Xbox 360 Elite: HDMI, 120g HD, $479

[Medic]

See, there's a lot of money to be made in video game consoles. Microsoft needed market share: they bought it. 4 billion dollars? Microsoft can throw that kind of money around. It's an investment: they went from nobodies to the top player in 2 generations.

What's the point of dominating the market if they don't make money out of it? Has the 360 made up for the loss on the Xbox yet?

That's the $479 question of course. Maybe Microsoft's plan is to ease the pain with some oh-so-fairly priced peripherals.

The best judgment is always when the contest is clearly won and right now nothing is so I'll be trying to find information regarding this in the near future. If the 360's attach rate remains very high though then licensing fees should do something to bridge the deficit spending on the hardware department. It just depends how large a hole this new system is in and how much revenue 3rd party's are bringing in and then we can work to subtract from the XB1 numbers.

THAT'S WHERE THE NEW X360 COMES IN and as an article I can't now find put it:

perhaps the best question about the rumor mill concerning the newest X360 is: "how pissed off will early adopters be?"

Honestly... I just sigh -- -- but I certainly don't speak for Stark.

The Xbox 360 Elite is official, HDMI and 120GB for $479

Posted Mar 28th 2007 12:01AM by Christopher Grant
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

We can't honestly say we didn't see this one coming after spotting it in magazines and internet leaks for months. Introducing -- officially this time, mind you -- the Xbox 360 Elite! The Elite, as we already know, features an HDMI port, a 120GB hard drive, and comes in a new black color and will be in stores on April 29th for $479.99 (€479.99/£349.99). What we didn't know: the Elite is not a limited-edition product; this will be a permanent, third SKU. The Elite will come with an HDMI cable -- which it proudly declares on its packaging -- in addition to a cable used to transfer data from your existing hard drive over to the new one. It will use the "same components" as the existing Xbox 360 consoles, no cooler running 65nm processors here.

The 120GB hard drive will be available at retail for $179.99. Black wireless controllers, black battery packs, and black Play & Charge kits will also be available at retail for the same price as their white counterparts.

Gallery: Xbox 360 Elite


We had a chance to speak with Microsoft's Albert Pinello, who was able to answer many of our outstanding questions about the Elite. First, current Xbox 360 owners eager to connect their 360 using HDMI will be dismayed to learn that the HDMI connection "can not be adapted back to the existing consoles." The Elite also does not include an integrated WiFi solution. When asked why, Pinello offered the Xbox company line of "choice." Citing the bandwidth limitations of 802.11a, b, and g, Pinello suggested that consumers interested in the Elite would have undoubtedly prefer their own solution, a claim we would have to refute.

Why a whole new SKU? Microsoft had no interest in replacing the Pro's 20GB drive with a 120GB drive. Pinello agreed, "For a new customer who's coming in who wants that 120, if we didn't have Elite in the market, he would have been forced to make a choice that I think would have been less than optimal." Microsoft is positioning the Elite as a niche product designed for a small subset of gamers interested in the increased storage demands of the Xbox Live Video Marketplace (and possibly the IPTV service) and the HDMI output. It's also a bullet-point battle, adding twice the hard drive capacity and matching the HDMI-functionality of the 60GB PlayStation 3 model.

Also, I have a theory on this new X360, cause I find myself contemplating this as with at least one other guy in the chat atm: there will be a minimum fixed demand (as with ANY console launch) that will upgrade to this new X360 and sell their old one. Amazon's gonna be flooded with 2 types of white X360's. From the POV of MS, this is more money to them (though I don't know what kind of loss this new system is selling at) but even the influx of very cheap, used X360's probably bodes well for MS too. It'll trickle down to people that wanted X360's all along but simply don't have that kind of luxary spending or 'couldn't justify it.' It should only ADD to the installed base.

Theory I said. I know I'm doing it... have I sold my soul?

[Hotfoot]

So....it can handle HDMI cables and has a bigger hard drive? That's pretty much it, right?

Granted, I'm running a touch low on space on my 20GB drive because I whore out the demo thing, but other than that, meh. I don't have a need for HDMI, and if I need a new hard drive, I can buy it seperate.

[Stark]

Can you just swap out the 360 drive? 20gb (well, 13gb free out of the box) isn't going to last me very long.

However, HDMI 360 not a week after I buy one? Grrr.

[InnocentBystander]

Quick question, whats so great about HDMI over component? I know HDMI includes sound too, but is that really it?

[Ypoknons]

HDMI supports 1080p where component is for the most part limited to 1080i. That's an image quality improvement right there. It's also neater, I guess, and can be converted to DVI with a cheap plug adapter.

I'm disappointed in the lack of wi-fi though. The $250 Wii has wi-fi, and it's mighty useful, so why not the 360 Elite?

[Stark]

I'm not sure if plugging in an HDMI cable would allow the 360 to actually go to 1080p, however - unless it could always do it and was limited by output, which just frustrates me even MORE.

The xbox wireless thing is AU$150. Fucking BULLSHIT.

[Medic]

So....it can handle HDMI cables and has a bigger hard drive? That's pretty much it, right?

Granted, I'm running a touch low on space on my 20GB drive because I whore out the demo thing, but other than that, meh. I don't have a need for HDMI, and if I need a new hard drive, I can buy it seperate.

One of the million rumors not mentioned in this article was it should run quieter and cooler, that remains to be seen.

If I weren't getting a tax return in 2 weeks I'd likely say meh and get the HD even at $180.

I also have several loans coming back my way. I don't loan shark though, seriously, I'm just a nice guy.

[Hotfoot]

HDMI supports 1080p where component is for the most part limited to 1080i. That's an image quality improvement right there. It's also neater, I guess, and can be converted to DVI with a cheap plug adapter.

I'm disappointed in the lack of wi-fi though. The $250 Wii has wi-fi, and it's mighty useful, so why not the 360 Elite?

Yeah, but the difference between 1080p and 1080i is...well, frankly not worth a few hundred bucks as far as I'm concerned.

[Executor32]

It's basically a DVI video signal combined with a 7.1 channel digital audio signal, so you won't get signal degradation from the digital-to-analog conversion required by component, or from the additional analog-to-digital conversion required if you're using a digital TV. It also reduces clutter by turning a horde of cables into one.

[UCBooties]

I'm honestly torn by this. I found a used 360 last summer, Premium with everything included, and it was a great deal. I'm pleased with my games for it but it's been chugging and having problems booting lately so I figure it's on its last legs already. I'll be able to afford the Elite when it comes out and I'm tempted by the bigger hard-drive. I'm also hoping that it benefits from the year and a half MS has had to work the bugs out, thus it would perhaps not die on me.

On the other hand, the new box would be a lot more than I paid for my current system, nearly double, so it's a difficult purchase to justify.

[Ypoknons]

so you won't get signal degradation from the digital-to-analog conversion required by component, or from the additional analog-to-digital conversion required if you're using a digital TV.

That too. I never claimed that it alone justified the price increase. At least it comes with the cable - nice touch when the PS3 doesn't.

[Stark]

If it's the same hardware as current 360s, would HDMI be significantly better quality than the VGA cable that's already available?

[wautd]

Never liked the looks of the original X360, but it sure looks a lot sexier in black

I'm not going to "upgrade" (buy a new one) just to get a bigger HD tough.

[Arrow]

I currently don't have a 360, but this one really tempts me. This is what the 360 should had been with to begin with (HDMI and bigger HD).

[Vendetta]

I'm not sure if plugging in an HDMI cable would allow the 360 to actually go to 1080p, however - unless it could always do it and was limited by output, which just frustrates me even MORE.

The existing xbox 360 is capable of 1080p over VGA for things that support it. Mostly for HD movies though.

[Stark]

The existing xbox 360 is capable of 1080p over VGA for things that support it. Mostly for HD movies though.

Well phew. I notice the menu doesn't have a 1080p option, though, so would any games support it? Or would the option appear if I plugged in a VGA cable?

[Vendetta]

The options are significantly different if you plug in a VGA cable. It gives you the list of resolutions available for your display in standard resolution notation (1080p would appear as 1920x1080 for example).

As noted, most games don't use it, it's mostly for HD Video through the HD-DVD Drive or through the video marketplace when that launches outside the US. (That's really what the new 360 is for. A 120GB hard drive is only really useful if you have vast amounts of content to put on it, like HD video. The only game that uses a significant chunk of drive space is FFXI, which for some reason requires a PC-like hard drive installation to work.)

[Stark]

Oh I see. Looks like buying a VGA cable will give me 90% of the Elite features I want.

[Vendetta]

I really don't care about the Elite. HDMI would be nice for the miniscule picture quality increase, but my TV stops at 1366x768, so wouldn't give me a resolution increase over 720p (I tried VGA, but my TV doesn't support DNIe processing via VGA, so it loses some contrast, and for 48 extra lines It's not worth the trade off)

And since I don't plan on using the marketplace, and I tend to delete demos and trailers when I tire of them, the largest thing that's going to be on my HDD is Shivering Isles, so a 120GB HDD isn't terribly worthwhile either.

[Stark]

I'm just cranky because this gets announced not a week after I buy a 360. I'm not really interested in the HDD either (my suck connection and disinterest in media etc) so getting better output options is the only interest for me, and apparently VGA cables will do that anyway.

On a completely different note, can I haxx0r the 360 to play video formats that don't suck? I know there are the realtime transcoder thingies like Orb, but that massacres the quality.

[Master of Ossus]

Does the Elite version come with a die shrink or not?

[Ace Pace]

Does the Elite version come with a die shrink or not?

We'll know only if MS says, or if anyone will take apart the elite and do die size measurements. Or if we suddenly find the Xbox360 is alot quieter.

[Arrow]

Does the Elite version come with a die shrink or not?

We'll know only if MS says, or if anyone will take apart the elite and do die size measurements. Or if we suddenly find the Xbox360 is alot quieter.

The Ars article said the Elite doesn't have the die shrink.

[Faram]

As soon as Halo 3 is released I will get me one of those black xboxes, but intill then. I can wait.

[Executor32]

I may get one of the black controllers, just so it matches the rest of my PC. Are wired ones going to be available, or just wireless?