Black Xbox 360 to scuttle PS3 PAL launch

Mike Bantick
Friday, 09 February 2007 08:47

Opinion and Analysis

Rumours are abounding around a possible new Xbox 360 with increased HDD capacity, targeted for release by Microsoft around the March launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 in PAL territories.

Despite the “bring it on” calls from Microsoft Australia to the impending PS3 launch, if the speculation is true, the big M is ramping up a new Xbox 360 combo to directly challenge Sony.

Sporting a matt black look, with matching black controller, the mythical Xbox 360 revamp comes with a new 120GB hard drive – just right for downloading games, TV and movie content as well as a HDMI port for increased High Def support.

Of course this is all conjecture at this point, fuelled by a report on gamersreports.com which mentions the major retailer Myer having had staff invited to a preview of the new configuration.

It makes sense that at sometime, soon at least all this will be a reality.  The rumoured price for the new Xbox 360 constitution will be AU$749.  Add on the yet to be released HD-DVD drive at AU$249.00 and you come close to the single PS3 launch model (60GB HDD, Wi-FI, Blu-Ray) of AU$999.95

If the rumours are true, there are still unanswered questions which Microsoft Australia have been asked.  Will there be an option to purchase the 120GB HDD on its own? And, simply why only Australia?

The answer from Microsoft Australia was (as reported by Kotaku); “We have seen all types of rumours like this appear on unofficial gaming websites and as a standard policy we don't comment on their speculation. Anything that is not announced on Xbox.com or in a press release issued by Microsoft is pure rumour and speculation”.

Lucky February is a short month – March is looking interesting indeed.