MS are still using a proprietary casing and circuitry to force people to buy their drive rather than allow them to buy and fit any that they like.
HDMI is Digital, offer up to 7.1 audio, HDCP (which if on the software you'll be forced to use HDMI) so you're mistaken very much offers an improvement over Component. HDMI is becoming the standard for HD.
The other way to put it is of course.
PS3 + 120gb + a load of useless shit I don't need = $700.
Xbox + 120gb = $479.
Feels like Microsoft is taking a page out of it's Windows business and putting it into the XBox 360. Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate... sound familiar? Not to mention tying in games development with Windows so developers feel the need to appeal to a greater audience and therefore develop for the Xbox/PC platform. All this sounds to reminiscent of what it's done to the PC market to the detriment of other platforms like Linux.
One of the complaints I had about the PS3 was that, once you bought the cheaper SKU, you're locked into it, unable to "upgrade" it to the more expensive one, which contrasted with the difference between the two versions of the Xbox 360. With this addition of this HDMI port, one that can't be added to the console that's sitting on my shelf, however, the Xbox 360 loses this advantage.
However, this probably won't affect sales of the Xbox 360 one way or the other. Current owners aren't likely to run out and buy a second Xbox 360 because of it, but they won't be getting rid of their old one either. The real problem, however, will be in a few years when it's time to release the next generation of consoles, and customers start saying "I'm really looking forward to the next Xbox, but I think I'll wait a year or so after launch for the 'elite' version to come out."
I'm so sick of the anti-HDMI people.
HDMI does not require the use of HDCP. Being compatible with it does not mean turning on Copyright protection features.
HDMI can carry much higher bandwidth audio than optical or coax digital audio cables can right now, like TrueHD and uncompressed 7.1 PCM.
HDMI can share live display capability information (like that nice monitor detection you have on your VGA-based PC).
HDMI allows for better colour depth (higher bit per pixel values) and deeper blacks and brigther whites, combined with displays capable of these. This means displays can keep getting better and looking nicer and having richer colour because the capacity is already 'in the wire' so to speak.
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- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)