360 180

Well at last we have it, the official unveiling of the worst kept secret in gaming, the Xbox 360 Elite, and with the way Microsoft's handled it, it's also the greatest gift they could have given to Sony.

In the current console war, Sony's biggest blunder has been the prohibitily high price and therefore nasty barrier to entry for the PS3. Microsoft's Xbox360 has enjoyed success through the preception that it provides a comparable experience at a fraction of the cost. A perception which has now been shattered.

The Elite is basically identical to the 360 Premium, only it includes an HDMI port, which delivers absolutely no difference in quality over component, a larger hard drive, and a black paint job, all for $80 over the cost of a Premium.

Lets see, it has a completely useless port (I'm fortunate enough to have a TV that actually supports HDMI and i'm still utterly ambivalent about this), a big ass hard drive whose only useful purpose is giving you more storage space to put TV shows they expect you to buy from the marketplace... though I suppose the paint job is cool.

Luke Smith had it right in a recent episode of 1Up Yours when he decried this move, going so far as to suggest that the new hard drive should be subsidized since its only use is to create another revenue stream for Microsoft.

Think about it, they beat their competitor to market by almost a year and are selling at a lower price point. Now that Sony is finally starting ramp up production enough to keep ps3s on shelves and pump out software on known IPs that are going to sell systems. Now that their advantage in timing is gone, now that their advantage in software is waning, NOW Microsoft opts to RAISE the price of the 360 and eliminate the last advantage they had?

It looks like the vaunted "Sony Arrogance" is highly contagious, and now it's Microsoft's turn to make themselves look like asses.