small correction, all versions now have same bare bones box, i.e. they all have hdmi out port.

Dont know where you guys are shopping but if you look there has been another subtle price drop in the last couple of weeks. Currently , with no games 360 Arcade = £100 , Pro 60GB £150, Elite 120GB £200, PS3 80GB no games £280.

Sorry dude you have no idea. Servers, development studios, marketing, maintainance, customer service all cost lots and lots of money, you are paying for PSN whether you think so or not. The costs are added on to software, hardware and downloads or selling advertising space on Home etc. You dont think that Sony is going to run its business at a loss just to provide you a great gaming service. Anyway i wasnt talking specifics, I was thinking more with a view to the next gen hardware in general. The more consoles that are out there the more people will be buying games and paying for downloads and subs. Thus is makes sence to "give away" the hardware at minimal or no cost. MS pioneered the selling of hardware at a loss with the original xbox. Printer manufacturers and phone companies have been doing it for years.

yep, it was an easy choice , spend £1500 on a machine to play one dedicated pc game, crysis, and then wince as i suffered the limmitations of 100 360 ports (it was deus ex 2 that really killed pc gaming) or spend £150 on a 360. i have now binned the desktop, the 360 has taken its place on the "office" desk, plugged into my samsung 1050 22in pc gaming lcd (thanks to the 16:10 update in the NXE , cheers ms), had to buy a small usb headphone amp powered by the 360 for sound, now just wish ms would patch all the games so i could plug a kbrd and mouse in, cant stand twin analogue especially as games like gta 4 employ this horrible spring look with no option for free look, means controls are allways fighting each other. screw motion sensitive controlers how about a nice simple keypad with 9 pressure sensitive keys and a gaming mouse, now that would be revolutionary.

ha, i gave up on klungos level 4 the one time i got within milimetres of the finish line the game "hung" and had to be "reset". cracked me up but put me off going back, havent got the nerves for those hardcore platformers anymore... banjo n and b is the best anyone who hasnt tried it, get it, esp if you liked lego and mechano and creative stuff like that, its for you, dont listn to edge, they are just obsessed with mp shooters cos thats all they do in the office all day is linked up xboxes and gears halo and l4d cod4 etc....they forgot about engrosing single player experiences...this is one.