X360 Elite

[Paco]

First: Obviously, I accidentally switched the 'online' and 'local' labels in that last post. Fixed. :)



First, price. The STAND ALONE 180GB HDD is $120. $180! You can get a 120GB HDD for $80! Where is that other $100 going? Straight to Microsoft's coffers, obviously...

Really, you don't get the point... $400 is the 'sweet spot' for gamers? $400? You really think that? That's insane! $400 is way too expensive for most people to afford. Add on wi-fi and the online fees and it's quite expensive... there's no way MS will hit the mass market it wants with those prices. Maybe it'd work in Europe (420 pounds for the PS3 and it sells decently well in England? Yeah.), we'll see, but not so much here... really, if they want to succeed on the level they desire, and knock Nintendo out of the top spot, the prices have to go DOWN, not up. Microsoft, as I said, seems to want to lose... lose to Nintendo in marketshare, and lose to Sony in public perception if Sony manages to show people what you get for your money from a PS3 compared to an X360.

And the thing is, MS could drop their price so easily... Sony can't for some time, but MS easily could. I know they want to finally make money off of their gaming business, but seriously... are we going to get TWO YEARS into the new console cycle with NO price drops? Has that ever happened before? Ridiculous.

For early adopters, those willing to spend more money for the new consoles, yes, they think it's going to remain the sweet spot. Microsoft obviously hasn't started their effort to reach the masses as the lack of a price drop makes quite obvious. It will happen in time.

Wi-fi is so unnecessary. Online play is the only thing that costs money, using Live for everything else is free. Microsoft recently revealed that nearly 40% of those using XBox Live are using it for media purposes other than online game play. Live has become the number two provider of video and hd content behind iTunes...there's certainly a market that doesn't need to spend that $50 a year.

As a game console, Xbox 360 still pummels the PS3 in value.