The black Xbox 360 “Elite” is totally real and coming soon
Posted by inpheaux on March 21st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
For months there had been rumors circling the interweb that Microsoft had a super-secret black upgraded Xbox 360 model kicking around. The rumors generally mentioned an HDMI port, a bigger hard drive and other goodies like a built-in HD-DVD drive, integrated WiFi, etc.
In Game Informer's latest issue they confirm that it's real and is coming, but we're not getting everything the rumors claimed. Here's what we do get:
- Xbox 360 "Elite"
- $479 MSRP
- Black Exterior, save for the DVD Drive
- HDMI Port for easy high-bandwidth hookup to HDTVs
- 120Gb Hard drive (compared to the 20Gb of the current Premium model)
The new model is expected to launch around the same time as the new Live Marketplace IPTV service, since you'll be needing that beefy new hard drive to store the TV shows you buy.
Some questions were posed in the article which had rather straightforward answers. Yes, you'll be able to keep your old GamerTag and re-download anything you've bought from the Marketplace (like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which you should be buying today). Yes, you'll be able to buy the new hard drive separately at some later date for "less than $200". The one question that went unanswered was "What about savegames?" I'm sure they'll figure something out for transferring savegames, because otherwise that would kinda suck.
Another interesting note is that Microsoft reportedly plans on eventually phasing out the current Premium model. The "Elite" model is coming as a third SKU, so it will be sold alongside the current Core and Premium models, but soon as the Elite model gets out there the Premium model will stop production and eventually be replaced outright by the Elite version.
Microsoft is - of course - still denying everything, but that's expected to change soon. We expect to get a release date whenever they decide to admit it's real.
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