1 Million Xbox 360s to be Banned

[Silent_Buddha]

Another part of that is that the HDD is one of the main differentiators between the Arcade and Pro/Premium/Elite. So any expandable HDD "MUST" be priced high enough that an Arcade + HDD isn't cheaper than a Pro/Premium/Elite.

The HDD pricing is just an unfortunate side effect of having 2 SKU's. One with probably a somewhat decent margin and one with virtually no margin or negative margins.

Likewise, that makes it unlikely MS will ever allow user-upgradable HDDs as again that would erode the value proposition of the higher priced/more full featured SKU.

Regards,
SB

 

[rekator]

But now the 120 Go is to high in price in regard to Arcade/Elite SKU, HDD 120 Go is 130€ and Arcade/Elite difference is 70€. So yes M$ push to Elite, and they're right.
And actually you have a better deal to change your 360 (at least in France and EU), so 250€ Elite, 40€ M$ offer and 90€ of 360 pro recovery, in fine you have a new 360 Elite for 120€. A real better deal than only change you HDD, so one more time M$ made a smart offer in a marketing POV.
But yes HDD price is to high.

 

[specwarGP2]

I get your frustrations - as a Xb360 customer, I'd probably feel the same way too. Then again, there are two views to this: Piracy doesn't necessarely have to be limited to downloaded software, but also includes using unlicenced hardware. If Microsoft choses to sell their console at a cheaper price and make some money back on hyper-expensive HDDs, they should be entitled to use that strategy. The hyper-expensive HDDs belong to the entire Xbox business, just as do the costs of software and other add-ons.

But people don't license hardware. They buy it outright and it becomes their personal property. So it's not possible for you to use your own property in an unlicensed way

 

[Silent_Buddha]

But people don't license hardware. They buy it outright and it becomes their personal property. So it's not possible for you to use your own property in an unlicensed way

He doesn't mean the end user licensing the hardware, he's referring to 3rd party hardware manufacturer's making addon's for the X360...

Part of those licensing terms would include the manufacturer assuring MS that whatever product they sold wouldn't be used for cheating/hacking/whatever. Something Datel, for example, encourages people to do. Thus making it unlikely they would ever get a license for their memory card.

Regards,
SB

 

[specwarGP2]

He doesn't mean the end user licensing the hardware, he's referring to 3rd party hardware manufacturer's making addon's for the X360...

Part of those licensing terms would include the manufacturer assuring MS that whatever product they sold wouldn't be used for cheating/hacking/whatever. Something Datel, for example, encourages people to do. Thus making it unlikely they would ever get a license for their memory card.

Regards,
SB

That's not the reason datel will never get a license. Its the same reason there aren't any 3rd party wireless controllers for 360. It's vendor lock in, not some altruistic act on MS behalf to protect gamers from online cheating.