100GB Hard Drive on the way for the 360?

[Bad_Boy]

Seems kotaku (gah I hate that site) has a article saying the 100GB drive is false?
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/germany/360-100-gb-hd-bogus-says-germanys-herr-nelson-209092.php

Yesterday, we posted about a grainy picture apparently announcing the 100 GB HD for the Xbox 360. A couple German 360 sites Spidey sense started tingling? Does that add up?

So they contacted Boris Schneider-Johne, Germany's Major Nelson. He says, via Babelfish:

"Yes, about two and a half thousand people sent to me a link to that, in which one sees a photographed powerpoint slide, featuring a non removable disk on which someone stuck 100 GB in an Arial font.

Come on, you know Microsoft presentations. How many times have you been to GC? Would this company announce a product in such a ragged manner? Quote: No large non removable disk is announced."

So there you go. But the Germans have been known to be duplicitous.
Florian Eckhardt

 

[GB123]

adding to the storage space debate...

this has been out for a while... $49.99 the 360 is limited only by the size of a hard drive(s) on your connected PC.

XSATA

This doesn't allow you to move/save downloaded content such as demo's XBL arcade games or downloaded video content though, does it ?. (most of the content on the 360 HDD is locked, unless they have found a way to get past this now)

BTW MS have denied any truth regarding the 100 GB HDD, so it's fair to say it's probably fake.

 

[Tap In]

This doesn't allow you to move/save downloaded content such as demo's XBL arcade games or downloaded video content though, does it ?. (most of the content on the 360 HDD is locked, unless they have found a way to get past this now)

you can move all the content... for space saving to your PC, you just can not share it as it's locked to your live account.

It's simply extending the space of your 360 HDD to your PC.

You can however use other peoples' downloaded game saves via action repaly and this device.

BTW MS have denied any truth regarding the 100 GB HDD, so it's fair to say it's probably fake.

link?

 

[GB123]

http://boards.ign.com/xbox_360_general_board/b8266...

We’re sorry to be the party poopers, but today Boris Schneider-Johne, MS product manager Germany says Microsoft denies the existence of the 100GB harddisk we reported about yesterday. According to him, someone has been tampering with the picture used in the Powerpoint presentation. The signature has been painted-over simply using the Arial font. Probably some Korean guy who sees this as a ‘practical joke’.

It's a fake.

Boris also points out that Microsoft would never make such a lame presentation of a new product. They would professionally announce it like they do with all their product. If it would come, it wouldn’t slip by unnoticed (without people like Major Nelson reporting it on his blog) on the Korean X’06.

 

[Tap In]

http://boards.ign.com/xbox_360_general_board/b8266...

thanks!

 

[J_Saint]

That sucks. I mentioned yesterday that both pictures of the 100GB HDD and 256MB memory card looked photoshopped but I saw what looked like "100" in the last bullet point so I figured it was legit.

 

[AzBat]

Anybody could tell that the photo of the hard drive(not the slide) was "enhanced". It just gave Microsoft an easy way to deny the news. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that although the photo was not of an actual 100GB hard drive, that one probably does exist and may actually ship early next year. The problem with proving it is that I don't know of anybody that was at the actual event or anybody that can read Korean. If somebody could read Korean, they could translate the slides and tell us exactly whether or not that slide actually mentions a 100GB hard drive.

Tommy McClain

 

[max-pain]

하드드라이브 means hard drive according to Babel Fish Translation and Google Translate and that line on the slide begins with "1" and the next character is possibly a "0". So I don't think that is fake.

 

[GB123]

Wasn't there news a while back about MS testing out a Direct2Download service in Korea (i believe they have crazy fast internet speed over there) perhaps the 100 GB HDD is only intended for Korea.

Wouldn't stop people importing them however, and would seem pointless of MS not to let the rest of the world have what they want.

 

[Powderkeg]

하드드라이브 means hard drive according to Babel Fish Translation and Google Translate and that line on the slide begins with "1" and the next character is possibly a "0". So I don't think that is fake.

You are correct. The text on the HDD and Memory Card were photoshopped on (Probably for translation purposes) but the Korean text on the slide does say 100GB Hard Drive, and that was not photoshopped on.

And the product manager in Germany is also correct, at least partially. It was never announced in Germany or anywhere else in Europe.

 

[Rockster]

I was always suspicious of the claim since the LD25 series seagate drives used in the XBox 360 top out at 80GB anyway.

 

[Powderkeg]

I was always suspicious of the claim since the LD25 series seagate drives used in the XBox 360 top out at 80GB anyway.

Ummm.....

our recently announced Momentus LD25 Series, with capacities up to 100GB

http://www.shareholder.com/seagate/EdgarDetail.cfm?CIK=1137789&FID=1193125-06-188012&SID=06-00

They don't start shipping until Spring 2007.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Core exists for the perception, nothing else. If Core + 20GB HDD was cheaper than the Premium no one would buy Premium.

It's also possible that they phase out the 20GB Premium and introduce 100GB Premium instead to keep the price since the competitor's price is still higher for a while anyway.

Nonsense. People who needed component cables would still buy the premium, as would people who want a headset.

The idea is bang on, drop the HDD price to ~$60 that will drive Core sales, and increase 360 sales overall as it is essentially a $40 pricedrop for people who want a HDD but do not need the cables/headset.

 

[scooby_dooby]

The Core edition exists so that marketeering people (and people like you) can talk smack about attractive price points. It's called "mindshare"

Did it ever occur to you there might be people who want to save $60+ on the console? Did you ever stop to think that there are people who will only buy when the console reaches $199, and that the core will be the first to reach that pricepoint?

It's more than marketing, it's a signifigant cost savings, and lower costs will always boost sales.

 

[Rolf N]

Did it ever occur to you there might be people who want to save $60+ on the console? Did you ever stop to think that there are people who will only buy when the console reaches $199, and that the core will be the first to reach that pricepoint?

It's more than marketing, it's a signifigant cost savings, and lower costs will always boost sales.

I think I have explained myself well enough already, multiple times actually, not a page away from you. You might say I answered your two rethorical questions a couple of days before you even posed them (hint: yes, at first, but that doesn't change my argument nor reasoning). Another quick summary of the highlights:

• Core edition not in any demand now, despite 65$ cost savings
• little reason for MS to accelerate sales of Core edition in terms of profit (Premium=+50~60$ pure profit vs Core, memcard=25~30$ profit); motivation can only come from install-base
• price drops are most likely to reduce the absolute dollar price difference of Core vs Premium, making the choice of Core+memcard even less attractive versus the Premium going forward
• no precedent for magic price points washing away all intelligence even before checkout (cf first point; a small minority of people care enough to "save" those 65$ dollars even; cf non-existance of bare-bones console SKUs without any controllers and A/V cables)
• no precedent for two-SKU consoles anyway, except for the 360 itself (see first bullet)

Now explain to me how this assessment of reality is any more of a stretch than yours.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Core edition not in any demand now, despite 65$ cost savings
So what? As pricepoints change, and peripheral pricing changes, this could easily change. MS has intentially priced the Core to be undesireable, but you're dreaming if you don't think they wil lleverage this cost difference in the future.

little reason for MS to accelerate sales of Core edition in terms of profit (Premium=+50~60$ pure profit vs Core, memcard=25~30$ profit); motivation can only come from install-base
Increasing the install base is reason enough.

price drops are most likely to reduce the absolute dollar price difference of Core vs Premium, making the choice of Core+memcard even less attractive versus the Premium going forward
Your own conjecture based on nothing. I see no reason why the $100 price difference can't be maintained. Even if the HDD is dropped to $60, they can still maintain a $100 difference, HDD($60) + Component ($50) + Headset($30) = $140. Premium would still be purchased, and core would become much more attractive.

no precedent for magic price points washing away all intelligence even before checkout (cf first point; a small minority of people care enough to "save" those 65$ dollars even; cf non-existance of bare-bones console SKUs without any controllers and A/V cables)
If peripheral pricing is reduced, then it will no longer be an unintelligent decision to purchase the core, it will be a perfectly viable option, especially for people without HDTV's.

no precedent for two-SKU consoles anyway, except for the 360 itself (see first bullet)
Now explain to me how this assessment of reality is any more of a stretch than yours.
People don't want to waste money on features they don't need, having a cheaper alternative will certainly appeal to some people, that is undeniable. Do you not think a Core at $199 and HDD at $60 would sell?? Of course it would.

 

[pipo]

What's all this talk about no demand for the Core anyway?

I didn't know they released global numbers...

 

[pipo]

http://www.oxm.co.uk/articles/news/hardware/60gb_hdd_revealed

At a conference to highlight the new features implemented in today's November dasboard update, an image of a Xbox 360 clearly displaying 59.5GB of free memory was revealed. And whilst this is far from official conformation, it is also much more believable than the obviously photo shopped images that last sparked HDD rumours...

 

[Bad_Boy]

Could it be a debug or dev kit that was in use?

 

[Graham]

Could it be a debug or dev kit that was in use?

That was my first thought, however is that '59.5gb' the free space, or total space? Usually a 60 'gb' hdd is really ~57gb no? If it was free, I'd expect the drive was really 80gb. Is the ~6gb you lose with the 20gb hdd (you know, it starts with 13gb free) a set amount, or a portion of the drive?

Also 80/60gb does sound more realistic than 100gb (in a 2.5" drive). From a cost perspective at least. 100gb also implies you have 100gb of content available for download

I'd expect a bigger drive to launch alongside a downloadable movie/tv service under the zune banner. Thats my guess.

Another question is, how would you transfer your data if you bought a new drive.? I'd hope you can copy ~500mb at a time by swapping the drives back and forth. Get your saves, critical files, etc.