March 23rd 2010 5:32 pm PT

How about letting us fit our own 640gig 2.5″ hd

for less than this
and offering to format it on first boot!!

…and comments about how it still costs too much in 3..2..1..GO!

How much? €/$

We want the external USB storage but with more than 16GB please!

$130 = £130 pounds I’m guessing.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M7E HM641JI 640GB $99

It’s better, but it still makes expansion on 360 look p*ss-poor compared to a certain other platform.

wow that’s great. a stand alone laptop hard drive is available EVERYWHERE ON EARTH for half that price. figure it out. this makes people mad.

I don’t price ‘em folks.

Why so expensive? Sony rules with their HDD concept in the PS3… This is just… Total… *farm animal*

I think I’ll stick to my 120 GB and use USB keys as needed later on.

amazon.co.uk has them price £66.99 so cheaper then my 120 gig hdd I got

“Available at the incredible value of $129.99 (U.S ERP)(…)” from the official press release.

Seriously?

Its £74.99 from April 16th. Still very expensive compared with other hard drives but cheap compared with other xbox hard drives which tend to cost over £1 per megabyte.
Cant believe its taken Microsoft this long to release it. Its a no-brainer if they want to push the xbox as a full entertainment device. I have been buying most of my games on PS3 simply because my xbox hard drive is full and I will not allow Microsoft to rip me off.

$130 US is still better than $200 US which is what it will cost here in Canada when we get it in our stores and/or on our websites… Dollar parity or no, Canadians get ripped off when it comes to US products being sold here.

What color is is. I have an elite and would want it to match

That’s great, I’ll stick to my Western Digital BEVS series 250GB drive plus HDDHackr. Costs half as much and works exactly the same.

Major, we know you don’t set the prices, but unlike us you can actually talk to the people who do and maybe smack them around with a wiffle ball bat until they understand that markups of greater than 100% on storage products are absolutely absurd.

I thought this was never coming out? That was stated SEVERAL times. I guess LYING is part of the job requirement at MS. At this point, I believe absolutely nothing stated by yourself or MS.

@Major Nelson
Do you really think the 50 to 100 people in here commenting on your site will ever be satisfied? Answer is “NO” These are the same people who demand free stuff like they’re OWED it and then complain about it not being the free stuff they wanted. The “Deal of the Week” is another example. They’re just a bunch of ingrates who will never be happy. Hey ingrates do you guys ever walk into a retail store (Target,Walmart) with their weekly sale ad and complain that the items on sale are not to your liking. Everyone get a clue if you can’t afford what it costs you’re NOT supposed to have it. Try saving your allowance.

Ok so I guess I can commend Microsoft for giving us a 250GB HDD (finally sold separately, even after repeatedly saying they wouldn’t) at just a somewhat ridiculous price rather than the completely ridiculous price that the 120GB HDD was sold at. Oh well, baby steps I guess!

Major,
Will the current 60GB models be seeing a price drop?

So I payed that same price for half the memory when I bought the 120GB? Thanks for flipping me off.

@twisted poke

They never said it was “never” coming out. If you look at the initial press releases and video at the time of the MW2 bundle announcement, they said “IS not available separately.” That was 100% true. At the time they were not available separately. They never said it wouldn’t be in the future. Carefully worded, yes, but not a lie. I think it stood to reason that these would be out eventually. You always gotta read PR speak carefully.

For that price I’ll take a 2TB one for my PS3, thank you very much.

*raises flame shield* Hold on! Hold on! I’ll do the same for my 360 if given the option at the same price!

I agree with CARNAGE RULES. No one is forcing you to buy it so stop complaining. If you can’t afford it then don’t worry about it.

hopefully this means the prices of other storage options will go down. the only reason i play my 360 anymore is for rockband, really. my original 20gb hdd has about enough storage left for 1 demo at a time, as long as that 1 demo is 1gb or smaller.

@Carnage Rules

Moaning about the price doesnt mean people cant afford it

i have over 230 retail games
166 Arcade Games
and god knows how much dlc

Microsoft do take note on people moaning
and it makes a difference
im sure if everyone just sucked it up this would have been $200

I think the “limited edition” bundles may actually net a better deal for a 250 GB HDD. For example, the Splinter Cell edition elite. Buy the limited edition system, sell the game for $40-50, sell your old bare-bones system for $100-125, sell the old HDD seperately or with the old xbox, sell or keep the extra controller, and you come out with a newer, more reliable system w/ fresh RROD warranty, 250 GB HDD, for about the same amount, maybe even a net gain over what you would have paid for just the bigger HDD.

So, even using modest prices, $50 game + $100 system + $30 HDD (for 120 GB) + $20 controller = $200 total for old kit. $100 out of pocket for new 250 HDD. If you get better prices, you may even be able to keep some of the extras and come out close to even.

So all whining aside anyone find it in the states, outside of amazon.com and PRIOR to the amazon date of 3/28?????

Oh, and for those saying you can get a 1-2 TB in the PS3 for less, remember the max HDD you can get into a PS3 that it will recognize is 500 GB. Unless they’ve increased the max in the last 6 months or so. I know, because I upgraded to that size a year ago.

I don’t think I said it would never come out…just there were no plans at that time.

Once they saw the positive desire for the larger HDD, the hardware team made the decision.

If you don’t like the price than don’t buy it. Its simple economics. If very few buy it at the $130.00 price than Microsoft will lower the price. I am just happy the stand alone option is here. The price per GB has now lowered. If it had stayed the same than the price would be much higher for this drive.

Major, please pass my thanks to the hardware team for making this bigger HDD available. Although I’m still doing fine with the 120gig HDD, it’s great to know the larger size is available and it’s going to please my friend to know he can finally pick this up. Keep up the excellent work and enjoy your trip to Boston!

Moaning aside even though its still over priced slightly for a 250gig hd
amazon.co.uk have it at a very good price for uk users £66.99

which isnt to bad for a ms drive with nowhere near the usual markup
as its around £40 for a bare drive

i was half expecting it to be £129.99

i have pre-ordered one for my kids machine
mine’s already a super elite

Major, does the HD come with the transfer disc and cable like the 120gb HD did?

I bought my 120GB HDD off eBay for $47 in December 2008. And no, it wasn’t one of the Hong Kong cloned drives. It’s legit. I also got my 512MB memory unit for a whopping $8. I think I would cry if I ever paid what MS charges for these memory solutions.

Ok like SirRadG said, on looking back at the announcement, it was very carefully worded to say that the 250GB HDD “IS not available separately” instead of “WILL not be available separately”. It still would have been nice though if it had been sold separately at the same time that the first 250GB 360 bundle went on sale instead of teasing those who only want to upgrade their storage capacity by making them wait this much longer.

@silenthunter382 It comes with the transfer disc and cable.

I do think the price is a bit much, especially when you consider that the $99 price-point would have been easily achieved. Having said that, I LOVE MY 250gb HDD! It has become habit to DL my games to the HDD now and I still have so much room left.

I predict MS will have a much better idea of the pricing “sweet spot” once Natal is out. IMO, the 250HDD needs to be sub-$100 and then you’ll see a better response.

“Available at the incredible value of $129.99″

That’s probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read in a press release. Still, $130 wasn’t quite as terrible as I would have expected. Maybe Amazon will eventually have a <$99 deal on it and I’ll pick one up.

PS – @Carnage, just because people don’t like the price, doesn’t mean they can’t afford it. Just because I can AFFORD something doesn’t mean I’m going to buy it if I don’t think its price matches its value.

@SilentHunter: Major Nelson tweeted that it does come with the transfer kit.
http://12seconds.tv/v/RQ0SN

I’m glad that this had finally been release. It was inevitable since the bundles have been coming out. It’s just too bad that I just bought my 120gb (for almost the same price) and now this is release. Oh well I guess that ranks right up there with the fact I have had a wireless controller go bad a couple months after I purchased it and tech support won’t help me after 3 hours on the phone with them.

Major- Is there any truth to us being able for us to use an external in the near future? And if flash drives can be used for storage?

I understand the hacking issues and respect that. But some of us want stuff like that just to have to use to enjoy the console. Not abuse it.

Can you find out the colour for us if you get a chance please major

Black or Grey

Poor Major. Taking the brunt of the harrasement for being the messenger =/ Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

am i the only one with the creepy suspicion that Sony was right all this time, that the PS3 is indeed the cheapest hardware available, WHEN compared to how much it costs to buy a system and all its accessories separately (wifi, hdd, hd player)…
130$/€/£ is plain robbery. the next hardware generation is not that far away, and ill keep this behavior by Micro$oft in mind, when i have to make a decision between PS4 and X720.

I kind of feel bad (but only a little bit) for anyone who went out and bought a limited edition bundle after hearing the rhetoric from MSFT during the release of the MW2 bundle discussing how the 250GB drive was ONLY going to be available in those bundles.

Just because you have complete control over storage devices for the 360 doesn’t mean you can mark the price up. I’m happy with my 120.

LoL , you americans flame around, because you have to pay 130$ (96€)…

In europe we have to pay 130€ (175$)

Thats really unfair!!!!!!!!

Major, we know you are just the messenger here. Perhaps you can give the hardware team the message that taking a $60 (retail!) hard drive and sticking it into a plastic box doesn’t make it worth more than twice as valuable.

Consumers are smarter than that. We can tolerate getting screwed over a little for console accessories, but this is just too much.

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0262170

I can see why you make it property for profit, even PS3 allows HDD upgrades offcialy.

Weekly Activity please… something I’m interested in seeing since we’ve skipped last weeks entry.

@ Bucko Dessie

and bought in bulk, its even cheaper

@Captiosus77

“I kind of feel bad (but only a little bit) for anyone who went out and bought a limited edition bundle after hearing the rhetoric from MSFT during the release of the MW2 bundle discussing how the 250GB drive was ONLY going to be available in those bundles.”

Don’t feel bad for me… I sold my old elite for $280 on ebay, sold the pack in MW2 game for $70. Purchased the MW2 250GB bundle for $399. Came out of pocket $49 with a new game, larger HDD and an extra wireless controller to show for it.

Everyone knew the 250HDD would be available sooner or later, anyone with a brain could see the bundle as being the cheaper way to scoop one if you sold your current elite. Unfortunately now you may have a hard time fetching that premium for a used 120 Elite. I acted fast.

I feel like I’m to deep in to the whole Xbox thing now. But if I could go back to 2008 I would definitely buy an PS3. I like the Xbox but I feel like the Xbox-guys will do anything just to rip you of, not in the old fashion way but in that sneaky way. They have become EA before Activision, and like Activision now. And all you out there vote No with you wallet.

Well, I’m happy. I can upgrade my one Jasper 120GB (RE5 console) to have it match the other two (FFXIII, MW2), and it’ll cost less than the 120GB upgrade did for my Launch and Halo 3 consoles.

Hey Major is the transfer kit a one time use again? I have two 360′s and want to take my 120 gig and put that on the 250 gig, then take my 20 gig and put it on my 120 gig once its been cleared. Please tell me yes.

@ TJ 2 Jc

I have done this before. I upgraded to a 120 and copied my 20 onto my 60gb as well. So I used it twice and it seemed to work ok.

Way overpriced… you guys do know this, right?

Amazing! On the same day that Nintendo announce a 3D gaming system that doesn’t even require glasses, MS announce an upgraded hard drive that should have been out at least 3 years ago, at an exorbitant price.

Good work!

You didn’t think you were gonna roll this out and it was going to be all puppy dogs and rainbows did ya Major? I get that you don’t price them, but your the face of the community. If there is someone else you would like us to complain to I would appreciate some contact info for that person. Until then, you get what you get.

You knew we weren’t gonna love this.

Thanks for the heads up Major. We knew this day was coming anyways since day one of seeing a 250GB HDD in a bundle. Anyhow, as usual since you are the link between the community and the Redmond folks please forward our comments to them regarding the pricing.

I guess I’ll just wait until you guys enable the Mass USB Storage mode in the 360 via an update. I just came back from Costco and they had a 750GB pocket HDD for only $99. I could literally carry my 360 persona with me wherever I go with that (games, movies, gamesaves, etc.) and I would just need a $199 console to my arrival place. With a move like this I can see now why the Arcade SKU is important…

I think you can use a transfer kit more than one time. I did. I used it a year and 1/2 ago or so to transfer from a 20GB HDD to a 120GB HDD. I then tranfered my licenses to my new Elite console as well. Then about 2 months ago I purchased a MW2 250GB HDD. I used the kit again to transfer data from my 120Gb to my 250Gb. Since my console stayed the same I did not need to use the licesne transfer tool again. It worked great! It took a few hours hours though so be prepared.

I’ve spent a crap-load of money of XBox products. I’m really feeling let down by M$.

Greater than 100% mark up on a storage device with a limited life cycle? Only 250GB for $120? This is not an ethical way to treat loyal customers who stuck with them through defective hardware and secrecy.

If you don’t like that people are complaining, don’t read their posts. But you have some temerity to tell people who are being ripped off that they are whining and should shut up and color. It might not piss you off, and good for you, here’s a cookie. Now you can go shut up and color, while those of us who have some self-respect and passion address our concerns.

Larry, if he cares about the XBox community, can walk down the hall and pass our voice along to the bean-counters, who are surely not gamers.

LOL@the whinging again. Before it was released it was “Major, when’s the 250 GB drive going to be available? It sucks that we can’t buy it separately!!!” and now it’s released, the whingers are back in force to complain about the price. I do love this blog. When avatars were announced, people were whinging about it saying they would never pay for avatar clothing, now they whinge that the clothing they want isn’t available or whinge that a free avatar item isn’t something they want. Hahaha. MS really do attract the most miserable of customers. I can’t wait until the update that allows you to use a USB device as a memory unit as announced, just so I can see the inevitable 1 star rating and long string of moaning bastards complaining yet again. LOL!

The transfer cable will work multiple times. If you have an older disc with the transfer kit you may need to get a newer disc to transfer data to a 250GB. I ended up ordering a new kit only to get the newer transfer software disc. The one I had from the 120GB (early adopter)would not work on the 250GB.

What is this drive going to cost Canadians? Right now the 120GB drive is still retailing here for $159!
68.99GBP = ~105CDN (-15GBP if you sign up for an amazon.co.uk MC
129.99US = ~132CDN
… so my guess is it will cost $199.99CDN.
I really do not understand the discrepancies in pricing!
Oh well, no GoD for me! Will just have to keep managing the <1GB of free space on my 20GB drive.

I’ve never tried lighting a cigar with a $100 bill. Could be worth it.

Don’t shoot the messenger folks. Like Major said, he doesn’t make the prices..

Like others have said… simple economics… If we don’t buy the 250GB memory at that price… it’ll go down. But if demand is high…. businesses will price it high…

You whiners are just going to have to wait a bit…. and besides.. the Xbox 360 elite is selling at 300 bucks… with a 120 GB… and those bundles…. come with 250GB

I sold my old xbox for 140 bucks… and bought a new Xbox MW2 bundle… for 400… I sold MW2 for 45 bucks and plan on selling one of the controllers for 30-35 bucks new

400
- 140
45
35
———
180$

So I bought a brand new Xbox 360 with 250GB hasper, 1 brand new controller, oh yeah and I kept the HDMI of my old Xbox 360… and brand new fresh warranty too all for 180$

And I could still sell the MW2 console skin too but I kind like it … it makes my console look like a super elite :3

Now if you do that with a regular elite… that’s actually now bundled with Halo ODST and Forza 3… well you do the math….

I don’t think most people here are really directing their rage at you, Major, you just happen to be the easiest way to feel like we’re communicating directly to Microsoft.

The 120 gig’s minuscule price drop is sad, but hopefully its used value on the internet will also go down because of this and I can finally get a reasonably priced replacement for my 20gig.

If not, that USB update sounds pretty good…

Hate to jump on the bandwagon but I have to agree with everyone, the hard drives are overpriced by 50%. Since the PS3 price drop the 360 needs to be more value aware.

I just ordered mine today. It’ll be weird going from 238MB left to having 10 times that available.

So Major, when is the 500GB HDD coming out and how much will it cost

that be the next rant around here

I just paid £55 for a 500GB SATA II hard drive for my laptop… that’s around $80.

@ Carnage Rules

People like you, who pay way too much for way too little, is why the discussion of it being overpriced is valid. Are you really saying that if I had $100 to willingly drop on 120g of memory that it would be a justifiable purchase? Puh-LEASE! If you keep making stupid purchases, companies will keep charging stupid prices. Case closed, everyone can go home now.

What I find weird about this. Is that MS repeatedly lied and said this was not going to happen. That a 250gb standalone was not going to come out. It’s only a hard drive. Why the big hush up over a simple hard drive? Obviously for business reasons they do this. But normally they “don’t comment” on rumours etc.

If there like this about a simple hard drive. And lying rather than saying “no comment”

They now can not be trusted. So a Bluray 360 is now very possible. Now more than ever with the ps3 catching up.

I am happy about this! I didn’t want a new console to upgrade the drive. Price isn’t really an issue. These will be available cheap in all the usual places soon enough too, so if it’s that steep for your wallet and you want it, wait for the right moment. I maxxed a 120GB by downloading every trial game from the arcade, having a couple demos of disc titles, a bunch of DLC, and some game videos. I’ve been “selectively deleting” since then. Now if they put a couple of GoD on them for the holidays this year there will be even more interest I am sure. From what I’ve been reading I may need to pick up a 16GB memstick for my 360 soon enough too.

@I DLord I

Guess what? It’s their product and they can sell it for WHATEVER they want. You don’t have to buy it. If you think it won’t sell, you’re crazy. If you think they had to lower the price, you’re crazy. Let me ask you a question. Why does a ferrari 458 Italia cost over $100,000 more than a Porsche 911 GT3? Case Closed.

Ok, here’s my question. I had an original XBox360 with 20GB drive, I upgraded to an Elite console after RRoD and copied over all my files to the 120GB HDD via the transfer cable kit. Now if I recall it was said I could only move files once from the 60GB to 120GB HDD. Now with the 250GB available for retail in about a week I need to know just one thing. Will I be able to again transfer the data off my current 120GB HDD (that was originally migrated from my 60GB) onto the new 250GB HDD? Now that we can install games my current 120GB has about 15GB left and I’m seriously considering purchasing a 250GB HDD ONLY if I can transfer all my data again. Can someone from the XBox division PLEASE answer this question. Thanks

I say let Microsoft shoot themselves in the foot. Less people buying larger HDDs means less people buying DLC and games on demand (which Microsoft get a bigger cut from). I’m still using 20gig and can’t see any reason to change so far. Deleting old demos isn’t such a big deal to me.

Comparisons to such cars are ridiculous. To make it somewhat comparable you would need to take a simple car (Toyota Corolla), paint it white and green (with a microsoft logo on it) and sell it for twice the price.

@Shiaoran: You can’t fit a 2TB drive in the PS3 as it only takes 2.5″ drives. There were mods made to allow a 3.5″ drive to fit or even connect externally on the original models but as it stands no such mods were made on the slim version so all users are capped at 640GB anyways. As for the 360 well… Only time will tell. The internals are just any standard 2.5″ drive (there are a few different brands being used) and a wiring adapter to convert the sata connection to their proprietary connector.

Very happy about this too, I was hoping some day Microsoft would sell just an empty shell and let you buy your own hard drive for the tech savy customers.

Price on this as mentioned before is kind of a rip off. To my knowledge this is the actual OEM drive that comes in the plastic enclosure (which i’m sure Microsoft gets a lot cheaper at bulk prices): http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Notebook-WD2500BEVS/dp/B000SIG5QW

$129.99 – $56.99 = $73.00

$73 for a plastic enclosure and a transfer cable and packaging? eh lot of profit ^^

Thanks for the info, Major Nelson. Like many others, I’m a tiny bit discomfited with the price, but nonetheless, I am for certain the casing is the reason for part of it; I’m getting one as soon as it arrives on the local retailers’ shelves.

Why did MS even deny that these were going to be sold alone. Everyone knew it, especially after they started pulling the 120GB ones. At least the price is a little more palatable.

So I hear the next dashboard update is getting 16GB USB flash drive support. (2 drive max)

@Carnage Rules
Your example is hilariously irrelevant. You don’t see many people driving around in a Ferrari because it’s a luxury vehicle. Yeah, any company can set any price they want for any product, but there are products specifically designed for those in the upper class. This is why we have the word “luxury”, and also why we have Stephen Colbert’s very informative Colbert Platinum. The 250 HDD is not and should not be a luxury item. The Xbox Arcade recently went on sale for the same price at this hard drive. That’s ridiculous.
Yeah, people know that if they don’t like the price of something, they don’t have to buy it. People understand basic economics as well, and the concept that if something doesn’t sell then the price will drop. Unfortunately, this product will sell. The network adapter for the 360 has been overpriced since the day it came out, but it sells anyway. It sells because there’s no other easy alternative. Likewise, if you want a 250 HDD you can either pay nearly $300 for the console or half that for the hard drive. Consumers are absolutely allowed to have a voice when blatant price-gouging is being exercised. It’s like if they released Halo: Reach for $200. Would that not be okay to scrutinize either?

I said it would sell if anything. It is not a case about HAVING to lower the cost, it is about a fair pricing point compared with competitors in the market.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/blu-ray-maker-re-boxes-500-player-charges-3500/

^ this

@DiatomicMaster

I could have compared a thousand things. The two vehicles being exotic or luxury wasn’t the point. I guarantee you that MS doesn’t have three monkeys throwing feces at numbers to come up with prices. I’m sure a lot of data is collected and examined to figure how much they SHOULD and CAN charge for a product. Halo: Reach $200.00? Are you forgeting about Halo 3 Legendary Edition?

I cant believe I was censored for the word (f e c e s)

Why didn’t you release it in BLACK!? ;-(

It’s an incredible value, the press release told me so. Also, Apple makes magical products.

And to add insult to injury on the color, I paid HALF THIS PRICE for a drive FOUR TIMES LARGER last week. That means Microsoft is asking 8X over retail market storage rates.

now thats more like it. $130 for 250GB sounds reasonable..you guys they want you to pay for their labor as in formatting it to xbox and metal case and screws. also test any bad sectors before shipping one out.

i am so MAD right now, I’ve been looking for a NEW 120gb hdd for about 2 weeks now. i couldnt find one anywhere, from amazon to the local k-mart not a single one. so yesterday i went to the M$ store online and settled with the 60gb starter kit and got the transfer kit with it. $132 WTF i must have the worse timing ever…

That’s a lot for 250 GB but its a lot better than the $200 area I was expecting. Butt still, I won’t be purchasing at that price unless I really become desperate. Thanks for the news Major – I know its not like you wanted this price point.

@CARNAGE RULES

do you not find it annoying a 1tb external drive is only about £60 yet a 250g xbox drive is say £75 when its the same hardrive inside.

Major give us a BLACK version.

@Carnage Rules
*My* point was that your comparison was bunk. Microsoft may not have monkeys crunching their numbers, but they do have some kind of animal with a genetic predisposition to greed.
And no, I didn’t forget about the Legendary Edition. But here is where your Ferrari reference may work. You see, most people would prefer to purchase a new yet modest car to get around, whereas it’s only the people with the extra cash flow who go for luxury cars like Ferraris. My example of Reach selling for $200 was not specified as any special or limited edition, but rather the basic game. The point in that is people should not be sheep, and when something is overpriced it’s perfectly valid to complain. When someone from the marketing section creates their own blog, I’m sure everyone will migrate there. Until then, Major Nelson’s blog has to face the brunt of the backlash.

Well here I was waiting for the 250GB HDD to be released (it really was inevitable considering the amount of GoD and DLC etc…) thinking that it would drive the price of the 120GB HDD down and they release it for about £70. I’ll probably get the 250GB now instead. Although with real life stuff it may be a few months before I do that.

Major, they already charge us around 220 dollars for the 120gb HDD at GAME – here in Sweden – WTF?!
Now, you/ms might say;well thats not majors/our fault its because of taxes and stuff and greedy game stores in Sweden – wrong. It is MS fault, because, when you refuse to let people use their USB or install their laptop HDD as ps3 does, it leaves stores with opportunities to screw the consumer over.

XBOX isnt the cheapest console, well it is, if you wanna play without a HDD, no online-service etc then it is.

When can we expect this to be packaged with the Elite instead of the 120GB hard drive?

lol @ Carnage_rules – it’s bootlickers like you that give Microsoft its self-delusional sense of grandeur.

OK so for this 250GB hard drive for £80 I can get a 500GB one for the same price. So Im paying just so it will fit in my console. Until the hard drives are good value Ill stick with my 20GB one thanks.

I don’t know why accessories are only released in white/grey (excepting the new wireless), what about elite owners?

@ Apharmed Battler

I believe the one time transfer was because after you copy you info from the 60 to the 120, it wipes the 60 clear. I think the one time they’re referring to is FROM the 60. Not the info that’s now on the 120. Also, you can only transfer UP. From a 20 to 60 or 60 to 120 etc.. At the time the 120 was the biggest HDD so you couldn’t transfer it if you wanted to anyway. I’ve copied stuff from my 120 to a MU. And that was originally on a 20 but transferred. I would assume the 250 would work the same way.

@Carnage Rules

Your example doesn’t hold water for one reason. You think the Ferrari is overpriced, you get the Porche. Or the Lambo, or the TVR, or the Aston Martin. You have other options. Microsoft doesn’t allow 3rd party storage options. You don’t HAVE a choice. Except to overpay for even less storage. That’s my only complaint. The 360 at launch was touted as the console with options. That’s why they had so many SKUs. And faceplates. And HDDs and wireless were add-ons. For a console that’s supposed to be about options, they don’t give you one when it comes to storage.

@Major

Does the transfer cable that comes with the 250 work with the 120? I’d like to upgrade my kids HDD. O figured I’d get the 250 and give them my 120. I know the one that came with the 120 doesn’t work for transferring to the 250. But could I use the one from the 250 to transfer from a 20 to a 120? Or do I need the 120 transfer kit?

I guess it’s not so bad of a price. Still, it’s ridiculous that I can get the same 2.5″ a lot cheaper. I’ll stick with my 120GB for now.

amazon.co.uk has a picture of the product and packageing

its grey and has a black transfer cable

A gray hard drive with a black transfer cable? That’s a bit backwards for many of us who have an Elite console.

Does this include a CD and a Transfer Cable to upgrade from my 120gb HDD?

@Submarinex1
This is the hard fact. It is what it is.

@LittleBlueAlien
Why are you still here? bootlicker??? I lick NO man’s boot, a woman’s, maybe.

Thanks MS, I want a bigger HDD. Thanks for lowering the price too.(seriously) I paid about $230 for the 120GB when it was released here in Canada.

Major, could you please clarify when posting news like this which territories it concerns? Here in Sweden, where everything Xbox experience is constantly delayed or ignored, nobody seems to know of any release date. A concurrent worldwide release would of course be too much to ask.

What color is the HDD by the way? Gray or black? Who’s getting stuck with the patchwork look, those with a Core/Arcade/Pro or those with an Elite?

Carnage Rules,

Seeing as though I can find no response to me or BeeDizz, I can only assume you understand now.

To much >_>

way to expensive…sorry Bill Gates but you have enough money…we want a realistic price, not your fantasy price

I expect us canadians to be paying double the price for this..

@Metallic Inc

i was expecting the same but i ended up picking it up in the uk for
£63.44 ($94.38 US)

@MeS FEAR: Bill Gates isn’t the evil genius anymore, since he’s devoted himself to giving money away (gasp!). Now the evil genius up on the throne is Gates’ cronie and Microsoft co-founder $teve Ballmer (the guy who thinks that everyone who voluntarily uses Linux is a communist).

Unfortunately, after Ballmer nearly ruined his vocal cords after shouting “developers, developers, developers, developers” at a developer’s conferance some years ago, he recovered well enough to keep shouting and instill fear into all Microsoft employees.

The problem with the management at Microsoft is that they don’t realize that not everyone shares their mega-inflated salaries. When I buy stuff for my Xbox I feel like I’m in the organ trade. It’s kinda funny how deranged the pricing is. It’s sort of like a refused Leno opening joke dug out of the NBC trashbins and made practical, just waiting to be called.

Nice to see that Microsoft is releasing a 250 GB Hard Drive for Xbox 360. But I still think they should have done it the Sony-way, and let you upgrade the HDD to your favourite size.

In Norway the 120GB cost in the range of (equal to) US$200-250, I won’t think about what the 250GB will retail at.

Wow, i could really use this. but don’t have moneeeyyyy D: but i guess ill stick with 60 GB for now.

I’ll stick with the 250gb hard drive that I put together myself. Thanks anyhow.

Just to clarify for the people who claim they can get a 1TB drive and throw it in their 360 for $50, the 360 is spec’d to handle a laptop/notebook 2.5″ SATA1 drive.

Here is a newegg link to these type of drives: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380%201035907918&name=SATA%201.5Gb%2fs

Not very many of these drives exist in big capacities…

@Bawitdaba1337 – True, but your link really highlights the disparity. That link shows a 2.5″ WD SATA1 HDD for 49.00. Which means if we can get the bare drive for $49.00, we’re being charged $80 for a proprietary interface. And that’s where the anger comes in.
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Personally I think the anger is justified. Honestly, I think Microsoft should make a bare shell that they sell for $29.99 which would allow people to use their own 2.5″ drives and package it with a bootable DVD that formats and implements the security lock on the drive before it could be used. But they won’t because it’s all about control, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t considering a PS3 simply because Sony at least took a much more user-friendly approach towards user managed storage.
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Of course, I also think Microsoft should give us a free utility in a future dashboard update that lets us defragment our drives. There’s no way the 360 has good “automatic” file system optimization.

its £75 on amazon – seeing as it was £69.99 when the 20gb HDD first came out, and the price the 120gb was….this is good value

for me people who don’t have the knowledge or whatever to put their own HDD in, this is good to have

and also @Carnage Rules – agree with your original post

Man, I want a bigger HD but that’s ridiculous.

Will there be a black cased one for Elite owners?
Not putting the grey one on my Elite.

For UK people, Amazon and Shopto are allowing pre-ordering for £74.99.

Zacabeb, look on Webhallen, it is already there. Out on the same day as other parts of Europe for 1249:-

Just consider this folks – the lack of low-priced HD’s for the 360 (and the inability to put your own in) means that Microsoft is missing an opportunity to pass the PS3 for larger games. I was shocked when Mass Effect 2 asked me to swap discs despite both being installed to HD (opportunity missed). Studios should be able to release much larger games and require HD installs – but they can only do this if Microsoft stops pricing them like a gluttoneous sack of crap. There’s nothing to defend here – the only thing that is happening is the erosion of our chosen console as the lead choice for developers.

oh – @carnage_rules – I am still here for two reasons, I still own a 360 (just not a gold membership thank god) and there is obviously a deep need for voices of reason within this blog to offset the fecel matter that hapless fanboys such as yourself see fit to spew.

Time for another insult-the-consumer’s-intelligence 360 hard drive release I see? I think Microsoft is still partying like it’s 1999 when it comes to these HDDs.

Their laughable HDD pricing and insulting space-bucks system is exactly why I get all multi-plat downloadable games on PlayStation 3 now. Microsoft, are you ever going to listen? You’re starting to look more and more like Congress than a business that cares about it’s customers.