Xbox 360 Pro SKU EOL

[AzBat]

Looks like Microsoft finally might get rid of the Pro SKU. Ars posted the rumor back last June.. Renders of the boxes showed up later, but Kotaku now has proof by way of actual boxes...

http://kotaku.com/5330287/xbox-360-pro-being-phased-out-pretty-soon

What really caught my eye was these...

Old Arcade SKU

New Arcade SKU

New Elite SKU Render

Looks like new owners will have to start buying component & HDMI cables. No more included free. Looks like it's a sign of a big price drop to me.

Tommy McClain

 

[Scott_Arm]

That seems kind of stupid though. They should include the cables. Maybe they figure component is not high demand anymore, so they don't include them since they're selling the HDMI cable separately anyway. Still, seems like console should be HD ready out of the box.

 

[obonicus]

The rumor from a while back is that it's an 'elite price drop'. Meaning Elites (which will mostly be Pros with 120GB HDDs) will now be $299. I wonder if they'll still be black. I imagine not.

Did Pros ship with component cables?

 

[DrJay24]

Looks like it's a sign of a big price drop to me.

Or the sign of higher profit margin.

 

[I.S.T.]

The rumor from a while back is that it's an 'elite price drop'. Meaning Elites (which will mostly be Pros with 120GB HDDs) will now be $299. I wonder if they'll still be black. I imagine not.

Did Pros ship with component cables?

Yes. I bought mine in May and it came with component cables.

 

[Mboojigga]

Stupid if true about the cables not coming with the system. It is the very same complaint you here about PS3's not coming with at least component cables.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Maybe MS heard about 50% of XB360 gamers playing on SDTVs and wondered why they were throwing money away supplying these guys HD cable?!

 

[Scott_Arm]

Maybe MS heard about 50% of XB360 gamers playing on SDTVs and wondered why they were throwing money away supplying these guys HD cable?!

Could be. Maybe the component cables are not in high use so they decided it was either supply the HDMI cable or supply nothing.

 

[obonicus]

Maybe MS heard about 50% of XB360 gamers playing on SDTVs and wondered why they were throwing money away supplying these guys HD cable?!

Actually, yeah, I was thinking about that. Maybe also they saw that Sony got away with it with a more expensive machine, for the most part. Probably made them more popular with retailers, too, given the margins they can get off HD cables and accessories.

 

[Rotmm]

Maybe MS heard about 50% of XB360 gamers playing on SDTVs and wondered why they were throwing money away supplying these guys HD cable?!

Or maybe MS realised that there has never been much in the way of critisism for Sony not including a HD solution "out of the box" and at a much higher price point?

 

[Acert93]

Could be why Dell has 60GB models for $239 right now ...

 

[AntShaw]

What they could do is not include the HDMI/Component cable out of the box, but offer to mail one per proof of purchase if people request. This would seem like a good compromise to keep consumers satisfied while reducing costs.

 

[Squilliam]

Hey, does anyone have a better picture of whats going on at the Xbox Live line? I noticed some changes there too, but I can't see what they are exactly.

 

[obonicus]

It says free, but with a 4 in superscript, indicating fine print. Lower down they still have the 12mo. Live card listed as an accessory.

Better pics from Taxigamer(?), via GAF:

Answers my question about black 360s, at least. Not really a fan of the black color myself, it always seemed a little more charcoal on my old Elite.

 

[Squilliam]

Thanks, I noticed there are fewer lines in the descriptions are there any other noticeable changes as well? Do they mention wireless on the original boxes for example?

 

[zed]

good move by MS there wasnt much difference between the pro + elite, sony should drop one of their models as well since theres also not much difference.

WRT xboxlive (4), the 4 prolly just indicates like now, silver is free, gold u have to pay for

 

[obonicus]

I don't know if they do, but I recently bought an arcade (in June) and it came with a wireless white controller. No headset, though the internal memory on my machine is more than 256Mb. Or at least, when I look at the 'MU' on my unit (with no MUs plugged, naturally) it says there's 323Mb free. I imagine that's mostly the NXE.

 

[RobertR1]

They bumped up the ram to 512 a while back so the Arcade box might be old. I can't imagine them going to 256?

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/18244.cfm

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Squillam - Wireless what? The remote says wireless, but its been wireless on all versions for a while. My arcade came with a wireless remote, and none of the boxes to my knowledge had an indication for wireless internet because none of them came with it.

My Elite does have two indicators for both component cables and hdmi cable. Getting rid of the hdmi on the Elite is out of bounds, IMO. I probably wouldn't have bought mine if I had to go buy an HDMI cable. On the other hand, I do understand not wanting to package extra cables. I've got an extra set of component cables now because 1 came with the arcade and 1 came with the Elite.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

though the internal memory on my machine is more than 256Mb. Or at least, when I look at the 'MU' on my unit (with no MUs plugged, naturally) it says there's 323Mb free. I imagine that's mostly the NXE.

Yes, the difference is NXE. It still gives you enough memory to load a gamertag (or recover mine anyway), and still stream netflix.

So I imagine you can still download a game or two, I don't know how big those games are. Clearly, if you want to play lots of arcade games or instant play originals you need a HDD and the arcade isn't for you.