To no one’s surprise, Microsoft has officially unveiled the Xbox 360 Elite. The new units will begin show up on store shelves in US stores starting April 29 at an MSRP of $479.99. The new SKU sports a variety of new features, including:
-120GB hard drive (black)
-HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) port
-Wireless controller (black)
-Xbox Live headset (black)
-HDMI cable
-Component/SD cable
-One month subscription to Xbox Live Gold
The following accessories will also be available:
-Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (black) – $49.99
-Xbox 360 rechargeable battery (black) – $11.99
-Xbox 360 120GB hard drive (standard grey) – $179.99
The 120GB hard drive accessory includes a transfer cable and software, so that you can transfer data from a Xbox 360 with a hard drive already attached to the new drive — no memory card required.
For me personally, I wouldn’t mind upgrading my premium 360 to have that 120GB hard drive. But that would mean I’m paying a total of $580 — $20 less than the high-end PS3, which includes an HDMI port, Blu-ray player, and Wi-Fi. My 360? Not so much.
It’ll be interesting to see if there is any backlash over the pricing for the new hard drive, especially with the model followed by the release of the system’s 512MB memory card — the existing 64MB card’s price was dropped, and the 512MB card took on the former price point of the 64MB card. Why wasn’t this what happened with the new hard drive?
