Is the Xbox360 Elite worth $80 more?

Microsoft has officially announced the Xbox360 Elite and it will be on store shelves April 29th 2007. This news is not really news at all to most geeks though. The Xbox360 Elite has been a very poorly kept secret for the past several months and featured on most popular gaming sites as speculative articles to keep fans mouths watering. The time is finally here to get your beloved Xbox360 in black, and have plenty of room for all that content you’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to delete or not to make room for more demo’s and TV shows.

The biggest question answered from all of the speculation is how much Microsoft would charge for this new unit. Would they keep the current price structure and send another blow to the PS3? Or would they bump the price and lose a little of the gap between the two systems? My personal thoughts were that Microsoft should keep the lead they have over the PS3 right now and release it at $400 and replace the core unit with the current premium model. This of course did not happen and the new Xbox360 Elite will be on sale for $479. The $79 price increase is not a bad price for what you get. All black sexiness, HDMI support and a 120GB HDD. But when you think of the comparisons between the 360 and the PS3, the differences just got even slimmer at $479.

Microsoft could have solidified their lead in this generation even more at the current price of $400. The current 360’s have reportedly been seeing profits on each sale for some time now, and Microsoft could have easily absorbed the extra cost of the Elite to keep that lead locked down. I have no doubt that when a price drop happens they will drop the Elite down to $400 and replace the core with the premium model at $300. Dropping the core out of the lineup completely is obviously the next step. Microsoft gains nothing from the core units in the long run. It does not have HDMI, no HDD and no option for IPTV that will out later this year. With the top two models they can position themselves as a top end entertainment system for gamers and keep their current lead that much longer.

The new 360 Elite finally adds HDMI support and a much bigger hard drive to the Xbox. These are two things that have been lacking on the current units since launch, and Microsoft has finally added them. HDMI support gives the consumer ultimate resolution, one of the features that Sony claimed to have over the competing unit, and a HDD that doubles the largest capacity HDD in the PS3. The bigger hard drive will allow you to keep more than one demo and two TV shows on your unit. I have had one hell of a time deciding what goes and what stays on my current hard drive when something new comes out because it is so limited at 20GB. So I welcome the bigger hard drive with open arms. The unit also comes with an all black headset and an all black controller, which will also be sold individually with battery packs and chargers on the 29th.

Microsoft may have missed an easy opportunity to take even more ground in this generations battle of the consoles, but even at $80 more I still don’t think they will lose too much ground in the console war. I wouldn’t rush out and replace you current 360 with an Elite, but if you’re in the market for your first 360 then you must get the new Elite model.