"Apples & Oranges" to compare 360 Elite HD wit

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2007-04-04 12:26pm

Hard Drive Price is Fair Says Microsoft

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg has been defending the price of its $180 120 Gig hard drive for Xbox 360, from consumer criticism that it is too expensive.

The company's group product manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live says the drive is comparable in price to plug-and-play external drives for PC, adding that Microsoft carries extra testing costs for the drives. He also says it’s consistent with the firm’s pricing across Xbox 360 hardware.

Speaking to weekly podcast Game Theory he said, “We know it is expensive and we have definitely heard that feedback but it is a little apples and oranges to compare it to internal PC hard drives because those are off the shelf drives that you have to install yourself. You have to format those and figure out how you are going to move your content over. There is a lot of work there for your average consumer it is not a plug in and play experience for them.

“What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives.

“I know it sounds expensive to a lot of consumers but we are comparable to those types of drives and also we have to go through a lot more testing and security. When we buy from suppliers we require a lot more spec reports and tests because that drive has to be able to perform at specific speeds all the time in order to support our environment and our gameplay experiences. Those are not the same specs that they are able to deliver to with off-the-shelf drives.

“We do hear consumers but we pay a premium for these drives. That’s just the nature of it. If you started with the core $299 SKU, everything we have done is based on adding storage. If you had the $100 hard drive that gets you to $399. If you added the $179 hard drive to the $299 SKU that gets you to $479 which is the Elite SKU so there is consistency in the way we think about this.”

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2007-04-04 12:41pm

Considering that there are 120GB 5400RPM laptop drives that cost $110 and 100GB 7200RPM laptop drives that cost $120, I don't find MS's explanation to be too far fetched (after mark-ups), especially if they do require additional testing.

Still, a cable that lets you connect your own external drive would be nice. Hmmm... An Xbox with a 150GB Raptor...

TheFeniX · Post by **TheFeniX** » 2007-04-04 12:53pm

It would be nice if I could transfer data to my Firelite USB drive rather than just being able to play content that's already saved there. But, then I'd have no reason to sell my 20GB drive to Gamestop for 10 bucks, then blow $170 on the new drive.......

I made this comment when the first disk space specs were released for the 360, and I'll make it again: What the fuck was MS thinking only selling a 20 GB drive for the 360?

I managed to fill up all but 2GBs within a few days of owning a 360.

UCBooties · Post by **UCBooties** » 2007-04-04 01:17pm

The system with a hard-drive cost 400 dollars and many consumers were screaming bloody murder over that. They probably wondered if they could get away with selling a more expensive system. Now that the PS3 has launched at an even higher price-point, they probably see the Elite as a more likely sell.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-04-04 01:37pm

I think these consumers need to remember that a good computer graphic card happens to cost 300 bucks and that MS is already selling them something way below market price.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-04-04 01:42pm

I thought the 360 had a 7900gs, or similar? Those retail for closer to $150...

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-04-04 01:45pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I thought the 360 had a 7900gs, or similar? Those retail for closer to $150...

Supposedly the prototype for the ATI R600 which has been delayed again and again and again..

Nevertheless, aside from Nintendo, MS looses 100 over bucks per unit.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-04-04 02:30pm

The 360 has a custom Xenos GPU, it's a predecessor for the R600(was supposed to be the R500), a unified architecture chip with 10MB of integrated eDRAM.

The PS3 has a tweaked 7900 something.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-04-04 02:36pm

Depends which SKU.

They make something like $70 on the premium model, but lose about $50 on the Core. The Xbox 360 cost reduced quicker than they were expecting.

Anyway, the 120GB hard drive isn't really for anything other than downloading HD video content via the video marketplace. You'd have to have a spectacular number of games, and they'd all have to have Shivering Isles size expansions, to fill even the existing 13GB with game content. (Hell, I've only used just over 3GB on mine and I've got the best part of 30 games for the thing (including Live Arcade ones).

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-04-04 09:06pm

That's not possible. Even if the Core and Premium cost the same amount to make, the $100 price difference would mean that the Core would lose $30 to the Premium's $70 profit.