There's nothing wrong with this, it just gives buyers yet another choice. Oh and there's no point in responding to Joey Deacon or DaveGB (fake DaveBG) posts, they are both trolls.

http://n4g.com/ps3/NewsCom-32115.aspx

So in summary, to get the features you get in the PS3 at launch, you have to sell last years Xbox 360, and buy this years model..

I get they are laughing thei heads off at Redmond, how they have managed to rip of 9.5 million 360 owners...

I wonder if this version will be reliable? or will the 2008 model bring that feature...

What part of limited edition do you understand? This is NOT replacing the current Xbox 360. Don't let facts get in the way of your fanboy trolling though.

How are we ripped off exactly?

I don't need HDMI. And I really don't need the HDD space either. If I do, I could buy it as an add on.

Oh.. and I've been enjoying gaming for that past 14 months.

who cares the Wii is still kicking there asses in sales :).

And the only people in denil is the XBOX 360 people who think the 360 does have a good library in games. I mean that NBA game is soo good look the players have sweat during the games cool. og and gears of war and saints row were suck good games. Give me a break

Whoop-de-do.

HDMI = so what? I mean really: is that extra layer of DRM worth it?

120GB Hard Drive = It's not like you could just add the 120GB drive anyway, is it.

IPTV = fair enough, but is that on it's own worth the extra money?

If someone doesn't own a 360 yet, and they want the larger hard drive are they going to buy a regular 360 and a seperate hard drive to replace the one that comes in it or are they going to buy the Elite version and get the larger hard drive already installed along with the other features? Not to mention that not everyone knows how to change a hard drive. If someone buys them then it is worth it to them, and I have no doubt that they will sell.

I agree.

I think its great for new buyers. Someone who might want a PS3 because it has HDMI and 360 doesn't. Now they can buy the 360 instead.

For those that already own one, its totally not needed and would be a waste.

Metfanant, you can rant on about Sony with your fanboyish attitude until you turn blue in the face. You want to compare 360 sales to PS3 sales worldwide, stating that the PS3 is easily outselling the 360. YEAH NO WONDER, considering 2/3rd of the world JUST got the PS3 released. Why don't we look at last months sales figures? The 360, Wii and even the PS2 *ALL* outsold the PS3. Why don't we look back to the original PS3 launch date, when Sony promised to ship 6 million units by the end of March? It's the end of March now, they haven't even shipped half that.

You also talk about Microsoft releasing a better version of the 360 a year later, because they couldn't get it right the firs time. That's rich. Sony is altering the hardware 3 MONTHS after the PS3 release, to remove hardware emulation of the PS2. What a horrible move. On the other hand, the new Xbox360 Elite has all those extra features and STILL costs less than the PS3. Stick that up your tail pipe.

Sony is horrible to their consumers. Even the blind can see it. They're a bunch of arrogant jerks who think people will buy a lump of turd if they call it PS4 and put a Sony logo on it. Shame on MS? SHAME ON SONY! We don't want their DRM infested Blu-Ray garbage, rootkit infested audio CDs, exploding batteries, featureless MP3 players, etc.

Xbox360s sold: over 10 million. PS3s sold: less than 2 million. The numbers speak for themselves. The PS3 is dead in the water. You Sony fanboys need to get over it.

kashin,
I believe Metfanant was referring to comparable sales at the same lifecycle point - I don't know how the numbers compare, but maybe the PS3 could be ahead of the Xbox360 when it was this young...???

Personally, I own a PS3, bought quite simply because it was the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market. I am very happy with the HD playback capabilities, but I'm sure the Xbox360 with HD-DVD does equally well in that camp. I'm mostly just annoyed these muppets couldn't all just get their respective acts together before this new eruption of pointless hostilities.

Case in point - at least one movie I've read about uses EXACTLY the same encode for BOTH formats - WHAT is the point???

Of course we could also look at worldwide sales numbers instead of just here in the US where the PS3 is easily outselling the 360 at this point in its release cycle...and I wouldn't say Sony is having problems selling consoles whatsoever, i feel they are selling just fine, at the one year point we can compare 1st year sales and see how it went for the two consoles....

About xbox live, has anyone been playing online games with the ps3? if you had you would realize sony is doing pretty damn well as RFOM has quite an online community...oh, and its FREE!...Not to mention that XBL won't have anything to touch "Home" once it is released...

Game libraries SHOULD be lopsided at this point, the 360 has been out for over a year...

Is MS's choice to not include an HD-DVD drive because the format "may fail" is not a valid argument. I think if that is the case, then it is Microsoft looking at the situation and realizing they supported the wrong next-gen format and they missed the boat by sticking to DVD9 hardware. The next gen formats open the door for so much more than just high def. The storage capacity alone is worth it for games being more in depth and lengthy. That whole idea of HDMI being able to carry the audio and video over the same cable is a real advantage for something like a blu-ray disc because the audio can be uncompressed on the disc allowing for better quality....

Everyone talks about how Sony is bad to their consumers, but how can even the biggest MS fan boy not see this as a direct slap in the face to current 360 owners? If the 360 that was originally released was good enough then there would be no need for this new version, i see no way to argue that point...Basically what MS is telling its early adopters is, "hey, we wanted to beat Sony real bad, so we rushed out a slimmed down version of what we really wanted to release in the first place and charged you $400 for it...So now that we had a chance to better develop our console we are going to release something better, even though it still contains less features than the PS3 on the whole, and took us over a year to develop..."

yikes...shame on MS...

edit: the comment about the SLI360...that would TOTALLY destroy MS's credibility...i would hope at least...it would totally alienate all current 360 owners and make their less than one year old systems totally obsolete, and developers would abandon their consoles to develop for the new one...would be an even worse move than the 3rd SKU

"Game libraries SHOULD be lopsided at this point, the 360 has been out for over a year..."

Your right they should and they are. Problem Sony has is they will never catch up. Same situation with the PS2 coming out before the Xbox just in reverse this time.

"Not to mention that XBL won't have anything to touch "Home" once it is released..."

You honestly think adding some gimmicky virtual world is going to automatically make their online better. LOL(enough said)
MS is going to give Sony yet another blow with it's tight integration of Live into PDAs and PCs.

"i feel they are selling just fine"
Good for you. Too bad that doesn't make it a reality. The 360 which has been out a year longer is still outselling the PS3 by a pretty large margin. So how is the PS3 going to be selling a year from now. From the way it looks right now...Not good.

"Your right they should and they are. Problem Sony has is they will never catch up. Same situation with the PS2 coming out before the Xbox just in reverse this time."

Yeah, worked great for the Dreamcast too eh?

"You honestly think adding some gimmicky virtual world is going to automatically make their online better. LOL(enough said)"

No, but I honestly think charging people to play non-MMO's online, even if it's only $50/year is going to eventually be unacceptable. Maybe MS will eventually drop the charge for "Gold" Xbox Live... if they don't I think eventually Sony will pass them... but it will take a while (and MANY updates).

"No, but I honestly think charging people to play non-MMO's online, even if it's only $50/year is going to eventually be unacceptable."

Yea...I guess there's still doubt 6 years after release huh?

It's easy to charge for something when you're the only game in town. But as Sony builds up their network and gives it away for free (making money off the micro transactions and the like instead of subscription fees) and Nintendo presumably works out a network strategy for the Wii it's going to be awefully hard to justify why Xbox360 players are paying for. We're not there yet, Sony and Nintendos networks still suck but I have no doubt they'll improve over time and it's not going to take several years before they're "good enough" to not be willing to pay a reoccuring fee to MS for the perks they offer. Heck MS even has the "Games for Windows -- Live" or whatever it's called that apparently is going to offer all the XBox Live Silver content to PC Gamers PLUS PC gamers can play multiplayer with each other for free. They just have to pay to play with the 360 owners as I understand it.

Ummm... is everyone forgetting that newer products come out all the time? Seriously. Let's look at it like this:

I went to the store and purchased a digital alarm clock w/ AM/FM tuner last summer. Now, this summer the same manufacturer just re-released the same alarm clock but with a built-in cd player and battery backup. Do I feel "ripped-off?" No. Why? Because newer products come out all the time. All of this talk from both camps sounds like a waste of time, energy and oxygen. You're all complaining because you don't want to spend any more money on something you already purchased. OK fair enough. Just remember that the same computer you're typing on now may just be begging for new hardware or software to be added to it to enhance or extend its functionality too. Do I see you b****ing to yourself? No.

Let it go. Choices were made by both manufacturers and consumers. Whether they were educated decisions is left up to those who choose to partake in the purchase of either system. Face it. They're both great systems. Now. Do yourself a favor. If you've just found yourself in a position you don't like, sell your system and move on to the next one and - ummm - stop complaining.

Damnit.

"...the CURRENT 360 already has advantages over the PS3. This is only going to make it even better..."

.. X360 crushes PS3;...

crushes PS3 "worse." It is already crushing it.

what a crock... an HDMI connector when 1080P component is just as good. IPTV, not worth the upgrade due to most everything on TV anyways is utter sh*t. And a 120GB drive?? What you can't add a 250GB??

How about adding an additional of 512MB of DDR3 memory to the system giving it a total of 1GB. Then taking another ATI GPU and making the system a SLI XBOX360, muchlike what Alienware has done to a couple of it's laptops.

Then and only then would I upgrade to an Elite model...

Ah the bitter taste of sour grapes.

Yeah they could do all that, and make it so expensive that no one would be able to afford one. Sony has already cornered the market on overpriced consoles and we can all see where that has gotten them. This is just a limited run, it is not replacing the regular 360. Just because you wouldn't buy one doesn't mean no one else will.

ummm.... hdmi in case im out of component inputs, iptv not worth the upgrade? speak for yourself. why not a 250gb hd? umm... the largest notebook hard drive is now a 160gb drive no?

let's see.... adding another 512mb of ram and changing the entire motherboard to accomodate another gpu... oh you want the price to rise even higher don't you? cause i think that's the only thing that would happen if all of those changes happened. oh yeah and the fact that it wouldn't be an xbox 360 anymore either.

What advantages does this REALLY give the 360 over the PS3?? Bigger Hard Drive? trivial, can easily be upgraded on either existing console...65nm tech? Sony is already planning a switch...HDMI?? Sony already has it, and minus an HD-DVD drive what is the point in reality?

This is an act of desperation on the part of MS imo...they were big on bashing Sony for High-Def gaming saying nobody had 1080p, and there was no need for next gen drives, or HDMI...well looky looky...

Of course it points out what the PS3 doesn't have (IPTV of which i honestly just heard of when reading this article), but fails to point out the while the PS3 does cost more, it comes with a memory card reader, wi-fi, and a high-def optical drive (blu-ray) meaning MS is waiting for costs to drop to add the HD-DVD...wouldn't that also imply a possible PS3 price drop at the same time, because of production cost drops for blu-ray?...

Bah! I admit I'm a PS3 fan-boy, but anyone should see this as a desperate attempt by MS...

What advantages? Umm for starters the part that matters the most..."The Games." Anybody who says that MS does not have a better game library is in denial. Also there is a $200 price difference. The Blu-Ray drive is not a valid reason, because a large amount of people that buy the PS3 would rather have a cheaper one without the drive. News flash everybody doesn't have an HDTV yet. Also MS has said it over and over again that they DO NOT plan on putting an HD-DVD drive in.

Improving on their console is a desperate attempt? Incase you haven't seen the numbers lately the PS3 sales are far less than stellar. The 360 is outselling it and it has already been out a year longer than the PS3. So MS would be desperate because???

well, the reason i would buy any xbox over any PS is simple... xbox live... until sony can come up with somthing worthwhile in the online gaming arena, i will stick with xbox.

not to say that past experiances dont have any play, they do. have had 3 PS2 stopworking, and only one xbox 360 stop... my original xbox has never had a problem, and still works great to this day. i have also had too many problems with other sony electronics.

But that dosnt mean anything, but i like microsoft better... big deal.. youall can be fanboys all you want, i just want a good product... and the better the compition the better it is for us the consumer.

Sony has had the misfortune of thinking that they are leading the way. the ps2 was their best machine. it is still outselling the xbox 360, ps3 and right on the coat tails of the Wii. only advantage Wii has is the controller and the price.

since sony has only had 1 profitable quarter in 5 years, they may not be in business 2-3 years from now if they keep trying to invent the wheel, so to speak. so buy a ps3 if you want them to stay in business!

I am surprised that more people don't realize this. You can play against REAL people on xbox live. Imagine that!

Everyone else... Have fun playing the CPU over and over. LOL

I know you are in denial, but the CURRENT 360 already has advantages over the PS3. This is only going to make it even better.

Microsoft is not the one having trouble selling consoles here, Sony is. I hardly see how this is an act of desperation. If you want to see an example of that look to Sony giving away HDTVs at the Europe launch to lure more buyers. When you have to give away televisions to promote your product that isn't a good sign.

Speaking of the launch, at the event in France some Sony spokesdrone got up and compared the 360 to a Peugeot and the PS3 to a Porsche. I know Sony makes blunders all the time but that has to be the funniest thing they've done yet. For those who don't understand, they put down the 360 by comparing it to a French automobile and the PS3 to a German one. I'm sure the crowd loved that.

Microsoft isn't going to build an HD-DVD drive into the 360. Unlike Sony they do realize that the format may fail. They also don't have an agenda to use the console as a trojan horse to get their format out onto the market so their movie studios will make more money. It also adds unnecessary cost. Not everyone wants to watch HD movies on their game console. Those that do have the option to buy one for their 360, rather than having no choice at all.

Enjoy your PS3, if you like it that's great. That doesn't mean it is necessary for you to become an annoying fanboy and spout off about the 360 every time the topic comes up. People don't like that, it just leads to flame wars and you aren't going to change anyone's mind. Ever. It's a personal choice, so live and let live.

let me get this straight:

ms is putting out a more advanced version for a higher price.

sony had to hand out hdtvs to sell their most expensive, advanced version.

i must be blind because microsoft doesn't look desperate ... they're filling a small niche. unfortunately for sony all they have at this point is the small niche with those that want a memory card reader and blu-ray.

"This is an act of desperation on the part of MS imo"

Are you kidding me?? Microsoft's Xbox360 has a commanding lead over the PS3 and Wii combined. Nintendo is doing well, so it is Sony who are desperate. Also, if you're hoping for a PS3 price drop when the Xbox360 price drops, NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. The PS3 will not drop in price anytime soon. Even if the price of producing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives dropped significantly, it would go towards lowering the PRODUCTION costs of the PS3, not the actual retail price.

Microsoft doesn't need to drop the price of the 360, and they know this. They're way ahead of the pack and right now the PS3 is not a threat. If Microsoft thought the PS3 had any chance of catching up, they would've dropped prices already. Competition is what causes price drops, and right now there is no competition. The Wii is doing very well, but Nintendo is targeting a whole different segment and they do not threaten the 360.

Actually, they're still losing money on PS3s. Buy a PS3 (without games or BR discs) if you want them to go OUT of business. :)

This Elite model at $399 for Christmas 2007 would be a killer. Nobody in their right mind would want to get a PS3.

Who knows? The future of the PS3 IMO is shakey due to the whole Cell processor issue. Sony is fighting an increasingly uphill battle as more and more 360 games are released and new PS3 game releases are relatively few and far between.

PS3 needs an explosion of new games to catch up, but if Sony ends up switching the PS3 architecture due to all the cost issues and Sony's breakaway from using the cell processor, it could delay releases that would have to adjust code for the cpu change. Then again I simply do not know if the replacement--should it occurr--for the current PS3 cpu will be 100% hardware compatible with the current cpu. If so, maybe this is no problemo.

Sony is making headway with their Blu-Ray sales, however. For every advertisment I see for HD-DVD in store-ads and such, there are over 20 Blu-Ray ads. This does not matter in the long run, but at least in my area, it seems to be playing heavily in Sony's favor. Unfortunately, most people here in the states that have heard of either format ONLY know about blu-ray and not HD-DVD.

Even should Blu-Ray emerge as the victor, which I still doubt at this point, the future of the PS3 is still looking pretty bad at this time I believe.

The HD-DVD Forum has certainly dropped the ball when it comes to advertising. I can't believe how poorly they are marketing it. I've never seen an HD-DVD commercial on television, but almost every movie that comes out now proudly proclaims to be coming to DVD and Blu-Ray.

Granted there's still time for them to turn things around with their new players coming out, if they'll just start to advertise them more aggressively. At this point in time it's definately looking to be Blu-Ray for the win, but it's still very early in the game. By the way, the BDA has updated the Blu-Ray specs and mandated that all players must now support picture in picture video, a new feature that will be used in the interactive menus for example. The PS3 does not support this feature. Whether it can be added with a firmware updated remains to be seen.

As for the PS3 I agree, it's not looking good at all. I just don't see how they can keep bleeding money the way they are for much longer. The Europe launch was their last big hope, and it didn't go very well at all from what I saw of it.

"The HD-DVD Forum has certainly dropped the ball when it comes to advertising. I can't believe how poorly they are marketing it."

- Naaaa, it's not so much that Skyfrog as whether or not you buy into the idiotic idea that, with both high def formats having combined sales of just 0.5% of the total retail movie disc market, it's even really got started yet.

The guy from Universal had the right idea, when both formats start selling peak week numbers in the high hundred thousands/millions then you can start to talk winners and losers, right now with each very rarely making it into even 5 figure peak week sales we're a long long way off of that.

Besides PS3 (a games console with a hugely questionable long-term effect in this) what else have BD got?

Under-spec'd & grossly over-priced stand-alones.

You (and//or others) might be interested to know that the BD spec due in Oct 2007 is not 'it', the spec's still not finalised and finished with that revision.

But oct 2007's changes may well leave certain extra features (that use profile 1.1 or 2.0) not playable on 1.0 Blu-ray players.
But profile 1.0 Blu-ray players will be able to play the main feature of 1.1 and 2.0 Blu-ray discs.

It's also worth noting that strictly speaking 'oct' is just for BD Video 1.1, many consider 'BD Live' to be the 'full monty' as this is the spec that will most closely match the capabilities that HD DVD launched with, so even after oct there is still a long way to go and many more compatibility hic-ups still to come.

So, with release & all to be considered it's certainly not going to be in 2007 that these machines appear in Europe at least.

You're right that the PS3's launch did not go so well in Europe or the UK at all (in Australia they were calling it a 'damp squib' too).
One little media circus at one large store in central London and that was it ......and even then they had to give away 100 HD TV's (it was all so low key that it didn't even make the national news, unlike PS2).

It'll be interesting to see just how fast the peak launch sales slide away once the short fanboy rush is over and those a/v types looking to buy the cheapest BD player have been sold to.

But to return to the XBox 360 elite.......

if it has 65nm, the big HDD memory and the quiet drive I might well be interested (and usually I would never consider going outside of the PC).
I also prefer black and wish these guys would at least offer the option (full-time) of the 'proper' a/v 'colour'.

(and it would be nice if they'd stop messing about with stupid shapes so stuff stacked properly around the TV too)

Just make it quieter than my current XBOX 360 Jumbo Jet. That would be reason enough for me to buy it.