@Daft: what the hell? how can you have a 320gb hd? The biggest one is 250gb for a 2.5 inch sata, unless you had like an external hd hooked up to your ps3, like another 80gb? So you get like 330 gb.

zerokoolpsx

well i just might buy a X360 this year!!! 60gb sounds more reasonable.

FullyShadow

@Soopy: Orly? Tell me how you achieved that one... A hard mod? because that's the only way you could pull that one off... No hard mod needed with the PS3... Just slide a laptop harddrive (cheaper than a 360 drive) into the machine...

A 320 gig PS3 only requires you remove the old and replace it with the new... Takes about 5 minutes.

Still, if I get a job any time soon, I'm prolly gonna go for a reduced price 20 gig 360... I was gonna wait until the end of the generation, but the new reduced price looks really nice to me, and I want Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, and the first crack at Last Remnant.

bobtheduck

@SnakeCL: SKU last gen (ps2) and this gen is kind of different.

Last gen's SKU were pretty much all improvements from one another, this one isn't really improvements (some yes, not all).

djricekcn

Where have I heard this before..?

[exophase.com]

SG79

@djricekcn:

About as many as there were last generation.

I believe there were around 7 Revisions of PS2 before the slim, and a few revisions of the slim.

Why is everyone bitching about this?

SnakeCL

@kneehighspy: Even if, I'm still waiting for a price slash to $199. That's the most I'd ever pay for another 360. And the Arcade at that price wouldn't cut it.

So is it just me or are consoles this generation not just ridiculously high priced at launch (which I can bare), but also go down in price veeery slowly? I understand that the Wii is still selling at unholy rates but still. And the 360 too. Damn, it's 3 years well into its lifespan and not even selling that great anymore. Come on. I want $149 prices for those two systems and $199 for the PS3. Probably won't happen till 2010.

Candlejack

I heard about this rumor a few months ago. Even if it is true, I doubt it'll be sold in July--how much sense does it make to sell something on such short notice?

Maybe MS'll announce it in July and the 60gb will show up in the Fall or around Christmas. That's a bit more realistic.

It just makes me wonder why MS didn't do this earlier... you make a 20GB and then you make the Elite with a ridiculous amount of space, but there's nothing in-between.

Lainface

Looks like MS is pulling a Sony, upgrading their current model, and 'slashing' (READ: CLEARANCE) the prices of what's on the market right now.

Karisu-Zero

or they could discontinue the arcade and make memory caching standard so we stop getting so much pop-in in games. How the hell do you even save your games without a HD?

deathtastic

how many god damn Hardware SKU's does this generation need...

djricekcn

here's the probable conclusion:

arcade sku at $249
pro (w/60gb) at $299
elite (w/120gb) at $399

all announced at (or before) e3.

kneehighspy

@QC8472:
I agree. Everyone with money will be clamoring for the 60GB model, and everyone without money will be grabbing the price-cut 360s.

This makes me rather annoyed, though, since I have a 20gb model and really would enjoy having had a larger hard drive to play with.

I'm at the point where I have to start clearing stuff off of mine because it's getting so full, too. And I really, really don't want to go buy a larger hard disk.

trelantana

Hmm... Looks like I figured out which 360 to get.

InsidiousTuna

@Jagzthebest: I wish! O_O
but seriously now, we need a hard drive for this :)

On the subject tho, I think this coupled with a real (non-refurbished) price cut will move loads of 360 for a while.

QC8472

And what about the $50,- pricecut?
Seems like MS is trying to get rid of the 20GB and later release the 60GB (hopefully Jasper).
Of course the 60GB won't be affected by the pricecut but this shouldn't be a problem at all.

Garo

@Soopy: I'll stick with my 720gb Wii thanks. Oh wait...

Jagzthebest

Microsoft needs to adopt a PC friendly HDD upgrade solution like Sony does with the PS3.

DigitalHero

woot..i'll upgrade to 60 instead of 120..makes more sense..then if i ever reach over 60..well..yeah..but then 120s will be even cheaper lol..woot 60 sounds good..release it now..so i can get one cheaper in a couple months lol

evilralphwiggum

Optimal situation would be:

Phase out arcade, 20gb becomes new Arcade. 60gb becomes new pro. Elite stays the same

Maybe then that hard drive will be useful.

Burguois

Not a bad move. All those 20 gig pros are gonna fly off the shelves increasing the install base.

From a purely financial perspective, good move. From the gamer side, why not just replace the arcade sku with the 20 gig pro?

Shakezula84

But... HDs are for otakus and nerds, don't you remember?

Nexus-6

The thing about Xbox rumors is that they ALWAYS come true.

Toneman

@Perjoss:

Because 20GB hardly sounds "Pro". Hell the arcade should have 20GB standard.

LittleBigPlaneteer

This could be great news, i think most of us can agree 20 GB was pretty limiting if you're a packrat like myself. Gives less reason for the Elite, though.

my other question is: will these possibly have the new GPU? that'd really seal the deal.

TheIrishNinja

If the 'elite' already has a 120g drive why release a new model with a smaller drive?

Perjoss

I wouldn't be surprised if MS did this. It already has 60gb drives for developers and debuggers. Or is it 80gb?

StupidDufus

Don't release a new version with a different HDD. Release a HDD kit so I can add my own at a reasonable price. Please. I promise to buy one. Seriously.

Numerous

@Darth_X:
Ha ha... XD

I have looking at getting a 360, but I will probably hold off until the holidays because of 1. New announcements of changes to SKUs, 2. Possible price cuts, and 3. I don't have any extra cash until then.

Lstormy10

A fake price drop just to clear the 20GB stock. Sounds familiar if true.

DigitalHero

Ideal for ripping my Charles in Charge box set to! Wizard!

superbabyproject

@Daft: Damn you're so hardcore, can I be your friend?

ANYway. . .I think 60gb is OK for now, I download a couple of arcade games here and there and I downloaded 1 xbox original and I've still got 6gb left, personally this has never been a problem for me but I would consider upgrading if this rumour is true.

Sniper_Zegai

@justhesh: "This could be good for those of us that want a slightly larger drive but not wanted to step both feet into the 120 gig model."

Ah ha ha ha ha. Ahhhhh ha ha ha. I'm sorry, thats f'n hilarious. Ahhh ha ha ha.

budash2

Honestly, I don't know what people are doing with all the space anyway. If it's media you're streaming from your pc, right? So why all the space?

Islandkiwi

@YourAnthony: What a stupid comment.

slomo788

Give it WiFi and I'm sold.

Sailorcancer

@Daft:

I'll stick with my tb hd on my ps3. thanks

lolz

jove

@Darth_X:

dude, I just got mine a few weeks ago as a grad present.

chaos_isnt_here

Can anyone remind me the reasons why I shouldn't get Blue Drago please? I'm seriously tempted right now, and the CAG in me does not want to pay the extra $30 for Lost Odyssey...

slomo788

So let's just assume this rumor is true for the moment, shall we?

PS3: 20gb, 40gb, 60gb, 80gb w/Motorstorm, 80gb w/MGS 4.

Xbox 360: Arcade, 20gb, 60gb, 120gb/Elite.

Wii: Only 1 variation.

So between these 3 systems, we're up to TEN variations of system sku's. So far. At some point, enough is enough.

mva5580

@YourAnthony:

You do realize the only reason the 360 has not seen game installs is because the HD is not standardized? If all 360's had a HD I have no doubt that a game or two would have implemented installs.

LittleBigPlaneteer

Seriously Microsoft... 60 GB the best you can do? If anything, you should make the pro level 120 (Or 160 would be better) and the Elite 320 GB. The least expensive part of your hard drives is the actual hard drive itself. It would probably cost you at most $15 per system to make this change.

Which is why you'll never do it.

chinesedentist

No, please don't do this. Microsoft need to acknowledge that at any reasonable hard drive capacity, $299 is more than a suitable price. I'm not going to argue the Elite should be $299-- largely because I just don't care-- but the idea of bumping the 20GB down just to have a new, 60GB model hop in at $350 is, to be honest, utterly fucking ridiculous. I've been supportive of all of Microsoft's moves this generation-- and more than willing to sit and wait out five repairs in McAllen-- but their proprietary pricing of standard hard drives in a custom enclosure has been so far out of whack for so long that it's just beyond nuts. The industry standard for hard drive space is roughly $.30/GB, for consumers. Even considering Microsoft's costs for the custom enclosure and interface, the markup is absolutely embarrassing. Please stop gouging on hard drives, Microsoft. You have an opportunity here to be competitive with Sony and Nintendo just by doing the sensible business thing. Don't choose instead to punish consumers.

wild homes is weathering cephalopod trouble!

@budash2:

Oh right, Sony must have missed that lesson too :)

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Daft:

We dont need one that big, our games dont require installs :)

YourAnthony

If this is real, I would probably kill someone.

I just bought my 20 gig 360 a week ago.

Darth_X

What's the point you can't store anything on it.

LSDariuss

@Daft: ill stick with my 500gb xbox 360 thanks.

Soopy

@Daft: Go away.

So, were this to prove true, one could assume that the 20 gig drives will also be coming down in price and with a possible 60 gig drive taking its place as a separate product. This could be good for those of us that want a slightly larger drive but not wanted to step both feet into the 120 gig model.

justhesh

I have a launch 360, play hordes of games (15+ arcade games) and still have 5g's left. I guess this is good if you download movies and lots of demos without getting rid of any.

YourAnthony

@LittleBigPlaneteer: You clearly don't know the first thing about business and profit. Rule 1) !@$# the consumer.

Duh.

budash2

"We've listened to our customers and our customer want more storage space. So we're giving them that. Now you can make the 360 your media hub with its expansive 60GB!" I remember the days when that was a lot of room. About 8 years ago.

Trocar-Slush-Weasel

I'm about as sure as this as I am another Zelda game coming on the Wii. It's probably true.

Kenzo287

Here's an idea: Allow users to add any external HD without hassles. Lower the price of your branded HD add-ons to normal HD prices.

LittleBigPlaneteer

@Daft:

No way? 320gb?!? You're awesome.

OGHowie

I'll stick with the 320Gb on my PS3 thanks.

Daft

Whats the point? They allready screwed up by having harddrives non-mandatory, so no software can actually use them.

ryivanV2

Yawn...250GB Ps3 with an external 500GB maxtor. 500GB 2.5in drives are on the horizon. I'll get one of those when they become reasonable priced and have a 1-Terabyte Ps3. 60GB 360 is weak sauce.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

@kneehighspy: Here is a more probable conclusion.

Discontinued 20gb units - $299
New 60gb units - $349

Aex

I think this will be coming out the 1st week of Sept.

string_theory

People need to stop bitching about SKU revisions. With HD's, there's obviously going to be upgrades in capacities as years go by. As HD prices constantly go down, it makes sense to put them in future SKU's. It benefits the consumer (and attracts new consumers)without costing that much more(if not less than before). If the PS2 had a built-in HD, I'm positive we would have seen just as many upgrades last generation.

LittleBigPlaneteer

nvm, just googled for a 320gb hd, I remembered 250gb was the largest for laptops, and that was like back in Dec. 06.

zerokoolpsx

Who gives a crap about the bigger hard drive? Is any one of us gonna untilize it? I have a ton of RB DLC and a couple game demos and still have 10 GB left, half. With their movie rental downloads they delete themselves after three days, so that's nothing permanent, and no one needs to keep their demoes, if space does get cramped. Storage size is nothing important, big freaking deal.

Lazlo

@kneehighspy: Its funny how it has three different names when the only thing that changes is the HD size.

when you know the only difference between the pro and elite is 60 gigs, it doesnt seem so elite...

SofaKingHI

Ooooh, a 60 Gig HD might be coming out? Sweet! *saves up his pennies*

Salen

@mva5580: To be fair, if you are going to call the Motorstorm and MGS 80GB systems different SKUs, you need to do the same for the Core and Arcade 360s. Also, what about the Halo 360 and the limited edition 40GB gunmetal PS3? There have also been some Pro SKUs with pack in games around the holidays. While we're at it, don't forget that the PS3 used to come with Talledega Nights.

@kneehighspy: I'd imagine that the 60 GB is not going to go for the new $299 price. That $299 will probably just be a price for the 20 until it sells out or they'll keep the 20 and ax the core.

ZOMG FIRESALES!!! Oh wait, we only scream that it's a firesale when it is Sony.

ceilingFANBOY

Why would they get rid of the 20GB model and keep the HD-less arcade pack?

Makes no sense.

Ditch the arcade pack and the 20GB.

Make the 60 GB $249.00 w/ arcade pack software.

Make the 80 GB $299.00.

Roll in the money.

Jordan Lund

@Trocar-Slush-Weasel: Actually about 8 years ago a 8mb memory card was amazing. I paid £30 for mine.

Klopfer123

@zerokoolpsx: sorry dude, 2.5in drives are up to 320GB and have been for quite some time.

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

Step 1) Make an inferior rushed console to the PS3, make up for with crappy "updates" to said inferior console

Step 2) ???

Step 3) Profit

KevanB

@Darth_X: I know what you mean. I bought my 20gig at GTA IV launch.

Americo

Awesome! And it still doesn't matter because it can't be used in games because of the mother fucking core system!
Seriously. That was the stupidest decision MS has made regarding the 360. I mean, not using blu ray or hddvd was stupid enough, but it wasn't absolutely crippling.

@LittleBigPlaneteer:
Very true.

gamadaya

Given the DRM transfer thing they released last week, I wouldn't be surprised.

FunkyJ

Make the Premium cheaper, bundle all arcades with HDDs, make the HDDs cheaper. Then discontinue the 20GB premium and bring in the 60GB.

And none of that will matter to me becuase I never have less than 10Gb remaining anyway. xD

CanaryWundaboy

Works out excellent for me, I always run out of space on my 20GB, and need a new 360 soon anyway... so perfect timing. Unlike when I first bought my 360, where two days later, the Elite was announced.

LegendK1ll3r

so they do what sony did. discount then discontinue then replace. its dumb. sony needed to do this. 360 has strong sales, this will make it slow down more. becuz if i remember they are starting to target casual gamers and casual gamers don't want 60gigs. and if this is the reason for the price cut it is a trick to make the new model look cheap, but it will just be the same price or (more likely) more expensive. and all the people talking about "i always have gigs available", please realize that this is not for what you got now, this is for preparation for what they are trying to bring. but if MS was smart they would copy sony and give the consumer more control of upgrading. being able to grab any laptop hdd is an automatic trump card as far as storage space goes. with this move i think sales will plateau or drop. and stop with mandatory install crap, that is the choice of the dev. not the PS3. most of the time when you try to down the PS3 its actually for something the game devs did. don't blame the hardward for the short coming of the software. devs have been slack on PS3. whereas in the case of the box, you have the devs working hard on slack hardware. the software is the only thing keeping the box a float.

INDIGOVENOM

@KevanB:
1)Take an overused internet meme.
2)???
3)INTERNET STARDOM!!!1one

ceilingFANBOY

Knowing that I can pick up a 160GB drive for $69 makes me hate the proprietary HDD so very much.

Wolfers

I put a 7200RPM 200GB hard drive in my PS3 a few weeks ago and it has been quite nice.

Heyyou27

@Darth_X: I would return it and wait because at the VERY least there is going to be a price drop announced at E3.

SAKY

@StupidDufus: Current gen devkits have bigger than 80GB for sure. I have the 3 games I am working copied already on the hard drive and I the 360 launche I showing me right now that I have more than 80GB free. I am lazy to look how bigger than that it is - most likely it is a 120GB

mx5

I got the 120GB, still have over 30GB of space. Mostly demos and Arcade games in it. I stream videos and pictures and music from my PC to the 360 if I wanted to.

mcool93

I dont understand microsoft at all. If they would have lowered the price of the 120GB drive I know alot of people who would have purchased one including myself. But since they didnt I doubt alot of people will pick up a 60gb if they sell one separately. Everyone I know including myself have been managing their 20 gig by deleting demos and crap they dont need. They let everyone get too comfortable, also nothing else to really do with a big drive on 360. With PS3 it makes more sense to have a big drive to keep your installs on but they let you use your own drives so it works out.

I wish MS would just get rid of the damn arcade and drop the price on the HDDs and allow game installs.

ichiban1081

@Wolfers:

/agree

$120 for a 320 gig drive ... and MSFT has the nerve to charge more for a slow 120 gig one.

EnigmaNemesis

@YourAnthony:

So true ... they require machine replacements every 3 months ... :-p

That was so left out the open.

EnigmaNemesis

If they put wi-fi in it, that'd be the version I'd buy.

AFreak3000

@budash2: Why? Are you...are you drunk? Have you stayed up late to where even serious conversation becomes funny to you? Maybe you hit your head as a baby? Or do you just not understand what's going on?

justhesh

@YourAnthony: And our games don't require multiple discs or prayers to all currently known gods that your console won't break down in the middle of the best part.

blurayforever143

As far as installs I am told that the reason for HDD installs on the ps3 vs the 360 is that the sony blu-ray drive is slow. However, being a ps3 owner I might also mention that disc capacity was a challenge in making Grand Theft Auto for 2 systems. We all know about capacity issues. Anyone remember the N64 vs Playstation 1 war??

Xtreme_Hindu_Cow

@Xtreme_Hindu_Cow: The Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is "slow" depending on what you compare it against. It reads data at the same rate across the entire disc, where as the 360 DVD drive has different rates depending on where on the disk data is. The slowest parts of the 360DVD are slower then the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3, however the faster areas are faster. Exact numbers are 9MB/s on the 2x Blu-Ray drive in the PS3. The 360 will varry based on single or dual layer DVDs, and most games are dual layer due to the size constraints of fitting HD game content on 9gb of space. The 12x DVD drive in the 360 does the following:
Single layer discs 9.25MB/s-15.85MB/s AVG 10.57MB/s
Dual layer discs 4.36MB/s-10.57MB/s AVG 7.93MB/s

It's a toss up either way, and the guaranteed hard drive on the PS3 means developers will make use of it to speed up their game. On the 360 it is optional, and I'm only aware of Final Fantasy XI being allowed to require the hard drive so far.

drakino

@OGHowie: "No way? 320gb?!? You're awesome."

And he likely spent less money than the cost of 120GB 360 HDD. Funny how that works isn't it.

Replica23

@Replica23: I think you should check your sarcasm detector...

kennyd1

It's certainly likely, the 20GB HDD is listed as 'discontinued' in the system where I work.

Atraius

@bobtheduck: I'm pretty sure he was kidding.

leetXcore

@drakino:

All I know is there would be less texture pop if Mass Effect was on the PS3 ... and GTA4 proves this (even though I bought the 360 version).

EnigmaNemesis

update to my above post, it looks as if that drive model is still available and is now only $64.99, may have to pick up another one at that price, or wait until microsoft releases a 240gb or 320gb model.

kneehighspy

@i.roboto:

yeah the hard drives have been available seperately for ages. also, you can use certain western digital hard drives (Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS 120GB 5400 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive) in lieu of microsofts original, as long as you have a valid bin image.

i have an original 120gb 360 drive i purchased, along with one of the 'compatible' 120gb drives, copied the hd sectors from my original 120 and 'made' me another 120gb 'original' 360 drive (for backup purposes), so i paid $180 for the original 120gb 360 drive and then paid $79 for my other 'original' 120gb 360 drive, of course i used my old 20gb's hd shell.

that $79 was pricing over a year ago, i'm not sure that that model drive is available any longer though.

kneehighspy

@ceilingFANBOY:

you may be right on the $299 pricing until the 20gbs are gone, but i think $299 will be the 'final' price of the pro pack with the 60gb. microsoft will then use the elite at $399 to try and compete with the 40gb ps3.

but microsoft needs to do something (with the elite) to compensate for the ps3's inclusion of bd, either include wifi or either a 200gb or 320gb drive as standard.

personally, even with the elite at $399, the 40gb ps3's inclusion of just the bd drive (and wifi) makes it the 'better' choice to a new console consumer.

but since i purchased my ps3 at launch (60gb) and have owned a 360 for well over 2 years, if i was looking for a new console (i'm in the market now of wanting to update all my dvd boxes), i'd look at the 40gb ps3, which i'm hoping sony does drop the prices cause i'll pick up a couple (one for my (wifes too) bedroom and one for my daugthers bedroom, to go along with her wii.

kneehighspy

To answer my own question above - you can purchase a 20GB HD separately.

[www.bestbuy.ca]

If they discontinue the 20gb model - perhaps they'll start releasing the 60gb versions as a separate addon.

i.roboto

@SofaKingHI:

yeah, with only 60gb separating pro from elite, it just doesn't make any sense. the elite really should at least include wifi in the box to separate it from the pro sku, that wifi adapter can't cost microsoft more than $20 to make (cost)

kneehighspy

@Candlejack:

yeah this generation of consoles did introduce most of us to the 'new' pricing of console gaming. i paid $600 for my 3do back in '93, $400 for my saturn in '95, so either i'm used to it now or just don't have any common sense, i'm leaning toward the latter considering all the money i've spent on gaming over the last 25+ years ..

kneehighspy

Hey guys, just a quick inquiry since I'm not in the know.

So I've still got my Gen 1 premium (lol, I don't even think it was called pro back then) but anyway, the hard drives are detachable. Like I swap with my buddies drive all the time when we want to run off his save games.

Have they been selling the hard drives separately? At least it would give the opportunity for someone who has purchased an Arcade - a chance - at a hard drive.

i.roboto

If this is to be believed, it should have been done a long time ago.

too-ninja

Well, sounds good, if they will decrease the price and even get a higher HDD... probably its for them to fight back the PS3 60gb model.

Gambly

@LittleBigPlaneteer: No, the reason that PS3 needs to install, its because she has a Bluray disc reader of 2X! Making the calculations, it's still slower than the 16X DVD reader from the Xbox 360. So thats why ps3 needs to get installs, to have better loading timing, or esle it would fall behind when compared to the loading timing from the xbox360. Now, u didnt know this?

Gambly