360 Core Not Quite Dead Yet?
By Steve on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 9:54 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Hardware, Microsoft, Microsoft
Yet another Xbox rumor floating about. It seems the low-end Xbox 360 core system may get a dubbing instead of a snubbing. If holding true, the Xbox 360 Core will be known as Xbox 360 Arcade. The information itself comes from an alleged Belgium Microsoft source (grain of salt… yadda yadda):
“The embargo just lifted on some news I got earlier. At an as of yet unknown date, the Core will be completely phased out and repackaged as the ‘Xbox Arcade: Just Play’ pack. It will come with 5 games (I assume Uno and Pac-Man are two since I believe I saw them on the box art shown), a 256 mb memory card, and will be priced at 279. I’m not 100% sure about this part, but my notes say it will have an HDMI exit, but no cable in the box.”
The whole presentation of Pac-Man and Uno inclusive makes this sounds like a joke (and I hope that’s just what it is). Almost as much a joke as the pathetic photoshop job to the right. As a core owner myself, I feel I must share my opinion on its worth. Any non-hard drive SKU needs to be nuked. Seriously. I only bought the core because I wanted to play Guitar Hero 2 (lame I know). I’m now realizing how much of mistake that probably was. Back then my line of thinking was “Paying $100 more for an 20GB hard drive? Rip-off”. The brutal fact is not having the hard drive makes the 360 virtually useless. You still need a memory card. And paying for the 512MB card is almost the price of the 20GB hard drive by itself. As you all have seen lately, demos are now appearing on Live at the cost of gigabytes. Even the largest memory card doesn’t cut it. You are kidding yourself if you think you can contain yourself to itty bitty arcade game downloads via Live. Unless you live in total isolation with no means of internet, I can’t recommend getting a core (even if just for Guitar Hero 2).
The cost of the hard drive is still a rip-off. But, having such a crippled console is even worse. You’re just setting yourself up for torture by not going Premium. I keep hoping MS will lower the cost of the hard drive upgrade, but something tells me they won’t budge. And now I want HDMI. Oh, the tangled web we weave…
Via Gamernode
“I assume Uno and Pac-Man are two since I believe I saw them on the box art shown), a 256 mb memory card, and will be priced at 279.”
LOL! Only $279 to play a 25 year-old game that could otherwise be played on a free throwaway ten -ear old PC. Now that’s next-gen gaming!
“I assume Uno and Pac-Man are two since I believe I saw them on the box art shown), a 256 mb memory card, and will be priced at 279.”
LOL! Only $279 to play a 25 year-old game that could otherwise be played on a free throwaway ten-year old PC. Now that’s next-gen gaming!