Well today is the day Microsoft finally announced that totally for reals the Xbox 360 Elite is now $299 and REPLACES the Xbox 360 Pro. So what do you get for your $299? You get the black Xbox 360, 120GB HDD, a headset, standard definition cables, a wireless controller, and a plug, you know, to plug it in. What did you get for $399? Well you got all that, but you also got an HDMI cable, and Component cables. That’s right you could actually hook up your HD console to an HDTV in HD. Now will an HDMI cable run you $100? Well if you buy a monster cable maybe, but no. I bought mine for my PS3 for $15 at Target. HDMI cables are HDMI cables it’s sending a digital signal so there really is no big difference between HDMI cables.
My question though, is what makes the Elite, Elite? They have taken an important piece of the Elites, Eliteness out of the box, so why not just call it the Xbox 360? A few years ago when it was just the Core and the Pro, the Pro was a name the media gave it. Microsoft just referred to it as the Xbox 360. Well here we are again about 4 years later with only two models of Xbox 360. I think I know why they are keeping the name Elite on this console.
Back when the Elite was first announced I remember a lot of my “non-hardcore” gaming friends mistakenly thought that the Elite was actually a better system. Like graphically, and with more features(I guess HDMI was a feature over the Pro and Arcade at the time, but they meant like, in the software). They really thought that games looked better on the Elite, which I guess maybe TECHNICALLY they did if you were doing 1080P through HDMI, but that’s not what they meant. This happens all the time, signals get crossed and misinformation runs rampant. I’m wondering if Microsoft isn’t capitalizing on this misconception. What do they have to lose? They still have a product called the Xbox 360 ELITE and they are selling it for $299.
Honestly though, what makes it Elite? Is the color black more Elite than white? Is having a hard drive Elite? Cause if that’s the case the Pro has been more Elite than the Arcade since day one. It’s an interesting question, and I wonder if we wont see the word Elite removed from the console as the Pros start to sell out.