http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/642/642633p1.aspx

Well, as they said the $400 one is a really good value. My only problem with it is how much emphasis MS put on EVERYTHING being wireless, EVERYTHING having a HD, EVERYTHING being Live ready, and EVERYTHING being standard for high definition yet the basic package doesn' t have a wireless controller, doesn' t have an HD, doesn' t have a headset, and doesn' t have the cables required for high definition gaming. It' s a whole lot of BS to go and lie to the consumer like that.

Looks like I' ll be picking up the core system for $299!!!

One thing that angers me about the 399 package is that you get the headset, you get the wireless controller, you get the ethernet cable......... but you still only get xbox live SILVER membership.

Why in the world am I paying for all this xbox live hardware if you' re not throwing a full membership to xbox live as well????

Very disappointing news indeed. However, with the hardware that' s going into the 360/PS3, one could easily say higher prices were inevitable.

I agree, bad news. the 399 is just a little too pricey, but th 299 version is so bastardized I wouldn' t want it. For the amount of shit missing in the core package, I think they should try sell it at 249. After all it is missing 230 bucks of stuff according to the article.

Out of all the stuff in the $399 package, all I care about is the wireless controller and some sort of storage device/medium, whether it be a memory card or hard drive, and that' s pretty much it, so I' ll be all set with the basic/core package and just pick up those two items separately later on.

I imagine that with the billions of dollars the original Xbox cost Microsoft, they weren' t looking to travel down that path again. I would also imagine that the inclusion of the hard drive with the original Xbox console and the unit maintaining a price of $299 was one of the culprits that attributed to such losses. I don' t think they really wanted to sell it at $299 but felt they had to in order to compete at the $299 level with the PlayStation 2.

When you think about it, $299 is actually quite fair considering that the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 launched at those prices and didn' t offer any additional stuff. So with that I think $299 is definitely a fair enough price for just the core unit, anything less and I can see the losses just mounting if software sales aren' t strong enough to cushion the blow.

Now if they sold the power cord, A/V/Component Cables and controller separately then there would definitely be a problem, LOL

Forgot to throw this out.

Prices for accessories.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/17/news_6131245.aspx

My anus hurts from Microsoft raping it!

I guess we can look forward to much-reduced hard drive support. $100 for a 20 gig hard drive? That is outrageous. You can get a 200 gig Maxtor for $79 down at CompUSA.

Ouch my ass...

Get Microsoft out of your ass Joe!!!!!!!!!!!!1!

$100 for a 20 gig drive did sound quite high. Hell I was able to pick up a 60 Gig Maxtor drive not too long ago for $59.99. Unless these Xbox drives are gold plated or something ;)

in the article there' s a error:

Xbox 360 core (NO HDD) will no have Xbox Live Silver Ed. to my knowledge which would be reasonable because without HDD where should it store the content from Xbox Live?

50 american for the wireless controller! Now that' s a ripoff. How much are wavebirds now? 35? They were 40 at launch I believe.

I did want to make a comment about mxpx saying the core system should cost $249. Forgive me, but that' s just f*cking insane. Getting the that is in the core 360 is a steal, and I mean one hell of a steal. Even the HD package is a steal. If you had that same technology in a computer you' d be spending well over $7,000 at minimum. Sure $399 sounds like a lot, but MS isn' t using three year old off the shelf PC parts anymore.

I had a gut feeling from the begining that there would be two packages. I knew prices had to rize. Hell, the PS3 dev kit costs an upwards of $15,000 dollars. Since the 360 is almost identical in specs you guys really can' t say MS is raping you. They are saving you thousands of dollars. Sony will even be saving you money but most likely not as much. Lotusson pointed it out in his thread, with the increase in technology comes the increase in price.

I' ve heard numerous complaints about games costing $60 too though not really in this thread. Seriously, every art team for every game will now have to be at least doubled to make these graphiclly intense games. Production costs are sky rocketing. We are the ones that wanted it and now we have to pay for it. Well, then there' s Joe and Terry that want 2d shooters to rule the world again but obviously nobody cares about their opinion in big business

Well, then there' s Joe and Terry that want 2d shooters to rule the world again but obviously nobody cares about their opinion in big business

LOL!!! You can' t deny that 2D shooters ruling the world would bring peace and happiness to it

But then again, garbage sucking pukes like Jack Thompson would still find something wrong. He' d probably go after games like Zero Wing for teaching kids improper English and sentence structure.

" All your base are belong to us!"
" We get signal"
" Somebody set up us the bomb"


News headline: Zero Wing gets slapped with IO rating!

I think the prices are unfair. Three hundred bucks for a system full of nothing? Then you have to pay an extra hundred bucks for all the other crap... so, I won' t get PS3, can' t get 360.. I guess I' m STUCK with Revolution. Price is the most important component when buying a system. So I have no choice, I' m only stuck with the system that' s actually affordable. And THAT' S why Nintendo will gain market share. Because millions of people are thinking the same thing I am.

Kinda disappointing for me. I was hoping they' d just go with one console. I wouldn' t mind if they just sold the $399 version and scrapped the castrated $299 one. Now some people are going to be confused when it comes to buying it.

EG. A kid wants his Dad to buy him an X360 for Christmas. Dad goes to EB and sees the two X360' s. Logically he buys the cheaper one. Brings it home to the kid. Then the kid gets pissed off because he can' t play on Xbox Live or play his old Xbox games. The controller is wired and he can' t save his games.

But I guess that' s just business. Because now Dad either has to put up with a crying child or go back to EB and pick up a HDD for $100, a wireless controller for $60 etc. So I guess M$ wins either way.

I' m too afraid to look at how the currency converts to Australian Dollars. Importing one from the UK has just gotten a whole lot more expensive.

My main beef is with Microsoft splitting the market, as said on Kikizo' s front page. Splitting it is not a good idea for Microsoft or its fans. Why by the HD since it won' t be much supported?

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

My main beef is with Microsoft splitting the market, as said on Kikizo' s front page. Splitting it is not a good idea for Microsoft or its fans. Why by the HD since it won' t be much supported?

It' s needed for Live and it makes it easier to save games and music. Plus I' ll get to download T2 directly to my HD like at E3! Woohoo!

Splitting the market is when one group of gamers can play their games straight out the box and the others can' t.

This isn' t happening here. No matter what package you get you can play any 360 game (you don' t even need the hard drive to play on Live). And developers can still write their games to use the hard drive for caching. And then people with hard drives attached get shorter loading times, and people without get longer loading times.

It probably is better MS release two different sku' s. Out of 20million XB' s sold, only 2million play online. That' s another 20million people who don' t use the XB for downloadable content or live. MS is really catering to the masses moreso than anything. I just hope they have *enough* of both sku' s to fill supply/demand.

Creating consumer confusiion is NOT in the best interest of Microsoft.

This reminds me of the days where it was either Nintendo or Sega that offered two types of packages for their consoles.

One was just the core unit consisting of the console, one controller, adapter, and TV connection, the other included a game and an extra controller I believe. At the very least, back then it didn' t seem like such a big difference and wasn' t anywhere near as confusing as this Xbox 360 deal seems like it' s going to be for uninformed consumers.

Microsoft is gonna have to do their best to educate consumers on the two different packages and in turn will need retailers to follow suit in a way. Maybe with posters or boards posted in the Xbox 360 area clearly detailing the two packages being offered along with the price difference,,, as well as store clerks informing customers of the two different packages available at check-out and of course explaining to the ones that are Not in the know, the differences between the two.

I' m quite surprised and satisfied with the price of even the premium package. I think offering two different packages is a nice move by Microsoft and I' ll no doubt be getting one at launch date, can' t wait