Price woes: Microsoft defends Elite hard drive

The Xbox 360 elite and its accompanying hard drive may certainly be driving a hard bargain amongst gamers, but Microsoft is quick to defend their new product. CVG reports that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg defended it recently on the Game Theory podcast, saying that the cost of the new drive was comparable to other drives on the market.

Greenberg notes one difference with their new drive to the ones out on the market, which makes the current comparisons somewhat moot. Instead of mastering the art of installing a new drive yourself, the Xbox 360 Elite drive is a plug-and-play drive, which is a different type of drive from the ones modders manage to add to their units. Said Greenberg,

What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug and play drive the closest thing would be to tale a 120 gig self powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from US$ 160 to US$ 200

Greenberg does have a point, though. Ease of use considered, this does seem to be the average price when compared to other plug-and-play drives on the market. Of course, if you’re already an experienced modder and hacker, then your solution would definitely lie in installing one for yourself. On the other hand, the bargain doesn’t seem so tough when compared to the alternative of not having an expanded 360 hard drive at all.

Via CVG

The Xbox 360 elite and its accompanying hard drive may certainly be driving a hard bargain amongst gamers, but Microsoft is quick to defend their new product. CVG reports that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg defended it recently on the Game Theory podcast, saying that the cost of the new drive was comparable to other drives on the market.

Greenberg notes one difference with their new drive to the ones out on the market, which makes the current comparisons somewhat moot. Instead of mastering the art of installing a new drive yourself, the Xbox 360 Elite drive is a plug-and-play drive, which is a different type of drive from the ones modders manage to add to their units. Said Greenberg,

What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug and play drive the closest thing would be to tale a 120 gig self powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from US$ 160 to US$ 200

Greenberg does have a point, though. Ease of use considered, this does seem to be the average price when compared to other plug-and-play drives on the market. Of course, if you’re already an experienced modder and hacker, then your solution would definitely lie in installing one for yourself. On the other hand, the bargain doesn’t seem so tough when compared to the alternative of not having an expanded 360 hard drive at all.

Via CVG