Rumor: MS Scrapping Xbox 360 elite

[Zeus]

Now here's a juicy rumor, a number of websites have picked up on a report that MS is to kill of the Xbox 360 Elite with only limited edition game themed models coming with 120GB of storage. The recession and knockdown prices of the other SKU's has reportedly caused the change of plan from MS. But this should be treated as a big rumor until MS let us know what it is actually doing, if anything.


Necessity dictates that if you're an Xbox lover and fan of HD downloads, then the Xbox 360 Elite is the only way forward. But it seems that all is not well with the most expensive of Microsoft's hub, with reports emerging that the console is about to get a dose of the Red Rings of Death.

According to Electronista, the top end console is going to be killed off in its everyday incarnation, with only limited edition, game themed models coming with 120GB of on board storage.

Word is that the recession, coupled with knockdown prices for the Arcade and Pro versions, is causing the £230 console to pile up in stores the world over. Microsoft is planning an official announcement in the next fortnight, with those after more storage for XBLA and movie extras being offered bigger upgrade drives instead.


News Source: <A href="http://stuff.tv/news/Microsoft-scrapping-Xbox-360-Elite/11969/" target="_blank">Stuff.tv</a>

[panyan1991]

is the only difference the colour of the case?

[Sm0k3d 0uT]

Yeah and the 120gb Hard drive that comes with it.

[tech3475]

doesnt it also come with the HDMI cable?

[bootyhuntah]

I wonder exactly what else is going to change besides the xbox 360's case color?? Anyone have an idea?? I wonder what price difference there will be too. If this is true I wonder if Microsoft, acknowledging the recession, will lower the cost of the 120 GB hard drive?? :confused:

[danight]

This is as obvious move if there ever was one...

pse takes A $100 PRICE CUT. Then what? Microsoft has to stay lower priced than sony or market whares will start shifting again.

Wii will probably take a cut since its sales are falling more into expected range now. So clearly microsoft needs to make the arcade more the prem system and the prem system more like the elite but with their old price points.

No matter what happens in April... elite will probably be left 4 dead. Its a price war now in tough economic times. There should only be 2.. a arcade (white) bbundle and a prem(black) bundle. Then do promo sku`s like res evil.

Hard drive size is kinda mute with the 360 since a 20 gig hdd is fine and can enjoy all the features. But thats because there is the choice to install games or not. But the read times on the drive is fast as is and isnt really that noticable from what i can tell from installs.

[Spnoz]

If (and that's a big IF) that rumor is to be true, then I would say it's probably the most logical choice MS could make in face of the global economic crisis.

Worldwide sales of anything has taken, or will take, some sort of drop in demand. This is not news. We all know that.

I'm sure sales of the Elite model have dropped more than sales of other 360 bundles. First, the new 60Gb model have reduced the need of people to get a bigger HDD, and most will find this more than enough. So 100$ more (well, in Canada anyway) to basically get a black version with an additionnal 60Gb (and some other things of lesser importance) doesn't look really worth it (I'm putting myself in the shoes of a potential buyer here).

From a business perspective, it's better to fill store shelves of something that sell better, than having a portion of that space dedicated to something that people are less inclined to buy.

But all of this is just a big fat rumor now...

[Phuqer]

I just want a blue 360

[bootyhuntah]

I just want a blue 360

Go here http://www.estarland.com/index.asp?page=Xbox360&cat=AC&product=28431&q= :eek:

[Sm0k3d 0uT]

I just want a blue 360

go here http://www.colorwarepc.com/p-100-xbox-360.aspx

[Y2Bogus]

I can see why MS would remove this SKU. As it is, an Arcade Unit + 120GB HDD will cost you less than an Elite. HDMI cables are dirt cheap online too, so there's not much of a reason to buy the Elite over an Arcade + 120GB drive unless you really want a black unit.

I had an elite. Launch unit, ran great, never gave me a lick of trouble. I ended up selling it because I needed some cash at the moment, and rather that rebuying the elite later on again, I just grabbed an Arcade + drive. The black color is cool and unique, but black shows off dust so much more than white does. Same with my PS3.

[harryisme]

I'm not sure if that's true, Ican see the price dropping for the Elite but note the SKU going off the shelves completely. Many retailers have recently reduced the price of the ELite to £190 and maybe that's an indication of M$ announcing an official price cut for the console. £190 makes it a much more appealing buy. I'd be tempted paying that £60 extra for a 120gb Hard drive a HDMI cable and thatanalogue sound adapter that cost £30 on it's own.

[bhetrick]

is the only difference the colour of the case?


120 gig
hdmi cable
audio dongle

[danight]

well the new res evil bundle is sweet.

red case, red controller alone is a chunk of cash if you order separate.
Then res evil 5 will cost you 60 dollars. So thats not a bad bundle.
But outside of bundles like that the elite system is a little over priced vs the arcade unit.

[unreal maniac]

im actualy going to back this rumor.

the elite console is just a pro with a 120gb hdd black case and 2 controlers that come with the charger

[Phuqer]

Go here http://www.estarland.com/index.asp?page=Xbox360&cat=AC&product=28431&q= :eek:

That's pretty nifty, reminds me of the case I bought for my old ass ps1 15 years ago X_x. I like the colorwarepc one as well, but I really want one that matches my blue controller. I guess I could just buy an arcade one and paint the *****. Good looking out guys :)

[Mikeyy]

Everybody is thinking it, I'm just saying it!

Everybody attacked sony with all the different SKU's, How many SKU's has MS gone through now?

[harryisme]

Everybody is thinking it, I'm just saying it!

Everybody attacked sony with all the different SKU's, How many SKU's has MS gone through now?

Difference was that the hardware inside the three are the same with the 360's The problem with Sony's method was they kept revising the hardware, took out the PS2 hardware, removed memory card reader etc. It got confusing and unlike the MS console you were getting different hardware depending on the SKU you brought, where with the 360 the difference was the HDD size and the colour. nothing else.

[billysastard]

Everybody is thinking it, I'm just saying it!

Everybody attacked sony with all the different SKU's, How many SKU's has MS gone through now?

4

1) basic / arcade with no hdd
2) pro with 20gb
3) pro with 60gb
4) elite

they have changed the names of the packs but not the actual contents, they changed the internals too but again thats quite normal as it didnt change the machine specs.


there is certainly something going on in the uk as the elite does seem to have had a fair price drop in recent weeks so retailers could know something we dont.

[charmanderxd]

you mean kind of like the resident evil pack but in a different name?

[Cue]

Difference was that the hardware inside the three are the same with the 360's The problem with Sony's method was they kept revising the hardware, took out the PS2 hardware, removed memory card reader etc. It got confusing and unlike the MS console you were getting different hardware depending on the SKU you brought, where with the 360 the difference was the HDD size and the colour. nothing else.

well then you don't know your 360 SKUs do you it was more than colour and HDD size. There are probably more hardware revisions in the 360 SKUs too.

[somenetdude]

the systems as of recent, also now come with 256megs internal memory even if you dont get a hdd to support the NXE...

[dsav]

i think what harry meant was the 360 didn't loose any features through those different skus and mainboards ect.

i don't think it did anyway.

[Appleseed]

this is true, i know for a fact that it is.

[j0rd4n$]

I dont get why but yeah it's true.

[legendofphil]

Hard drive size is kinda moot with the 360 since a 20 gig hdd is fine and can enjoy all the features. But thats because there is the choice to install games or not. But the read times on the drive is fast as is and isnt really that noticable from what i can tell from installs.

20GB is not enough, I have about 3GB left (once I remove the demos I grabbed the other day) and that doesn't include game installs its almost all DLC and updates.

[zymologist]

20GB is not enough, I have about 3GB left (once I remove the demos I grabbed the other day) and that doesn't include game installs its almost all DLC and updates.
20gb would be enough to scrape by if you actually got 20gb of space, but the 12-13gb you actually get after you factor in the other non-user partitions and the mebibyte/megabyte "losses" is just painful to deal with. Canning the 20gb model was the right thing to do

[NewBeginning]

You should probably only have whatever game you're currently playing the most installed. There's no reason to install games you don't play, or even ones that you play only a couple times a week.

[harryisme]

well then you don't know your 360 SKUs do you it was more than colour and HDD size. There are probably more hardware revisions in the 360 SKUs too.

I know the difference in all the Hardware changes made, there have been only a few major hardware revisions and all of them have been improvements across the board, not just cost cutting exercises.

The first major change was the introduction os the HDMImodel with the Elite, but that was essentially one revision and that was the change in the scaler chip. And that was moved to the other two consoles after a few month, so hardware was all the same again.

Then is was the CPU going from 95 to 65mn, this meant less power consumption and hopefully less hardware failures (Not as much as they hoped as the problem largely relates to design and GPU)

Then there was a small revision where they moved the RAM from below the Motherbord and doubled up the ones at top, this would help with heat issues.

And now we have the 65nm GPU which is something they should have done before the CPU Dye was shrank, but the techs at M$ are not all that clever is seems, again this is across board, if anything I believe the Arcade SKU's got this before the premium and Elite.

The Hardware is exactly the same in all three models, with the exception of the new Arcade units which have the 256MB memory onboard (I beilieve it's situated where the power switch is but I'm not certain.) other than that the hardware is the same.

You pay £40 extra for the 60GB HDD, and a HD Composite cable and ofcourse the silver DVD front bezel.
You pay £90 (or £60 looking at the offers at the moment) for the 120GB HDD, HDMI Cable, Sound dongle, and ofcourse all black casing.

[danight]

20GB is not enough, I have about 3GB left (once I remove the demos I grabbed the other day) and that doesn't include game installs its almost all DLC and updates.

But the fact is you can get by with it. You dont have to install to hard drive for games. Most of the time is not much different than playing off the disk that has to be in the drive anyways.

Now lets look at the 20 gig ps3 :eek: ohh yeah... the launch ps3 that lasted 30 days before sony killed it saying "people only buy the 60 gig model". Yeah people hated having a $500.00 ps3.
But the ps3 with 20 gig is really weak when people with the 40 gig units where scraping for space to install games.

One nice thing about ps3 is you could go grab a 200 gig hdd and throw it in there and use it. The feature sucks for 360. But on the other hand you had to buy that extra hdd and that adds even more cost to the expensive ps3.

Point im making here is i have 1 launch 360 with 20 gigs that worked for years (just about every rrod you can think of) still works. 1 elite and 1 arcade with 20 gigs. The 20 gig models are fine. Demos you play once and delete anyways. DL movies you watch and delete. You just dont wanna install 2 many games (really no much reason to since the 360 dvd drive is fast).

Also the fact up until xne you couldnt install full games anyways. So xbox 360 gamers where fine for the past couple years without it. Just goes to prove you dont have to have it.

[Cue]

I know the difference in all the Hardware changes made, there have been only a few major hardware revisions and all of them have been improvements across the board, not just cost cutting exercises.

The first major change was the introduction os the HDMImodel with the Elite, but that was essentially one revision and that was the change in the scaler chip. And that was moved to the other two consoles after a few month, so hardware was all the same again.

Then is was the CPU going from 95 to 65mn, this meant less power consumption and hopefully less hardware failures (Not as much as they hoped as the problem largely relates to design and GPU)

Then there was a small revision where they moved the RAM from below the Motherbord and doubled up the ones at top, this would help with heat issues.

And now we have the 65nm GPU which is something they should have done before the CPU Dye was shrank, but the techs at M$ are not all that clever is seems, again this is across board, if anything I believe the Arcade SKU's got this before the premium and Elite.

The Hardware is exactly the same in all three models, with the exception of the new Arcade units which have the 256MB memory onboard (I beilieve it's situated where the power switch is but I'm not certain.) other than that the hardware is the same.

You pay £40 extra for the 60GB HDD, and a HD Composite cable and ofcourse the silver DVD front bezel.
You pay £90 (or £60 looking at the offers at the moment) for the 120GB HDD, HDMI Cable, Sound dongle, and ofcourse all black casing.

Well then it seems you are quite aware that there are in fact a lot of hardware revisions which make them just as confusing you say cost cutting for the consumer much like the PS3 but in a sense it's the same thing offering different SKUs, is it not. one haveing HDMI another not, one having 2 extra USB slots another not. One having no HDD another not, one having a card reader another not. all it comes down to is BC that cannot be added in later so I would hardly call that much different. And BTW that was the wish of all the people complaining about price.

[Ashley08]

no matter what happens... elite will probably be left 4 dead. Its a price war now in tough economic times. There should only be 2.. a arcade (white) bundle and a prem(black) bundle. Then do promo sku`s like res evil.

[grapeape]

no matter what happens... elite will probably be left 4 dead. Its a price war now in tough economic times. There should only be 2.. a arcade (white) bundle and a prem(black) bundle. Then do promo sku`s like res evil.

I dont see what the difference is...a "black" premium is an elite its not like there is anything different internally, the only difference is the hard drive which more likely is cheaper in the 120gig incarnation than the 60gig. Hard drive prices on older smaller drives tend to rise when newer larger ones are what are primarily in production.