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Microsoft Announces 60GB Xbox 360 for UK
By Tom Ivan
August 11, 2008
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“Now the Xbox 360 has triple the space to house all your entertainment needs at no extra cost”
Microsoft will launch the 60GB Xbox 360 in the UK on August 15 for £199.99, the same price as the existing 20GB model.
The 60GB 360 will come with a wireless controller, headset, Xbox Live Silver membership and a one month Gold subscription to Xbox Live.
The news follows the firm’s pre-E3 announcement that it would be replacing the 20GB model with a 60GB unit in North America and cutting the price of the former by $50 to $299 "while supplies last".
While Microsoft didn’t announce plans to cut the recommended retail price of the 20GB 360 in the UK, retailers such as Play.com did reduce the system’s price last month, probably in a bid to clear existing stock ahead of the then unannounced 60GB unit’s release.
“No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver and we know consumers need increasingly more and more space to store the amazing digital entertainment content we provide” said Neil Thompson, senior regional director of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division.
“Now the Xbox 360 has triple the space to house all your entertainment needs at no extra cost.”
From Friday Microsoft’s family of Xbox 360 consoles will consist of the Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox Live Arcade games for £159.99, the standard Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard drive for £199.99, and the Xbox 360 Elite, which sports a 120GB hard drive, for £259.99.
We've contacted Microsoft to find out if the new 60GB Xbox 360 will be hitting mainland Europe and other PAL territories too.
This isn't that big of a deal. This is mainly done because of the new update that will allow you to download your 360 games to the HDD, but you still need the disk in the tray to play it. (For obvious reasons XD )
@ Iain_Critien
I would not buy multiple iterations of a console. A lot of people, like myself, would just make due with what they have. But a lot of people would, and do, buy multiple iterations of a console. If they choose to do so, that is their choice alone. Microsoft, and others, are just making different options available to people who WANT different options. No one is forcing anyone to buy a new system with a bigger hard drive. Is it the best possible option for the consumer, of course not. But it is the way it works, and will continue to work until people take a stand and stop doing it. If people are willing to pay for a whole new console, just for a few GB more, why shouldn't these companies do it....and make a ton of money in the process? The power is with the consumer. Stop buying them, and they'll be forced to offer an alternate storage option (most likely an add-on hard dirve, as you mentionned).
It's good news for the mountain of crappy-spec hard drives out there, what with Microsoft and Sony installing them in their machines and charging X amount or them. The choice should be between 120gb and 250gb or even 500 gb, rather than 20,60 and 120. And these people want us to download HD movies!
I can buy a DVD player now for under $60. Does that mean people who bought a DVD player 8 years ago are being ripped off for the hundreds they spent? Certainly not. I bought a new video card for my PC 2 years ago for over $300. Now you can get it for barely over $200? Did I get ripped off? No, that's how technology works. It changes so fast that prices drop significantly within a year or years. This is nothing new to technology and Microsoft and Xbox are no exception to this trend.
However are you not concerned that we are now faced with the prospect of buying multiple iterations of the same console in one generation? The manufacturers of DVD players do not get revenue from DVD sales, and the release of new DVD players makes for sound and fair business practice. Console manufacturers receive a steady stream of income from our software purchases however, and the hardware should be supported rather than rendered obsolete. An add-on drive is a simple solution, and it is my hope that they introduce a more reasonable one than the £129.99 120GB version.
Imagine how you would feel if Nintendo announce that they are not opening up the SD slot for storage, but instead intend on releasing an entirely new Wii with increased memory. I am sure this will not happen, but it would be a kick in the teeth (and the wallet) if it did.
This would be a fair comment if the hardware were being rendered obsolete. The fact of the matter is that the 360 (no matter your HD size) will continue to play the games you buy in the shops for the whole of this generation cycle.
With a 60gb or 120gb drive you will be able to download more, install more, blah blah blah... but overall the game hardware is still the same.
Why should existing owners feel left out. This is the price you pay for being an early adopter. Tech changes every year, hell everyday. As a consumer you should know that the product that you are buying today won't be the exact same in the near future and may be better and cheaper or the same price. But thats the price one must pay to get what they want when they want it. Its always been this way so way would it change now?
I agree to an extent (Microsoft announced a price cut soon after I bought mine, c'est la vie), but there must be many 360 owners scratching their heads right now, wondering whether 20GB will be enough six months down the line.
Microsoft sold a huge number of 360s on the back of huge releases such as Halo 3 last year. Is it right that merely 12 months later consumers should be faced with doubt about the product they purchased? If a standalone, and reasonably priced, 60GB hard-drive were to be released, it would go a long way to preparing the entire install base for the road ahead.
This is excellent news for new buyers, but existing Xbox 360 owners are being left out in the cold. If Microsoft are serious about making the 360 an all-encompassing entertainment hub, at the forefront of the digital distribution age, they need to make it accessible for the millions of 20GB 360 owners already under their wing.
In all likelihood the 120GB hard-drive will not see a significant price cut, however; it would belittle the Elite. In short, where do we go from here?