Nick Hide
Nick has been playing videogames for 20 years. He believes games are as valid an art form as music or film. They are interactive sculptures capable of profound emotional impact, so it really annoys him when games come out where you can mug old women.
Thursday 9 August 2007, 5:14pm
Xbox 360 Elite available for pre-order online
Major online UK retailers such as Amazon and Play have started taking pre-orders for Microsoft's pimped-up new version of the Xbox 360, the Elite. Released on 24 August, the Elite comes in goes-with-your-other-stuff black, features a bigger 120GB hard drive and HDMI output, and will set you back £330.
All very well, but I'm beginning to question the Elite's value for money. Play, for instance, is offering the current Premium version (white, 20GB hard drive, no HDMI) for £260 with two games (FlatOut and Command & Conquer) or £300 with three games you'd actually want (Gears of War, Forza 2 and Crackdown).
Comparing it to the opposition, the 60GB PlayStation 3 is now available from Amazon for £400 with Resistance, MotorStorm and two controllers. If you were to buy yourself, say, the Elite, Gears and Forza 2 plus another controller from Amazon, you'd be shedding £440. The various merits of the games and systems aside, that's £40 for an extra 60GB of memory.
If you're desperate for an HDMI output to mate with your hot new TV, hold on a sec. News reaches us from our sister site GameSpot that the white Premium model is now shipping with HDMI in the US. So the question is, are you really that bothered about it matching your DVD player?
Comments on this post
Phew! After all the hype and pre-order crazyness, I was beginning to think that I was the only one that didn't 'get' the Elite. I thought white was the new black anyway? What's this I see when I look into my crystal ball? Could it be......a gloss white PS3 coming next year? With a bigger hard drive? Extending a product's life cycle has, apparently, never been easier.
Posted by Paul H. on Sun 12 August, 2007 11:22 PM
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Give it 2 weeks and there'll be a bundle. That said adding HDMI to the Premium coupled with the ps3 bundles have kind of made the elite redundant apart for those who want to download (not to mention keep)loads of xbl games and demos and make use of MS's video service and simply MUST have a black machine.
Posted by MrJolly on Thu 16 August, 2007 10:56 AM
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