It was pretty much a given that Microsoft would be showing off a new Xbox 360 at E3. The big question on everyone’s mind was what sort of machine would it be?
Microsoft answered that question by unveiling the Xbox 360 Pro 60GB game console.
Outside of the obvious upgrade to a 60GB hard drive, other amenities rumored for this newest iteration of the 360 may include ATI Xenos GMCH, a smaller 65nm CPU, and other internal performance upgrades, although Microsoft has not made any official announcements on these improvements yet.
Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft said, "We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we’re giving it to them at no extra charge. No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you’ll have three times the storage to manage all that great content."
The one issue that was not brought up concerning the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro was its reliability. Since the launch of the original Xbox 360, it has been plagued with various hardware issues and problems.
The most notable being the Red Ring of Death, so called because of the red LED status message that appears on the face plate of the game console, indicating that the machine has entered a failure state that can only be addressed by sending the 360 in for repairs or replacement. It is estimated that Microsoft has spent $1 billion on repairs regarding hardware failures connected with RRoD and other issues.
The 60GB Xbox 360 Pro will be priced at $349 while the standard 20GB model will cost $299. The Arcade and Elite models will continue to be sold at $279 and $449 respectively.
With the arrival of the 360 Pro, Microsoft will phase out the 20GB model at the reduced price of $299, "while supplies last."
