Looks like we can finally put the rumors to rest [UPDATE]

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Tuesday, 20 March 2007 12:00

The HDMI-enabled black Xbox 360 is in fact real, and set to be released sometime in late april. The list of specs are as follows:

It's black
120GB hard drive
HDMI output and an HDMI cable
US $479
It does not include HD-DVD playback

[Engadget has some extra news thrown in]

It'll be sold in limited quanities, a few hundred thousand units.
It's going to be called the Xbox 360 Elite (with new packaging)
Controller, Case, and headset will be black
It'll sold along with the other 2 models, so this is a 3rd SKU
It apparently will run cooler than the other models (but will is be quieter?)
Eventually this will replace Premium; the Elite will turn white again; late summer or fall

I'm on the fence on this one, it's a sweet system though a little pricey no doubt. I'm sure they feel comfortable because of the high price of the PS3.

People who already took the plunge who have since gotten HDTV's are probably gonna be pissed. I'm one such person, but right now I don't have any empty HDMI ports on my TV, so until I come up with a solution for that I guess it is what it is.

Though I'm gonna NEED to figure a way to get the larger hard drive. I hope this does away with the damn core model that they never should've made in the first place.

[Kotaku]

Comments (12) Add Comment

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written by greshkov, March 20, 2007

who does a two year redesign? it's obvious microsoft realized the dropped the ball on hdmi and they're sick of hearing about it. to me, it says that they're afraid that the ps3 is picking up steam. they already have what, five and a half million systems out vs. one million ps3s? it's too much of a wallet buster for not enough return. i shouldn't have to spend nine hundred dollars (my four hundred system, plus this new one) to have a system thats hardware matches/beats my already too expensive ps3. i don't even like the black. but if you don't own a 360, this isn't a bad deal. christ, and people thought sony's releasing a controller with rumble was a fuck you...

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written by B, March 20, 2007

Honestly, I'm pretty pissed at Microsoft for this. I would've gladly paid the extra $79 bucks for the HDMI and the 120gig harddrive. I understand that redesigns are beneficial at times, like when nintendo released the new DS lite. It looked better, and had a better screen. But it did not add new parts to the hardware that the previous DS didn't and wouldn't be able to have. Another thing, in the article, it says that the 120gig harddrive will be sold seperately at a price of less than $200. So is that $179.99? $189.99? Or even $199.99? Whatever it is, it will be too much. Microsoft knows that the larger harddrive is not for game save, but for the content purchased by gamers on XBL. They could show some sympathy to the ones who made them the current leader in the next gen. Especially since they'll be recieving more money from downloads due to people being able to store more content.

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written by B, March 20, 2007

I like the black. It looks nice with the chrome disk tray that will probably break. My black PS3 is the minority right now, with the Wii and 360 glancing at it from the other side of my entertainment center, like he was gonna steal their wallet or something.

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written by greshkov, March 20, 2007

hahahahahahaha

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written by Dexie Oblivion, March 20, 2007

April issue of GI?

I'm willing to bet this is a joke. smilies/tongue.gif

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written by R1KM4N, March 20, 2007

I'm sorry, even if it is real, it still looks fake.

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, March 20, 2007

Dexie: GI has said that they don't print April fools jokes and that this is in fact confirmed.

If they're lying the internets are gonna tear them apart

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written by Danny M, March 20, 2007

Am I the only person that thinks that the black looks hideous...although I could really use a 120 Gb HDD. Is it possible they release th white with the HDMI cables and extended hard drive?

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written by B, March 20, 2007

It's real, even though its in the April issue. It's not a part of GI's Game Infarcer April fools section.

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written by Bill, March 20, 2007

They made it black to keep everyone with old 360's from buying the new one, taking the hard drive and returning it with the old hard drive smilies/wink.gif