Forget 60GB – Pachter predicts a 500GB Xbox 360 on horizon!
There’s been a lot of talk over the last few days concerning Microsoft’s proposed plans to phase out the 20GB hard drive Xbox 360 in favour of a brand spanking new 60GB model. But is that enough? One analyst certainly doesn’t think so, and argues the case for Microsoft upping it to 500GB.
At the moment, the new 60GB Xbox 360 is still a rumour, with nothing official coming from Microsoft, but as Jonathan reported last week, the news is claimed to have come from a “rock solid” source, so the chance are there’s no smoke without fire.
Now, in an interview with GameDaily, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who is known as an authority on the games industry, proposes Microsoft goes a lot further in their ambitions for hard drive space, with 200GB or 500GB discussed.
“Frankly, the surprise to me is that the new SKU is [purportedly] 60GB,”"I mean, I would think they’d introduce a 200GB or 500GB and eliminate the 20GB and make the 120GB the standard cheapie one. I think that more is better, although I don’t think most people will fill up their hard drive; but I think that as you feel you’re getting close you start to be less likely to download content.”
“I think Microsoft would like Xbox 360 to turn into a whole media center and allow you to use your 360 as a DVR, and that would actually be a fairly compelling offering. Obviously they’ve already got people online so if they can turn an Internet device into more of a media device I think it gives it some competitive advantage over the PS3.”
I can already hear the cries of “Rubbish”, and “That’s never going to happen”, but the man does have a good point. The Xbox 360 and PS3 have both set themselves up as more than just games machines, they are meant to be media devices sitting in the corner of your living room offering multiple entertainment opportunities.
For that to become a reality however, hard drive space is going to be very important, and a massive hard drive such as this could help the Xbox 360 offer something new and different, and more importantly, an advantage, over the Blu-ray wielding Playstation 3.
There is of course obvious cost implications involved, and you’d only really be looking at the wealthiest gamers, or tech geeks shelling out what Microsoft would surely charge for such an SKU.
However, offering it would seem a good plan, certainly Microsoft need to do something before the PS3 steals all of the Xbox 360′s glory away.
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11 Responses to “Forget 60GB – Pachter predicts a 500GB Xbox 360 on horizon!”
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March 10th, 2008
Just that much more data you’ll lose when it ends up getting an RROD? Seriously…what I want to see is Microsoft killing that issue…then I’ll buy an Xbox.
March 10th, 2008
u can replace ps3 2.5 hd to a 320gb labtop hd for £100 why wait for 360 to shaft u go for ps3 n burn ur death box
March 10th, 2008
this is a big WTF!! ill just try to put a 1TB HDD on my ps3 so why bother a 500GB..
March 10th, 2008
A.J. If you can simply upgradge the memory on your ‘PS3′, why th fk do you care about what they do to a 360? Try to enjoy ur PS3 and stay the fk out.
Others please provide some objective reasoning, its always helpful for people like me who havent made up their mind yet.
March 10th, 2008
Why would you want a 500 gig on a ps3 – there isn’t squat to download. xbox live has a shitload of movies (hd and standard def), tv shows, game demos, game trailers, movie trailers, dlc for games. You will fill the 20 gig fast and be erasing crap to make room for the latest stuff. And yes, all that stuff is available with the FREE silver account.
March 11th, 2008
A.J.:
It’s called HDD space, not memory. But, I’m sure you already know that MS will charge a bundle for an Xbox of that size. The others are right. What are you going to do five years from now when that HDD is filled up? You can’t add a bigger drive, you have to buy another system. The PS3 allows you to upgrade your drive with any common laptop drive of any size you choose (dependant) on your usage. If you are on the fence about what system to get, obviously, you know what side I’m pointing you to. MS made several mistakes with this console and now they are backtracking and changing their philosphy to be more like the PS3. They wanted to just make a gaming machine, but now, more and more they are turning into a multimedia machine (but still failing at it). They are now screaming for Blu-ray since their format of choice was brutality raped by the common consumer. This is quite sad coming from a company who said they would never need a HD disc for their console. You know why they would want to put a 500G HDD in their console? Because they need more space to put the game overflow because they only have 8.5 gigs to work with. MS botched their entire console and Sony has done nothing but trudge forward. I doubted things a year ago, but I can clearly see who is taking the lead and I clearly know who is going to win. Oh, and by the way, I also own a 360 (I know, I’m embarrassed about it).
March 11th, 2008
Sorry A.J. The above comment was to Ric, not you. My bad.
March 11th, 2008
he has a point. just not this gen. a larger HDD is definately something MS needs to think about. The problem is not making the consumer suffer ANOTHER price increase next gen to compensate.
March 11th, 2008
cool so now after spending weeks putting all my cd’s (300+ real store bought albums) on the hard drive and then having to spend another month putting them back on the other hard-drive cuz 20g wasn’t enough…
now I can do it all over again YEAYYYYYY!!!!!!
I love sitting there for hours on end just watching the status bar as it rips my cd’s. It’s like watching a sunset or deciphering what clouds look like. The only thing that could possibly thrill me more would be watching paint dry.
They should make a video game about that, you know… paint drying. It’s hardcore man!! Do not mess with my paint watching skills on Live!
March 21st, 2008
@Ryan: I completely agree w/ you!
@Pete J: LOL
July 25th, 2008
@Pete J: why are you ripping your CDs to your 360 drive? Just share all your media via a wireless network and Windows Media Connect.