All Entries Tagged With: "Xbox 360 Slim"

Kinect Being Bundled With Slim 4GB Xbox 360 Arcade For $300

With recent news that Microsoft has decided to retail Kinect at $150, an announcement has also been made that a brand-new 4GB Xbox 360 “Slim” will be replacing the current clunky Xbox 360 SKU. According to Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, the new SKU will land in North America August 3rd, and later throughout the month of August for the rest of the world. The new $200 console will have the same sexy look as the Xbox 360 slim, with the exception of the gloss – having a “matte finish” instead. For those of you who aren’t aware yet, and are jumping for joy and chanting hoorah’s, there are zero hard drives in the market as of yet that support the slim; so upgrading the HDD is a no-go for now. However, as per Greenberg, the 4GB unit does include the expansion bay, which will serve well in the future. Have no fear, though, everyone. With an abundance of 16GB USB thumb drives, you won’t have to worry much about storage until a more “subtle” storage medium is introduced to the Xbox 360 slim lineup.

As well as introducing the world to the slim Arcade, Microsoft has also given some details on a Kinect bundle, which features the 4GB Xbox 360 slim along with the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures for an affordable, and attractive, $300. “We think this is really a tremendous value,” Greenberg stated. “We believe the launch of this product is going to be driving a whole new series of new consumers into the Xbox 360 family.”

If you’re praying to your deities in the hopes that Microsoft includes something other than Kinect Adventures in those bundles, you’re pretty much screwed. It will be the only game, that we know of, with the new Xbox 360 bundle. The Kinect bundle will be readily available for pick-up at your retail stores on November 4th, alongside the standalone Kinect which will be going for $150.

[Joystiq]

E3 2010: Xbox 360 Slim Propietary HDD

In a big announcement at E3 today we saw the new Xbox 360 Slim looking all shiny and black coming with wireless N, 250 Gb HDD and a much smaller case. It is available now for all those gamers looking for new hardware but in a look behind the scenes Aaron Greenberg showed how the HDD worked. The HDD on the new system is completely different than the previous iterations and is not a normal laptop HDD that can be easily removed via a bay in the back of the system. Aaron also showed the interface for the Kinect on the back of the system.

What does this mean for gamers? You will not be able to switch out your HDD easily and upgrade to a 1 Tb drive or bigger without buying it directly from Microsoft. The big HDD is cool but it is a bit of a shame that they went the propietary route and did not leave it as a normal laptop HDD like the Playstation 3.

We will be trying to get more specs and hands on with it shortly so stay tuned for more info.

Steve Ballmer Hints at Natal Bundles, Form Factors

While speaking with computer science students at the Unniversity of Washington earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted at some upcoming plans for the Xbox 360 as well as natal. During the Q and A session,  Ballmer very sublty hinted at some Xbox 360 form factors and price points headed our way.