Black Xbox 360: Fifth Time’s a charm?
- Scribbled on March 20th, 2007 by Derrick Schommer
- Filed in Industry News, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rumor Mill
The infamous Black Xbox 360 is back in the news. This time the rumor is being posted by a few well known sources and pictures are being shown around the Internet.
This months Game Informer is talking up the product, confirming all the details we already knew: 120GB hard disk, HDMI port, black paint job and the approximate pricetag of USD $479.
What’s new about it? The date has changed to “Late April”.
Kotaku noted:
Matt Helgeson, senior editor over at Game Informer, just dropped us a line to let us know that the story is in fact true. As a rule they don’t post fake news stories in their April mag. So go celebrate.
Still would like to hear something from Microsoft on the subject. The new facts: it will not be integrated with the HD-DVD player add-on.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Any change to the internal components other than the HDD? Or is this the same 360 everyone else has but with HDMI and a bigger HDD? Does this replace the $399 360 or is there now 3 SKUs?
March 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am
I doubt this is real. Why alienate your early adopters with a new system that many of them would have purchased.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:08 am
This particular story may not be real, but people shouldn’t be early adopters if they can’t handle hardware updates and improvements. That’s the price of admission for diving in early.
Yeah, it sucks because who wouldn’t want these new features (although HDMI should have been there to begin with, IMO). Also, I would much rather have a company make improvements to their product than sit on it to avoid upsetting early adopters.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:50 am
My 360 was hit by lightening, so I can use an upgrade.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Sigh… Not again… Phooey! Even if it’s true.
Blarg!
March 20th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
“Any change to the internal components other than the HDD? Or is this the same 360 everyone else has but with HDMI and a bigger HDD? Does this replace the $399 360 or is there now 3 SKUs?”
1. The Premium becomes the Core and drops in price.
2. The Black has all the new components (ie. quiet HD and disc drive)
3. The 120 gig HD will be sold seperately as well ($179, probably.)
March 20th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
*I doubt this is real. Why alienate your early adopters with a new system that many of them would have purchased.*
By this logic, though, NO system redesigned/upgrades should happen. I mean, I would have bought a DS Lite instead of a regular DS had they been available back then. Same with the PS2 Slimline, the PS1 redesign, the GBA redesign, and so on. This is just the mid-lifecycle redesign that’s become more-or-less standard in the console world.
Anyway, I’d agree with the guess that the current core system will be dropped, and the current premium becomes the entry-level system. There IS a slim chance that MS will keep the core system and drop the price to ~250 or so to complete against the Wii. I find that unlikely, though - without a HD, the Wii would have a leg-up on advertised features. Also, I suspect MS is regretting it’s decision to make a HD-less system, as a lot of developers aren’t too happy about that.
Anyway, it’s about time for a price drop for the XBox360 anyway. This’ll just be the form it takes, to maintain a high-end system to compete against the PS3 and steal some of Sony’s thunder.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Okay, here’s what Engadget is reporting:
1. The Black case is limited issue (500,000 units or so). After that, they’re white.
2. The Core will *not* be dropped. There will be three SKUs: Core, Premium, and Elite.
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