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"360 Elite - Not for Gamers?"

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Thu 29/03/07 at 04:29
Regular
"Copyright: FM Inc."
Posts: 10,338
The 360 Elite has been announced - basically as far as I can work out it's the same as the Premium XBox 360 but with a 120Gb HDD and includes an HDMI cable.

"Today's games and entertainment enthusiast has a insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content," commented Peter Moore, corporate vice president for Microsoft Xbox.

I can understand the reason for the 120Gb HDD, because all that high definition media takes up storage space. But as a gaming enthusiast, and not an entertainment enthusiast, I have no earthly reason to have an 'insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content' and am quite happy with my current 1Mb or so game saves here and there on my current 360 20Gb HDD.

Not being the owner of an HDTV, and I suspect I'm not the only one, there is no earthly reason for me to download game trailers, TV shows, music videos and movies in HD format. To be brutally honest with my eyesight I doubt I could tell the difference anyway.

So is the 360 Elite the new PSX? (For those with short memories the PSX was Sony's similar effort to make the PlayStation the central hub in the living room for all entertainment, it was basically a PS2 souped up with its own media centre and came in 160Gb or 250Gb HDD versions, and it sold so well Japan that Sony never bothered trying to sell it anywhere else).

Did Sony put all their eggs in High Definition before gamers were ready for it and is this a kneejerk reaction by Microsoft to bring out something similar, even though gamers still aren't ready for it?

Or is it just me that's not ready for HD, doesn't care about HD, just wants decent games to play on a decent games machine and is starting to think that Nintendo were the only ones with the right vision this generation?

It just baffles me why two of the biggest console game names in the industry are trying to morph what were already great games machines from last generation into something that they're not. It strikes me that HD buffs are going to opt for standalone top-of-the-line HD players (whether that be Blu-ray or HD-DVD), and games buffs are trying to opt for standalone top-of-the-line games machines but our choice is looking to become more and more limited with each passing year.

5 years from now I might be looking forward to a new Tamagotchi keyring.
Thu 29/03/07 at 16:47
Regular
"Devil in disguise"
Posts: 3,151
Suicide Soldier wrote:
> Garin wrote:
> 4-6k? Even a 50 inch plasma TV costs under 2k now, nevermind
> the fact that LCDs are cheaper.
>
> You get what you pay for.

Of course you do. Doesnt alter the fact that I can buy alot of the major brands high-end models for alot less than you're quoting. :) The cost of high-end TVs is really irrelevant anyway. The big spenders will only ever be a small fraction of the HD market.
Thu 29/03/07 at 16:45
Regular
"8==="
Posts: 33,481
Supposedly.
Thu 29/03/07 at 15:40
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Garin wrote:
> 4-6k? Even a 50 inch plasma TV costs under 2k now, nevermind
> the fact that LCDs are cheaper.

You get what you pay for.
Thu 29/03/07 at 14:44
Regular
"Brooklyn boy"
Posts: 14,935
Can't say i'm too fussed about the news, if i wasn't going to China then i'd have bought myself a HDTV by now but i don't really see the point in wasting so much money for something i'm only going to use for a year. The standard tv is more than enough to allow me to see what i'm doing as it has been for the past 16 or so years and i've only used 1 gig worth of space on my hard drive in the 8 months or so i've had my 360.

So the elite gets a giant "meh" from me.
Thu 29/03/07 at 14:38
Regular
"Devil in disguise"
Posts: 3,151
Suicide Soldier wrote:
> You're right on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray stuff though. I mean who is
> going to stick with a console player when they have a
> £4-6k 50+ inch LCD TV?

4-6k? Even a 50 inch plasma TV costs under 2k now, nevermind the fact that LCDs are cheaper. So HD TV is certainly in the realms of people who are money conscious and not necessarily going to buy the best of everything.
Thu 29/03/07 at 10:57
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
HD is catching on fast in the US, but is slow on the uptake here (partly due to prices and partly to the British way of being cautious about new technology). Many TV shows in the US are broadcast in HD, where as you need Sky HD to do that here and even then you get only a few HD channels.

So it's more for US and Asia, whereas here we're still playing catchup and it will matter more when people start adopting HD in bigger numbers.

I think Sony was right to go with proper HDMI out of the box and Microsoft needed this update, a trend which seems to become more popular with consoles and handhelds these days (GBA SP, DS Lite, the new Wii rumoured, PS1 to new PS1 - or PSX as everyone refers to it, crystal Xbox) Some of these are cosmetic and other include extra functions. It just gives people more choice. Sure, it's annoying for those that adopted early, but it's better than not having a choice at all.
Thu 29/03/07 at 10:39
Regular
"8==="
Posts: 33,481
I think it's an attempt by MS to grab the 'must have' status away from the PS3.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Elite has a limited run but I've also read that they want to introduce it as a proper third console option.

I think some people will buy it to show off to their friends. It's interesting because it seems like an attempt to match the PS3 but without alienating the current userbase.

I could do with the 120GB HD because I've currently got 2.5 gigs left (thanks to music and live arcade) and with the Shivering Isles expansion taking up nearly a gig and more COD3 map packs likely to appear my HD space is going to get rather small.

Of course I could delete some of it, and redownload it later, but that's not great when you just want to jump on and game. Plus as more content gets released it's going to be more of a hassle to do.

MS are releasing the 120GB HD seperately with a data transfer cable so you can transfer you old HD over to the new one.

It'll be nice to get back to being lazy about memory. :D
Thu 29/03/07 at 08:22
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Recording a 1 hour 30 movie on Sky HD takes up about 6-8% of a 200gb drive so depending on what they have planned with regards to movies, video capture or whatever else they have lined up over the next few years I'd say 120gb is something that might be needed.

For anyone who just saves games and downloads the odd item then yeah it's totally pointless but then again when you read comments to this you would think everyone knows what Microsoft have planned as they tell everyone "omg ITZ A WWAST OF $$!!!!".

The only thing that would tempt me though is if they fixed the fan on boot up of DVD's because fook me sideways it drove me insane.

You're right on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray stuff though. I mean who is going to stick with a console player when they have a £4-6k 50+ inch LCD TV? The PS2 DVD player was cheap crap, the Xbox one was utter gash when compared to high end DVD players and people who are going to make the jump to high def movie stuff aren't going to stick around with cheap drives.
Thu 29/03/07 at 04:29
Regular
"Copyright: FM Inc."
Posts: 10,338
The 360 Elite has been announced - basically as far as I can work out it's the same as the Premium XBox 360 but with a 120Gb HDD and includes an HDMI cable.

"Today's games and entertainment enthusiast has a insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content," commented Peter Moore, corporate vice president for Microsoft Xbox.

I can understand the reason for the 120Gb HDD, because all that high definition media takes up storage space. But as a gaming enthusiast, and not an entertainment enthusiast, I have no earthly reason to have an 'insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content' and am quite happy with my current 1Mb or so game saves here and there on my current 360 20Gb HDD.

Not being the owner of an HDTV, and I suspect I'm not the only one, there is no earthly reason for me to download game trailers, TV shows, music videos and movies in HD format. To be brutally honest with my eyesight I doubt I could tell the difference anyway.

So is the 360 Elite the new PSX? (For those with short memories the PSX was Sony's similar effort to make the PlayStation the central hub in the living room for all entertainment, it was basically a PS2 souped up with its own media centre and came in 160Gb or 250Gb HDD versions, and it sold so well Japan that Sony never bothered trying to sell it anywhere else).

Did Sony put all their eggs in High Definition before gamers were ready for it and is this a kneejerk reaction by Microsoft to bring out something similar, even though gamers still aren't ready for it?

Or is it just me that's not ready for HD, doesn't care about HD, just wants decent games to play on a decent games machine and is starting to think that Nintendo were the only ones with the right vision this generation?

It just baffles me why two of the biggest console game names in the industry are trying to morph what were already great games machines from last generation into something that they're not. It strikes me that HD buffs are going to opt for standalone top-of-the-line HD players (whether that be Blu-ray or HD-DVD), and games buffs are trying to opt for standalone top-of-the-line games machines but our choice is looking to become more and more limited with each passing year.

5 years from now I might be looking forward to a new Tamagotchi keyring.

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