Yay another SKU

And yet they persist not to package the wireless adapter with it ... If you could have upgraded the HDD yourself as easily as for the PS3, this upgrade would have been useless.

Mind you I own none of the 2 consoles, but since the slim release and the price drop, I find the PS3 a much more interesting option than the XBox360.

If you're going to drop the price of the top of the line, you'll need a new top of the line

I would rather have the wireless adapter than a bigger hard drive...what gives Microsoft? Hell why didn't you build it into the xbox hardware in the first place? Greedy bastards...

looks like they are playing a numbers game against the PS3 with HDD capacity - they should've just repacked the HDMI cable and some more accessories. A$$ holes!

I wonder how much they will charge extra for the 250GB over the 120GB ... considering a 250GB HDD is ~70$.

Will that come with a super elite Red Ring of Death too.

I am really excited that Microsoft continues to upgrade and provide the consumer more choices on their console than any other console in the market today. While some consoles haven't made any real upgrades or changes since their inception, others have continued to remove items to cheapen their product.

I am not going to go over all the benefits the XBOX 360 has, that is up to personal preference but I know that I have enjoyed mine for anything from movies to games.

Microsoft adding additional capacity to the system is a good step. They also include an additional wireless controller with the system. This hasn't been seen since the days of the 8 bit era.

While I don't care that they didn't include a Wireless Adapter in the box, they should consider lowering the price of it.

Its freaking a $100 on Xbox website. Jeez I got mine in a close out deal for half off like 4 years ago. Yeah they should have thrown that in, instead of a game or extra controller. Everyone and their grandma has extra controllers for their 360. All that's need is a fast internet connection and a good FPS and I'm happy.

Why would someone need more than 80gb anyway? its a console, not a computer.

All of the downloadable movies, tv shows, Xbox Live arcade games, downloadable xbox originals games, downloadable on demand 360 games, and to 'install' all your disc games for faster access.

As far as the wireless goes, I don't get why they don't do one thing: zunes all have wifi, they made zunes, why can't zune owners use the wireless in their zunes to play on xbox live? You can play music off of them, it would just be a software upgrade, just like the ability to download stuff right on them.

AndrewMD... are you on crack?
" am really excited that Microsoft continues to upgrade and provide the consumer more choices on their console than any other console in the market today."

Okay... $200 console, pretty much useless without the HD... fine, its $200. Future upgrade to a 120GB HD is $140 or so. Good choice.
$300 Pro model, replaced by $400 Elite model. Only difference, black case and bigger HD.

All units have gone through 3 changes to reduce heat and power.
Power supply has been reduced in size, only outward difference with the 360.

The PS3Slim is very different from the original PS3. Has ALL the connections of the last big PS3s. The card-reader wasn't very useful - added costs & weight. The PS2 emulation... not that big of a deal. Those that REALLY cared, already bought their PS3 with hardware emulation.

Out of 25 million PS3 units sold... maybe 1000 or so use Linux on their PS3. not a great lost.

A 250GB model is simply not a big deal. Dropping in a 500GB HD into a PS3 takes a few minutes. And has an actual data backup system.

Very soon, SONY will sell only 1 type of PS3 and its $300. Not 2-3 different models. (Not including package deals).

"They also include an additional wireless controller with the system. This hasn't been seen since the days of the 8 bit era."
HUH? ALL PS3s are wireless... as is the Wii. What are you talking about?

While I don't care that they didn't include a Wireless Adapter in the box, they should consider lowering the price of it.
Yeah, typical Wireless USBs are about $25~50 nowadays. $80~100 for an XBOX one... is a sick joke. Oh well, not anyone elses problem.

So if someone has an HD-TV and needs a new multimedia console...

$300 - PS3: Downloads media, plays games, plays bluray & DVDs, wireless internet. 120GB HD.

$380 - 360Elite : Downloads media, plays games, DVDs (And some few HD-DVD movies with optional jet-engine HD-DVDD), wireless internet add-on. 120GB HD.

I have neither... but guess which one I would buy

Only 250 GB? Really? I knew they'd have to make a SKU with a bigger HDD to accommodate the new game downloads, but really MS? 250? Considering you can get a $500 GB laptop hard drive for $80 in most places, I think they could have done a lot better than simply doubling their largest HDD. Looks like they still insist on ripping people off (as if the omission of the wireless adapter wasn't enough) and giving people the wrong idea about current hard drive prices.

wireless controllers blow big donkey dongle. . . .

Belardo, I believe you are the one on the crack and you are washing it down with lots and lots of sony kool-aid!

Lol, and you dont even own one? What a joke.

screw consoles and go PC.


nuff sed

Including the wifi adaptor would have been nice...

I actually thought they did that already, our local stores are selling the elite 120gb with the wifi bundled for $330, I assumed it was part of a new MS package, I guess the stores were just taking their own initiative and packaging what they thought would sell.

Yes I've seen those deal, I even say Elite + WiFi + Halo 3 for 330$CAD...

I purchased the elite packaged with the wifi adapter and Halo 3 at FS for $330. Good deal. since they were the elites already manufactured before ms started manufacturing them without HDMI/compenent. it also came with the HDMI and component and the audio adapter to use on receiver without hdmi-in. very good deal. can't picture getting a better deal the rest of 360 lifespan. since after those elites are gone they ship without HDMI etc.

Why have a 250 gig HD in a Xbox360 when you can have a 500 Gig in a PS3, and also beable to watch Bluray disc.( No Brainer ). I think were now going to see a big shift to PS3 sales now that the price has come down. This Christmas should be favored for PS3, specially games and slim consoles. Bluray is doing fine too so i can see more people also buying one just for Bluray movies because the PS3 is upgradeable while most stand alone bluray players are not.

Super, yet another SKU.

When I purchase toilet paper at Price Chopper today, I'll be sure to get the 250GB model.

The xbox 360 is a ok system but i hate the fact that you get ripped off.

for the price of 1 xbox 360 120GB hard drive (basically a standard laptop hard drive with a special drm file in the boot sector)

you can buy 2 500GB 7200RPM laptop hard drives for your PS3 and still have money left over.

but then again, the ps3 has very few games so that kills much of the fun factor and while you can play bluray with it, bluray movies are insanely expensive even though a db disk cost about the same as a DVD or even a standard 700MB cd to make

the major difference is the resolution of the laser and sensor (how many bumps it can physically fit into a small space (how well the data layer of the disk handles the tiny dots being close together)

the xbox 360 is just a money draining box where microsoft tries to nickle and dime you for everything

like xbox live, microsoft is one of the only companies that charge a monthly fee to vs other people in online games

PS you can get a 802.11n USB wifi adapter for $15 that comes with a chipset that allows features like intel mywifi and other access point features so you can connect to a wifi network and share that connection with other people at the same time

everything for the xbox 360 is a ripoff in terms of the value of the parts and what they actually charge you

wow, I thought toms would filter out ad bots?

@Matt87_50 - This is not an Ad. I have enjoyed my XBOX360 since day one.

Microsoft is a business. They are not your friend, they won't
let you "borrow" something nor are they going to provide something for free unless there is a business case around it.

Since a lot of people have been complaining about some of the demo ads that Microsoft put into the Live service over the summer why should Microsoft make the Live service free? There is a cost to everything. Now if you are a type of person that puts everything on a credit card and forgets about it then I can see where the disconnect is. That goes for anyone who also still has someone else "paying" the bills.

I could be voted down, but at the end of the day, Microsoft still provides me MORE options than ANY console system today.

Also, BluRay players are at Walmart for under $100.00 so WHY THE HELL WOULD I PAY $300 FOR A PS3 TO WATCH OVER PRICED DVD MOVIES?

@Belardo - NO I am not on crack. You need to pay more attention at what you are reading.

"They also include an additional wireless controller with the system. This hasn't been seen since the days of the 8 bit era."
HUH? ALL PS3s are wireless... as is the Wii. What are you talking about?
I said it CAME WITH AN ADDITIONAL WIRELESS CONTROLLER. Where in this sentence do you see Wireless Ethernet? And yes, the PS3 DOES NOT come with TWO CONTROLLERS wireless or NOT.

lol 250gb big deal. I still use the 20gb drive and microsoft really needs to lower the price of the larger drives. 1 terabyte 2.5" drives are coming out and probably will cost the same as one 250GB official microsoft hard drive.

Eh, I'm not really impressed with either my PS3 or Xbox 360. I'm mainly a strategy/rpg fan though, so I might find 1 or 2 games a year to enjoy on both. ;p

Awesome. Now I can buy Forza 3 on the cheap. 90% of people don't appreciate the amazing racing game that Forza is so I can get one of these that comes with the system.

Horray!

A NOTE TO THE AUTHOR: Please include $$$ conversions in your articles.