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New Xbox 360 250GB review
When we first saw its face in a Italian ad, more than one Engadget editor called its bluff: "The top half doesn't line up with the bottom," some said, "that's got to be Photoshopped." While that early image was indeed CG, the form factor was certainly not -- the new Xbox 360 sports enough sleek angles and disappearing curves we've taken to calling it the Stealthbox. As mother always told you, though, it's what's inside that counts; does that glossy exterior house any improvements, or is it hiding just another Xbox? Find out after the break.
New Xbox 360 250GB now available for preorder at GameStop, Newegg and Amazon
We had our unboxing already, but you're just days away from yours -- the new Xbox 360 is now available for preorder at the likes of Amazon, Newegg and GameStop. $300 buys you the freshly-announced Stealthbox with 250GB of storage and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, a Kinect-ready auxiliary port and enough vents to hopefully make RRoD a thing a thing of the past. We'd tell you to read our early impressions and perhaps wait for our full guide, but if you've read this far you know what you want -- the preorder details -- and you'll find them three times over at our source links.
Student-made Xbox 360 laptop channels the Heck out of... well, you know
Few can build 'em like Benjamin Heckendorn. Fewer still bother to try. Two college kids managed to do a bang-up job anyhow building this fully loaded, Jasper-juiced Xbox 360 laptop. With a built-in 17-inch Gateway monitor, keyboard, functioning Xbox Live camera and Wireless Network Adapter, this brick hits all the right notes -- yet remains remarkably stylish for a learn-as-you-go student project. If you agree, you can read a remarkably detailed account of how they built it at the source link, see a proof-of-completion video after the break, or even further their education by purchasing the mean machine on eBay for your very own.
New Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle and Wireless Controller Game Pack announced
We'd been hearing that Microsoft had a new Xbox 360 holiday bundle in the works, and here we go: $299 will nab you an Elite, Lego Batman, and Pure. Not a bad deal -- and if you already have a 360, you can score a new controller, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines LIVE!, Bomberman LIVE! and Ms Pac-Man for another $60. The new Elite pack should be shipping to retailers today, but you'll have to wait until November to snag the controller bundle. Now if only Microsoft would see fit to bundle in some freaking WiFi, we'd be all set.
Video: a brief history of game console teardowns
Granted, none of these are teardowns we haven't already seen ad nauseam, but seeing every Sony and Microsoft console ripped to shreds and placed side-to-side in a series of glass cases is still a sight to behold. Peruse the display yourself, found at Tokyo Game Show and shown courtesy of the Museum of GAME Science, in a video tour after the break.
Xbox 360 rumored to be getting new holiday bundle, marginally cheaper WiFi adapter
Not interested in the hassle of a $50 mail-in rebate on the Xbox 360 Elite? Then it looks like you may soon have another option that sweetens the deal over the basic $299 console, at least if Ars Technica's usually reliable "mole" is to be believed. As rumor has it, Microsoft will rolling out another of its usual holiday bundles around the middle of October (after the rebate deadline, naturally), this time packing Pure and Lego Batman in with the Xbox 360 Elite (no word on a new Arcade bundle). In other, more disappointing news, the mole has also apparently "confirmed" that Microsoft will indeed be dropping the price of its 802.11g network adapter once the new 802.11n model rolls out, but it'll unfortunately still cost $79.99 -- or just $20 less than it costs today (and only twenty bucks cheaper than the 802.11n adapter). [Via Joystiq]
Microsoft kicks out $50 rebate for $299 Xbox 360 Elite
Didn't Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite just drop to $299, like, three weeks ago? Yes, yes it did. Evidently that cut just wasn't deep enough for Microsoft (or else it had a change of heart following the release of Sony's $299 PS3 Slim), as the Redmond mega-corp has today lit up a new mail-in rebate program to bring the cost down to $249. Consoles purchased between today (sorry, Monday shoppers!) and October 5th are eligible, and it's anyone's guess as to what'll happen to the 360 lineup come October 6th. So, is Santa coming early for anyone this year, or what?[Via Major Nelson, thanks Logan]Read - Rebate pageRead - Microsoft release
Xbox's Aaron Greenberg: Hulu on 360 like "asking out a really hot chick on a date"
Hey, our main dudes over at Joystiq sat down with Xbox's Aaron Greenberg recently, and there are some great bits of info in the interview. Aaron says the big Xbox price cut has been planned for months, so it's "just a coincidence" that it happened right on top of the PS3 Slim -- and he also says he's an avid Joystiq reader, so if Redmond had wanted to get the jump on Sony, they'd have been prepared. Other nuggets: the $99 WiFi adapter isn't coming down in price, the Netflix relationship is going well, and getting Hulu or Amazon Unbox on the 360 is like "asking out a really hot chick on a date, they don't all say yes." Yeah, it's a pretty great interview -- hit the read link for the whole thing.
New Xbox 360 Arcade and Elite boxes shot once again in the wild, spelling doom for the middle sibling
Come on Microsoft, just fess up. We know you're killing off your middle Xbox SKU, you know you're killing off your middle SKU, so let's drop this pretense of secrecy, alright? The latest in this overwhelming heap of proof comes from tipster David R., whose local Best Buy had the two new Xbox 360 Arcade and Xbox 360 Elite SKUs in stock. He brought home the Arcade SKU and snapped some shots, while that new white-boxed Elite is still out there in his Reno store, confusing customers and blue shirts alike. Interestingly, Microsoft's announcement "pattern" was quite similar when the Arcade was originally introduced -- we actually had an unboxing of a store-bought system before it became official -- and most other 360 price cuts have been widely publicized before Microsoft gives in. At what point will this company just admit it's licked this time around and drop the official word on us already?
Xbox 360 Elite in white box turns up on Amazon, still $399
A couple of flyers and an in-the-wild shot (not to mention some discounted Pro models) not enough to convince you of Microsoft's apparent dual-SKU strategy? Then how about a fresh new listing of a white-boxed Xbox 360 Elite on Amazon? Unfortunately, the console is still listed at the usual $399.99, but it is clearly designated as the "newest version," and it's in stock right now. Of course, it may not be the worst idea to wait a bit longer for the seemingly inevitable price cut, or at least consider the also-in-stock Spring 2009 bundle with Halo 3 and Fable II for the same price if you just can't hold out another day. [Thanks, Billy Bono]
Xbox 360 Elite in white package in the wild, Pro SKU missing on back-of-box chart
Can't say we're all that surprised given other sightings, but one anonymous tipster has sent us pics from a local Walmart of the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite in a shiny white package with a back-of-box chart that neglects to mention the Pro models, essentially striking it from the records. It's still scanning at $399 for now, but having seen multiple retailers' print flyers -- including Walmart's own -- quoting $299, the computers very well may be updating just after some official Microsoft announcement, which wouldn't surprise us at all if it happen sometime this week, just ahead of the PS3 Slim launch. Peruse the pics in higher-res format below. Update: As several readers have pointed out, the back-of-box chart shows the Elite as having standard, presumably non-HD cables only, and there's no mention of bundled HDMI cables anywhere. Also of note is the wording for Xbox Live has changed from "Silver Membership" to "Free." Before you go thinking the premium Gold membership is going away, however, there's a superscript '4,' and if it's like the older box, it leads to a longer explanation on the Xbox Live's tiered plans -- not to mention there's an ad for buying into XBL Gold just under the chart. %Gallery-70770%
Look out, Slim: Xbox 360 Elite showing $299 in new Walmart ad
It was all but inevitable that Microsoft was going to hit back at the PS3 Slim with its own $299 120GB console, and while we're still waiting on official confirmation Microsoft, this purported Walmart ad clipping sure seems to know where the Xbox 360 Elite is headed. Watch out, folks, the video games aisle at your local big box retailer is about to get spicy. [Thanks, Randall]
Did Microsoft delay its price drop announcement to avoid Sony's Slim Storm 2009?
You may have seen a post or three (or eleventy) over the past few days about Sony's newer, skinnier, cheaper PS3 Slim. Microsoft apparently did, and that might be partly why it chose to delay its own re-pricing announcement, a move it was apparently set to reveal yesterday at GamesCom -- but opted not to. Big Redmond is said to be killing off the Xbox 360 Pro and replacing it with the Elite at the $299 price point, a move it will want to make quickly because, for the first time, it's now the most expensive gaming console on store shelves. Whether the supposed delay was to let the dust settle on Sony's big news or was just to clear out some additional Pro inventory remains to be seen, but either way MS had better get a move on -- and maybe think about knocking an extra couple bucks off for good measure.[Via 1UP; thanks, jeremy23j]
Xbox 360 Elite replacing Pro at $299 price point August 30th?
We've already had a pretty clear indication that the Xbox 360 Elite would be replacing the current middle-of-the-road Pro model as Microsoft winnows its SKU options down to two, and a new Meijer ad obtained by Kotaku has now further backed up rumors of the switchover, and seemingly confirmed that that, as expected, the Elite will also be occupying the Pro's $299 price point. Of course, all of this is still far from official, but the ad does also peg the date for the price drop as August 30th, so it seems likely we'll hear something from Microsoft before then -- perhaps at a conveniently timed major gaming conference.[Via Daily Tech]
Leaked back-of-box chart shows Xbox line winnowing down to Arcade and Elite SKUs
And then there were two? After Microsoft got all cute with us and introduced its current lineup of three concurrent Xbox versions, we thought we'd never get that portion of our limited brain matter back for storing more important things -- like the complicated political structures of Frank Herbert's Dune, for instance. Well, if this recently leaked photo of a revised Xbox 360 Arcade box is any indication, the regular "Xbox 360" SKU is on the outs, to make room for just the Arcade and Elite configurations on each end of the spectrum. Hopefully this means the Elite is also going to shuffle on down to the middle SKU's $300 pricepoint, but we'll have to wait and see. Naturally, Microsoft might just want that third slot for a Project Natal-packing Xbox edition next year, or perhaps this whole different box situation is just a Excel spreadsheet mishap that's gotten way out of hand. [Via Electronista]
$400 Xbox 360 Elite Games of the Year bundle with Halo 3 and Fable 2 gets official
Those of you guessing that our mystery Xbox 360 birthday prize was that rumored new Elite bundle with Halo 3 and Fable 2 were exactly right -- and now that Microsoft's gotten official with it we can share the full details. $400 gets you a 120GB Elite 360 with the two games, a free Netflix trial, a 12-month Live Gold subscription and tokens for the Halo 3 "Mythic Map" and Fable 2 "Knothole Island" downloads. Not a bad deal at all, especially if you're looking to upgrade to a Jasper unit -- anyone going to pony up?Update: Microsoft pinged us to let us know that the free Live subscription and DLC tokens were just for the giveaway bundles they made up for us -- the regular GOTY bundles just have the games and the Netflix trial. Lame, we know.
Xbox 360 Elite bundle rumored to include Halo 3 and Fable 2 for $400
Don't get all loony just yet -- this one's still a long, long way from panning out -- but ArsTechnica has it from a reliable mole that Microsoft is gearing up to ship an even more attractive Xbox 360 Elite. One that comes bundled with hits Halo 3 and Fable 2 for the same $400 that the console alone runs you now. We already heard last month that Microsoft was considering phasing out the standard Elite in favor of bundled "limited edition" models, so that certainly jibes. Though, we will caution you that the last time Ars's mole spoke of console price drops, he / she didn't completely nail it. While said mole did accurately suggest that a $400 PS3 would hit America before the 2007 holiday rush (it happened in late October of that year), the whole "$100 PS2" thing took a full two years to come to fruition. Then again, E3 is just around the bend...[Via Joystiq]
Xbox 360 Elite being phased out in favor of limited edition models?
This one's still a long ways from actually panning out, but Fudzilla is reporting that Microsoft could be about to phase out its standard Xbox 360 Elite console and instead fill out the top end of the scale with limited edition models like the recent Resident Evil 5 bundle. According to the site's unnamed sources, Microsoft would get the transition started by simply letting inventory dry up beginning sometime in the second quarter of this year, during which time it would apparently limit sales of the console to North America and Europe. Then, once those have all been moved off the shelves, Microsoft would supposedly shift its attention to new, potentially even pricier, limited edition consoles, which themselves could well be limited to select retailers. In other Xbox 360 news, Fudzilla also says that Microsoft could soon be offering a new standalone hard drive that's bigger than the 120GB drive now found in the Elite, although there's no indication as to exactly how much bigger.[Via Joystiq]
Red Xbox 360 Resident Evil Limited Edition spotted in the wild
New 360 SKUs always seem to land on Target shelves a bit early, and the new Resident Evil 5 red Xbox 360 Elite limited edition is no exception -- there it is, hanging out in Pembroke Pines, Florida. We don't know if these are just out behind the counter or if the staff is just ignoring that DO NOT SELL BEFORE 3.13.09 sticker, but we're certain some kind soul will let us know soon.[Thanks, Morgan]
Red Xbox 360 mentioned in PR, is probably real
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/microsoft/Red_Xbox_360_mentioned_in_PR_is_probably_real'; So it looks like that red Xbox 360 Elite that we heard might be on its way is, in fact, on its way. A press release for Halo Wars in New Zealand makes mention of the phantom console -- the deal is that anyone buying a new Xbox 360 will get a free copy of the game, but the fine print excludes the doesn't-yet-exist red model, because it's "exclusive to EB Games." So this is the Resident Evil 5 one? It's all so unclear. We haven't picked up on any context clues as to a time frame for release or price. Yet.[Via Joystiq]
