http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/17/news_6131245.html Basically, the $299 deal is just for the console, while the $399 deal comes with extras (Only thing noteworthy is the Hard Drive, which doesn't come with the $299 version). So, basically, we are screwed out of the Hard Drive unless you pay more.
the hard drive by itself is $99 and the wireless controller is listed at $49, so with prices like that the 399 package may be a "deal" compared with buying the core system and getting the other stuff later. But still... $399 for the good stuff, ouch.
So the system will have wired controllers as well. That's a plus for me since I generally can't stand wireless. I think it is a mistake though to not package the HD in all systems. History has shown that unless it comes packed in few developers will take advantage and it will fall by the wayside.
Problem is developers cant really make use of hd support for games, as a part of the owners simply don't have one in their console. However I don't believe they used it a lot in the old Xbox games. And, the 64 MB of the memory card could be enough in most cases. About the price tag, I hear so many people say "I ain't gonna pay that much money for a 'console'. However, especially the next generation is more than a simply 'console'. It has Media Center built in, online capabilities, some really really fast CPU cores, 512 MB of memory, a harddisk, top of the bill ATi GPU ... so basically everything a state of the art PC has. However peope are willing to pay a 1000 bucks or more for such a PC, but 400 for almost the same is too expensive!? So hopefully Microsoft releases Windows for the Xbox 360, or the homebrew community finds a way to do it (must be possible as Linux was runnable on the PS2). After that, who needs a PC anymore? No more compatibilty problems with games, imagine that ...
You won't be able to surf the net on it or any of that shit. MS didn't want it to be confused for a computer. It's just a fancy console if ask me. I think $399 is more than fair for everything you get... still not going to get one for a while. Going to have to see a gameslist first.
With the $399 price point for the good stuff, I'm going to definitely take a wait and see approach with the 360. I'd really like to know what the price points are for the PS3 and the Revolution now. The Revolution on price alone may be a sweeter system. Well that is if like they said it'll be cheap. Though I think I just may wait up for the PS3 at this rate. If just to catch a price drop on the 360 if possible.
But it has the specs of a full fledged PC. And surfing the Internet is just a minor thing that could be easily implemented, the PSP can do it. I know Microsoft isn't aiming for making the Xbox 360 like a PC, because that would be stupid, most of MS's income is PC related. Expanding Xbox 360's features like adding a full OS would make PCs superfluous.
Same as the HDD in the current XBOX, save your games and download new content from XBOX Live!, so us Live! users are stuck with only one option if we want to go 360 >:[ I think this is a bad move by MS. They should have just made the damn HDD standard like with the original XBOX.
If I were Sony right now I'd come out with a campaign where you get the PS3 for $100.00 less than launch price if you put $300.00 down on preorder on 360's launch day. They could cut the legs off the 360's launch and possibly be able to say they sold more PS3's on the 360's launch day and the system isn't even out yet. It would also benefit them in the format war over Blu-Ray and HD-DVD by showing studios an already installed base. It would be risky as hell but the rewards could be worth it.
Yeh, but they're removable already. So you could easily change the 20 gb one of the expensive version into a bigger one (if I'm correct Microsoft said there will be at least a 40 gb version available later on).
That would be interesting if sony tried something like that. Like you said, probably a bit too risky, but a cool idea none the less. Both package versions show them as having a xbox live silver membership. Are there different levels of live membership for the 360? Anyone know what the differences are?
True. But if you just compare the specs, you can only admit $400 isn't too much for such a complete system. I wonder if MS still makes any profit for selling a 360, as they even lost money for every Xbox 1 sold.
