The '360 Arcade' Made Official

The Financial Times (via Gamespot) is reporting that (after having already been in stores for about a week), the Xbox 360 Arcade sku is now official. "The $279 Arcade will include a wireless controller and casual games including Pac-Man [Championship Edition], Uno and Luxor 2. Its launch has been widely rumoured but Mr Bach's comments were the first official confirmation. While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi and a Blu-ray drive."

Comments

PAC MAN?

[y86]

Wow, 10 years ago when I was playing Super Mario Bros. I never thought PAC MAN would be relevant again. I was wrong, DEAD WRONG.

An arcade controller?

[tacarat]

I know it's not likely for the price point, but a joystick being included is what would make that "arcade" for me.

... and a spot for my quarters.

Re:An arcade controller?

[tacarat]

I can live with an 8 way mimicking a 4 way. If they added a feature to randomly simulate a broken button or stick, though, I'd say it's a bit too realistic.

Who's Gonna Buy This?

[blueZhift]

I'm not really sure who's going to buy this though. The casual market it may be aimed at would likely still go for a Wii for $30 less and a pack in game that all of their friends are already playing. The hardcore gamers would balk at a system without a hard drive and are probably starting to eye the PS3 a little more now as the price drops. So I'm not sure where this fits in. I can only guess, that like the core system before it, it sits there to give a lower price point on the books in time for Christmas, when you can bet Wii's will be scarce.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[Aladrin]

No, it's a regular XBox 360 with a few arcade games on a disc. There's no requirement for Live.

Yes, you can add an HD to it, but you'll have to buy a Microsoft one because I don't think there are any generics with the proper hookups yet. (You can later buy a generic, as the hookups are an addon... You just can't buy the hookups separately.)

With no HD, there's no backward compatibility and the ability to download games from Live would be severly hampered... The memory cards are quite expensive, especially compared to the price of a hard drive that holds a -lot- more.

Re:Who's Gonna Buy This?

[iainl]

Yes, but unlike the old Core model that this replaces, it comes with a memory stick to get you started.

If you don't care about backward-compatibility (I don't too much any more. I was all excited when they made OutRun 2 work and played it loads for a fortnight, but then I went back to Forza 2) don't plan on having loads of Live games all downloaded at once (at 50Mb each you can fit several on a memory stick, and re-download ones you've already paid for before if you want to go back) and don't care too much about game demos or movies, the memory stick is fine.

This new model also has the HDMI port and seems to have the new Falcon chipset, so the lack of bundled component leads isn't a problem for most and it's ideal for people who already have 360s but want to get HDMI working.

Non-reg required

[antifoidulus]

story that actually tells you all that comes with it(256 meg memory card, but no hd, to store games on)

Fixed

[Satanboy]

"While Microsoft may hope to steal sales from the Wii with the Arcade, its Premium $349 Xbox 360 faces pressure from the $399 PS3, which has a bigger, 40-gigabyte hard drive, built-in wi-fi, a Blu-ray drive, and a substantial lack of games."

360 Pro and 40 GB PS3 now the same price in Canada

[Hamster Lover]

Another challenge for Microsoft is thanks to the high value of the Canadian dollar the 40 GB PS3 will be released in Canada at $399.99, the same price as in the United States (Sony also dropped the price of the 80 GB model here in Canada by an additional $60 above the already $100 price drop to reach parity). With the current price of the 360 Pro package sitting at $399.99 Canadian, the PS3 is finally the value leader between the two systems. With a larger hard drive, included wireless controller battery kit, a Blue-Ray drive and WI-FI functionality built in, the 360 Pro kit -- even with two games -- just doesn't have the value.

As retailers receive new bundles from Microsoft in the ramp up towards Christmas there is no excuse for the $50 price premium to remain in place, especially in light of Sony's move.

Re:Micro$oft

[Toonol]

Who has more editions, Microsoft's 360 or Sony's PS3? And I'm not asking sarcastically, I've really and truly lost track. They both have far too many. Two is probably too many.

Re:Micro$oft

[Stalin]

I probably will. I have a 360 with a hard drive but no HDMI port. The price is low enough that I am considering buying the "Arcade" package, swapping it for my current base unit, and selling the old one. I figure I can get at least $100 for a brand new wireless controller, 256MB memory card, and old main unit.

Re:Micro$oft

[MeanderingMind]

I'm just as confused as you are.

We started with three consoles this generation, the Wii, the 360 and the PS3. Then Microsoft announced the Core and Premium variations, upping the consoles this generation to four. Then Sony followed suit with their 20gb and 60gb versions, five. Then Microsoft announced the Elite, six. Then Sony announced the 80gb PS3, seven. Then Sony announced the 40gb PS3, eight. Then Microsoft announced the Arcade, nine...

You can argue that they are all over-glorified, repackaged versions of the same thing, you might be right. However, the point remains that both Microsoft and Sony are needlessly complicating matters. There isn't an obvious difference between any of the systems. One 360 looks like another, one PS3 looks like another. You have a wall of systems all alike, all different.

Meanwhile, each and every Wii box is exactly the same.

If I were an uninformed parent, walking into a store because I knew Jr wanted video games and I wanted to give them to him, I'd probably run out screaming if it wasn't for the Wii. The Wii is a comforting reminder that someone understands people who don't understand video games. There are no confusing, "What's different between this one and this one?" questions. There is only a clearly marked, small, and inoffensive box marked Wii.

Yes, many parents will go into stores looking specifically for 360s and PS3s, but they aren't going to enjoy the experience. It's Russian roulette with your wallet.

Re:Demos only

[falzbro]

No, it comes with full versions of games, and demos. The games listed in the description are full versions.

Re:Is this a joke?

[Grave]

Ah, of course. Because the fact that it can play 360 games is irrelevant.

Re:Fuck SKU

[Lisandro]

There's no need to mention anything about SKUs. The story title summarized it perfectly.

Right...

[ToasterMonkey]

and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!

Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer?