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Pictures of a retail Xbox 360 Elite from Major Nelson's Flickr

The back of the Elite console, complete with HDMI output and logo
The Xbox 360 Elite may be Microsoft's largest compliment to Sony to date

Sony executives have been known for making some rather entertaining remarks when comparing its PlayStation 3 to Microsoft’s Xbox 360. SCEA PR chief Dave Karraker said that Microsoft was doing Xbox 360 Core owners a disservice with the introduction of the hard drive-mandatory Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

While hopes for the banishing of the Core unit remain unanswered, one of the PlayStation 3’s bullet points over Microsoft’s console was today removed from the list of Sony advantages -- the HDMI output for the highest quality picture possible on HDTVs.

The announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite is clearly Microsoft’s party, but that does not stop Sony from driving by with its welcome wagon, waving PS3 flags.

“The PlayStation 3 is the only elite gaming system on the market. Microsoft is trying to catch up to us at this point. Beyond the benefits of HDMI and a hard drive offered on every PS3 we make, we also provide game developers and consumers the huge capacity of Blu-ray disc, Wi-Fi, free online gameplay, wireless motion sensing controller and the power of Cell,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing, SCEA. “Our strategy has always been to offer all our consumers a future-proof experience when they first purchase any PS3, rather than continually asking users to upgrade with expensive new add-ons and entire new SKUs.”

Dille also commented on the new HDMI feature in the Xbox 360 Elite, saying, “Microsoft's announcement today not only legitimizes Sony's PS3 strategy, it moves us closer to adopting universal standards in the area of high definition gaming that will benefit game developers and ultimately the end user.”

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<no subject>
By Scabies on 3/28/2007 9:19:43 AM , Rating: 5
Lets just get it all out of our system, K?

"Microsoft is so ignorant for not doing this sooner, and stupid for doing it at a higher pricetag (without 65nm parts)"

"Sony is downright arrogant if they think Microsoft is doing this as a bandwagon gesture"

now, constructive comments. Readygo.




RE: <no subject>
By ObscureCaucasian on 3/28/2007 9:45:49 AM , Rating: 5
Yea, the price point on this is not very exciting. Unfortunately MS can do this because of Sony. I highly doubt a $480 Xbox would exist if Sony was putting absolutely no pricing pressure on Microsoft. I'm still holding out for a fairly substantial price cut when the 65nm parts are added. Apparently MS decided to try to make some cash as opposed to putting the nails in the PS3s coffin. The $180 price point for the HDD is an abomination as well, thats 2x the retail price of the drive and I'm sure MS gets some nice volume discounts.

What they need to do right now is:

$200 core
$300 premium
$380-400 Elite

$100 - $120 for 120 HDD
$50-75 20 HDD

$50 Wireless Adapter


RE: <no subject>
By bysmitty on 3/28/2007 9:57:45 AM , Rating: 3
BlameCanada wrote: "Apparently MS decided to try to make some cash as opposed to putting the nails in the PS3s coffin."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

...bysmitty


RE: <no subject>
By ogreslayer on 3/28/2007 10:30:10 AM , Rating: 2
I agree as well but now the 360 also contains a higher value than the 60GB PS3. With HDMI cabling added to the price of the PS3 the 360 Elite could actually be cheaper once you purchase the HD DVD drive. Plus, you get 2x the HD space. Which is what I think was the 360s real weak point.

Also the thing is the Elite probably won't exist after November and component wise will be the premium and be back at the $399 mark, probably sans the 120GB HD. Or even the Premium with it and the Core with the 20GB. As long as neither Nintendo or Sony look to do a drop Microsoft has no reason to twist the knife so early this year. Christmas as we all know is the time to go for your competitor's throat; embarrassing and dominating them all in one blow.


RE: <no subject>
By darkpaw on 3/28/2007 4:23:54 PM , Rating: 2
Depends on if the person is smart and gets and HDMI cable for $10-20 or if they're a complete moron and pay $50-100 for it.

I was at a store yesterday and with the normal cables they had a generic HDMI cable for $24.99, if you went over to the PS3 section they had the exact same cable with a PS3 sticker on it for $49.99. Sad thing is, I'm sure some people would buy it too.


RE: <no subject>
By abhaxus on 3/29/2007 12:15:02 AM , Rating: 1
An HDMI cable is not an HDMI cable is not an HDMI cable. If you've ever tried to actually hook up a 1080p source through a home theater receiver to a 1080p display you would know that the $25 pieces of crap at walmart and sams are not the same as a decent $50-75 cable off the net from ethereal or bluejeanscable.

That said, the ones that have PS3 stickers on them are moderately funny. I doubt that most of them can support the bandwidth of 1080p and dual handshakes through an AVR.


RE: <no subject>
By trex1000 on 4/3/2007 1:25:48 AM , Rating: 2
Hey wait a minute there. I bought a plasma tv just for my xbox360 and ps3. Hooked up the ps3 an found that I had forgotten about the HDMI cable. I went to walmart and I paid $50 for a sony HDMI cable. It was the only one they had period. I would have rather spent the extra $25 on a quality cable rather than driven 20 miles to the nearest super walmart or to have waiten 3 days to get it from Newegg. Bluray movies do not look nice on a plasma wired through an RCA jack. It's almost like watching a 700MB 2hr divx encoded ripped cam movie on a small 32" 4:3 sdtv.


RE: <no subject>
By Samus on 3/28/07, Rating: 0
RE: <no subject>
By Hemipower on 3/29/2007 2:40:22 AM , Rating: 2
What is the time difference between the ps2 and pstwo? Why wouldn't you want to buy a sleeker smaller nicer version as technology advances. Its different than adding something that should have been there from the begining.

If the elite came with 65nm chip, hdmi, wifi, 120 gb hd, and was have the size for the same 400 or even 450 than it would be an obvious repurchase, or new purchase for some. Right now, not so much, unless you have hd dvd add on and a high end entertainment system.


RE: <no subject>
By cheetah2k on 3/29/2007 3:41:54 AM , Rating: 2
I've said this before in another post - why not just make it US$599 with 120gb, HDMI and native HD-DVD?

On another note, I sure would like to know if M$ has revised the internal cooling to negate further "Red Rings of Deaths" due to GPU overheating...


RE: <no subject>
By crazydrummer4562 on 4/4/2007 7:46:51 PM , Rating: 2
Your logic is flawed. Surely I'd like the 360 systems to be that cheap but you have to take into realization that MS barely makes any money at all on the core system as it is, they make a little more on the premium and elite, but if they were to lower prices by that much they'd be in the same position as sony (losing money out the ears), but just with a lot more high quality game titles.


RE: <no subject>
By dpope on 3/28/07, Rating: 0
RE: <no subject>
By Ard on 3/28/2007 10:09:39 AM , Rating: 1
Yeah, all without a high-def video player, imagine that. I'll spend the extra $20, thank you.


RE: <no subject>
By FITCamaro on 3/28/07, Rating: 0
RE: <no subject>
By Teletran1 on 3/28/2007 11:16:07 AM , Rating: 4
Do you own a decent HDTV and a High Def movie player FITCamaro? If you don't I would suggest curbing the upconvert = HD Movie format talk. It simply doesn't match it or even come close. If I have the option to buy a good movie on DVD or Blu-Ray I choose blu-ray every time now. I have never paid more than $25 for any movie. I have seen Criterion Collection discs sell for more than blu-ray or HD-DVD and nobody was complaining about those.


RE: <no subject>
By Scorpion on 3/28/2007 12:51:06 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I would suggest curbing the upconvert = HD Movie format talk.

Yeah, since it is not even technically accurate.


RE: <no subject>
By lufoxe on 3/28/07, Rating: 0
RE: <no subject>
By ilteow on 3/28/2007 2:49:46 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
If you are going apples to apples, take the elite, buy the additional HD-DVD drive, and then compare. The elite is still cheaper than the 60 GB model.

XBox 360 elite: $479.99
XBox 360 HD-DVD drive: $199.99
------------------------------
Total: $679.98

PS3, 60 GB hard drive: $599.99

So you're saying $679.98 is less than $599.99?


RE: <no subject>
By lufoxe on 3/28/2007 3:28:01 PM , Rating: 2
Sorry bad math, it's Wednesday it happens, haha
I would interject a "still but," but you got me, if comparing the elite with the 60GB HD then I stand corrected. Wonder how much sony would charge for a 120GB though