OK, enough talk, now it's time to 'Rock The Vote'

About the standard vs HD cables; they could easly make the option to send normal composite over one of the three component connections, they even use the same old RCA connector.

 

Possibly, but that would leave a bunch of useless cabless hangin unconnected, not to mention several customers confused where to connect all those unneeded cable ends.
That's not very clean option, it would appear ugly and amateurish, not to mention a potential safety hazard and surely would increase malfunctions in devices because of false connections and all those exposed connectors hanging freely...

 

I did plan to get one at launch but now i won't.
I will see how exactly XBox 360 with hdd sell and if there are a lot of games which take advantage of it.
However i am very pissed off by MS decision because these 2 versions of XBox 360 would certainly mean that most games won't take advantage of the hdd.
If this is what happens then i will never buy a XBox 360.
If i wanted an underpowered product i would wait for the Nintendo Revolution.
Really MS is disapointing as they seem to follow Sony foot steps(no packed hdd).
Though they should understand that they are not sony.
They don't have the leader position of Sony and especially their console seemed less powerful than the PS3.
So losing an advantage such as an integrated harddrive is very stupid according to me.

 

Two cables unconnected, just like I have with my current xbox HD A/V pack as there is no point in hooking up the analog audio. As for confusion, a yellow stripe on the Y/G plug would be obvious for either function and for the real thick heads we have quick reference instruction sheets.

 

HD-TV's are marketed as "HD-Era", yet they rarely come with any cables. Hell, you might not even have HD broadcasting in your area, yet they still are advertising those TV's as HD in your local store.

It is the consumer's problem, really. As long as the HD is not the leading standard.

 

Yeah, TVs just generally don't come with cables, but consoles do; and when you are selling and "HD console" it only seems right to sell it with HD cables.

 

For you and me it would not be a problem, but for mainstream joe it would.
Even to me it would be a little problem, as I rather want my connections "neat" without looking like something that doesn't really belong there (even if the cables were hidden).

 

But is this really any different to MS selling the xbox1 as the only "internet ready" console out of the box, that being a major advantage over competitors, when in reality you had to buy the "Live kit" to be able to do anything with the ethernet port.
Don't remember many complaining then.. I did but i was soon called a Sony funboy then

 

What are you people talking about? MS had an iPod attached to the Xbox 360 and started playing a track from it for the Kameo demo. Remember the PSP showing up on the dashboard?

 

So? What does that prove? That you can at minimum stream from usb mass storage devices?

 

Did you ever see a menu that said something like "Transfer music from PSP to xbox360 HDD", or even a button assigned for copying data from usb mass storage device?
I don't remember seeing any such in the PSP-xbox360 connectivity pics that circulated some time ago.
There was somethin about setting a pic as a wallpaper though, so maybe at least transferring image(s) is possible, as a single jpg doesn't require a HDD, a memorycard would be enough to store it and even a playlist for what currently is in your usb mass storage device.

 

Woah! Sorry about the slwoness but i only just read the thread about MS splitting the fanbase!!

So they did a Sony!

What's the point of getting a 30 quid 64MB mem card when for 100 quid you can get wireless controller, HDD and whatever else?!

I think the vast majority will go for the big bundle, or at least, i personally think it's the most logical solution.

 

MS is about to screw themselves so hard this is the last time we will se them make a console, if sony takes a huge loss and price there system at $299 they could crush MS with ease.

 

For me the logic goes 30 quid for saving games, or 100 quid for saving more games + junk I don't want. I'd rather save the 60 squid and actually get something to play . For playing games the $400 system doesn't do anything the $340 doesn't, and for other stuff it's either not well suited (videos) or of no interest to me (online gaming) and I think I'm casual enough about gaming to represent Mainstream Joe and his family of Joe-lets.

Even though the $400 kit is good value (based on the hiked prices MS are charging for the peripherals though, not the worth of the items. But that's the optional extras market for you!) it's still considerably more expensive than the entry level system on real-man's pay-packet measurements. It'll be interesting to see how Mainstream Joe buys versus hardcore forum-frequenting gamers (who need a generic name. Let's call them Tim). I guess they'll get the cheaper the version. Only we know who's buying which consoles...

 

Sony could easly crush themselves if they take too big of a loss, so it goes both ways here.

 

*edit* missread the specs of the premium pack.

 

MS was doing everything so right up till this..

I wonder if developers were told about 2 versions of the 360 when MS was pitching them on their new system?

I wonder if they presented the 360 to game developers/publishers the same way they did to the public?

Did they tell Capcom, Square, Bethesda, Etc. that there would be a STANDARD HDD with the 360 (like they told all of America in Time Magazine) but not mention that this STANDARD HDD was only standard on one of two systems they were releasing, making the HDD NOT STANDARD at all?

I have to think that the 360 looked a heck of a lot more appealing to game developers (especially ones making MMORPGs) when there was one version only and that version came standard with a HDD.

From all of th interviews that have been passed around, I get the impression that many developers may have been blindsided by this decision just like Joe public was.

If MS really is so bold as to step up and go through with this new plan of theirs, it may well be their undoing in the console business.

 

It definately works both ways, but this announcement makes the X360 and the PS3 even more similar than they already were. And MS needed to be better, not equal.
Now it's properly confirmed that the HDD is just "not required" so one of the biggest selling points of the platform is gone (like it was with PS2 and Xbox, one of the big selling points was standard HDD, follows millions of fanbois nagging about Sony "splitting the fanbase" and basically rendering the HDD a non-entity - it wasn't even released in Europe, that's how little it mattered).
One of the very few things the X360 had over PS3 was "standard HDD" and everyone was happy about it, while bitching about Sony "once again f**king it up by not putting HDD as standard".
Now that's gone, and X360 just seems less appealing now to my eyes at least.

And it's funny to see some of the MS boys in defense mode, completely changing their opinion on the whole HDD issue. From being the best thing since sliced bread to being "unimportant, it's not required by games anyway!".

Big Meh to the whole thing.

 

hmmm.. how's Final Fantasy XI going to be playable on xbox360 without a HDD???
Does this indeed mean the userbase will be split?!?!? ...... "Live GOLD" only for HDD owners??????!?!?!?

 

I feel like this schism shows a change of mind for MS. I think originally there was only going to be one unit. That's what they talked about. That's what was therefore expected. We expected a cheaper product down the line perhaps without HDD. I keep returning to the Oblivion not on PS3 decision. There was never an explanation but posts on this forum say Bethseda talked of Oblivion not being possible without an HDD. I haven't seen any official quote. But that plus talk of other games using HDD, Square Enix's comments...it looks like an HDD was expected from the off.

So yes, I think a change of heart. Maybe they looked at availiblity, price, and thought $400 was the price for XB360. Then they thought that wouldn't sell in Europe maybe, and they didn't like missing the $300 pricepoint, so they release the Core system as an afterthought.