Wow, so a $20 hdd or a FREE memcard. Now that is taking care of your people MS!

Way to go!

EDIT: That site is getting hammered I can't even get on.

WHY THE HELL GO FOR THE CARD AND NOT THE HDD FOR 20 BUCKS THAT A FRIKIN STEAL. I WONDER IF I CAN BUY IT AT THAT PRICE? I COULD USE ANOTHER JUST TO HAVE

Oh well that should be a less of a concern for cheapos out there...

If you are already going to buy a Premium/Elite then you can skip this article...

Question: will they push this info at the retailers as these low income gamers//parent/grandparents shop?

Good Looking out MS... People that Bought the Arcade Ver.. I don't think knew what they were getting into or a second xbox.. Now they get hooked up with a free upgrade or $20 20gb HD Very Nice

I can honestly say it wouldn't be necessary if they dropped the Arcade and left just the 20 60 and 120 GB skus. But ONCE AGAIN, you still get quite a bit with the Arcade for $199. Maybe in the future MS will start packaging the 512MB memory unit instead of the 256MB.

if i could get 20GB HDD and the Arcade for 199

thats tempting

Maybe in Jan 2009....get a Arcade with this deal...Geears of War b4 KZ2 sounds like a good way to spend some winter nights

i wish i can buy one just to have it. i got my 360 at launch so i have a 20gb with 6.5 gigs left. i should be ok for a while though, since i dont have to install games:)

dah well, im eyeing that 120gig anyway..

That's a pretty good deal I guess.

How much do 20 gigs normally cost?

well they had to come out with such a deal. 20gb for $20 is a great deal for those core owners who wanted to be Too cheap.

End of the story.

That's the way to go...almighty MS.

Ms is god and knows how to please it's customers.
Gears 2 will own LBP.

Microsoft always takes care of consumers when it messes upm true it mesess more than should but always comes up with a compensation.

Get an Xbox 360 starting at $199 or get the REAL xbox experience for 220.99 lol

take it ez its only meant as a joke don't go all crazy

And yes I know its still 199 if you opt for the free card but the cards are kinda worthless

on a more serious note how are they gonna keep people from abusing the system\?

i thought the solution was the 60gb hard drive sold separately.

Because if that was the case they could of added a 20 gig in every 360 from the start.

Obviously, they sold many Xbox 360 Premiums/Elites(At higher profit margins) and now can afford to dish out the 20 gig HDD at such price with the lower-priced SKU's.

I think MS is where they wanna be in terms of pricing strategy cause we all know MS prices are really high for accessories, so they must be making money somewhere..

Yeah, way to go M$.

Masters of the afterthought.

Of course if it was built right the first time, this wouldn't be needed and a generation of games would be artificially handicapped.

I don't understand. I thought all arcade 360's had a memory card that came with them...If I remember correctly, memory cards didn't come with the core/arcade consoles at launch. Perhaps I answered my own question, though can anyone confirm this? Good deal, however if current arcade bundles come with a 512 MB memory card, do they still give you the hdd/memory card?

so $220 for full 360 experience??, top winner r

like Pirate Thom.

I was right after all.

Sure you can say the HDD should have been standard from the begining, thus there would be no need for this solution, I agree but obviously the paid market researchers over at micro don't agree and for whatever reason their analysis shows the Core/Arcade sku's are indeed wanted by consumers so its just spilled milk at this point.

Now this is a pretty consumer friendly solution micro came up with, sure it was born out of neccessity(for the update) but its just good to see they took the high road instead of making Core users interested in the NXE pay additional costs...if I brought a core sku I wouldn't hesitate to get the $20 HDD but then again you have to remember that there are a small minority who brought the Core sku simply because they don't care one bit about online gaming/services and frankly even at $20 they won't upgrade, cheap bastards!, ha ha j/k but how can you argue with a free memory card?...I mean when you brought the console you knew exactly what you paid for so getting a "free" accessory is a bonus. This is also a very good PR move from micro since they can promote the NXE being available to all 360 owners (Core users) without any additional expense.

JOY

take that, droids.

That's a pretty good offer.

Very good.

Microsoft doing it right, with this, cheap prices and great exclusive games coming this holiday.. This will sell TOO well.

That's a great offer. A free 512 is just too good of a deal if you want to stick to your regular Arcade/Core usage (Not needing a HDD) but want to enjoy the new xbox dashboard.
The HDD deal is even greater because it helps you greatly for Live updates, demo and the such.

Correcting this mistake is a great sign of dedication on MS's end.

Also, it's funny seeing the PS3 fanboys held in a corner and beaten for their extreme stupidity.

this is a great deal and a good move on Microsoft's part. I don't see how any1 can knock it.

ya, if they hadn't released the core/arcade version, this wouldn't be an issue, but they took steps to resolve it, so props to them.

i guess the people at Microsoft figured that a cheaper core version was need back in 2005 when the system came out. remember how every1 was freaking out about the $399 price point for the premium system? it allowed them to price the system at the customary price for a new system of $299. you have to remember that the system came out in 2005 and what the mentality was back then. they probably had tons of focus groups and decided that it would be to their advantage to release the $299 version.

Microsoft gives the droids the old penis in the eye gag.

I'm happy for you XBOX owners, finally you can get a cheap drive, too.

But doesn't this completely destroy Microsofts tactics too sell XBOXs without HDD? Now they have to ship out free memory cards... That's hilarious!!!

NICE!! Microsoft you amaze me, you found a way to NOT completely screw your owners, lol. $220 for a 20GB xbox 360 w/ HDMI is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP

Did anybody notice this part from the website, "If you have 128MB of available space, what are you waiting for? You’re ready to connect to the new Xbox experience!"

Uhhh I think we're waiting for the new Xbox experience. :)

This is a great deal, although I am still wondering who all can take advantage of this. Like cereal_killa mentioned up top, can people that have bought the arcade recently and got the 256 MB card get either of the two deals? Or is it just people that purchased it back in the day?

Ok i entered the serial and console id of my core model and it gave me a msg saying congratulations your consoles seems to have the required hardware to experience NXE. WTF??? How can that be if its core? Although i used my premium hdd on it couple of times to play games and update it but it should register it as a core model. I dont know if they had replaced the insides of my console with a premium model after i had sent it for RROD last year.

No it did not. I bought it in 2006 as a standby model. No bundle nothing :(

I just got an arcade for my mom so she can play Fable 2, now I can just go ahead and get her an HD for $20.

Great work MS... how awesome.. for the core users... i have the premium and now we all get HDD..sweet

Nice gesture MS! After screwing the consumer with consoles that constantly die and overpriced peripherals like HDDs you finally decide to do something nice for on.. Wait a second! How big is the install base of people with Core or Arcades? Last time I checked it was less than 10% Oh! I thought you had done something nice for the majority of your consumers! Dam same old MS!

cant wait to see when people start complaining about having no space on there 40gb ps3....i have my 20gb 360 from launch and still have 15 gb...and i have played online and 80% of the games....

Yea like everyone has a USB2.0 speed connection to their server!! LMAO

Get real Microsoft nuts lets call it a joke to have a system with no HD!!!
Why did you go backwards??the Xbox 1 had a hard drive???
shoule of recycled them to the new 360???
What a joke!!!199.00 is gonna be more like 299.00

This is good that they are giving people a relatively inexpensive way of getting a hard drive if they purchased the core or arcade and don't have one. A good move to keep people happy.

while Sony never will have that problem due to the greatness of external hard-drives
suck on that xbots!!!

I just put my info for the core system I have, and it says "Congratulations! According to our records you have the necessary hardware and storage space to enjoy the new Xbox Experience." So dont buy into this lie. MS is pullin a fast one again.

I have a original core system(shut idiots it was all that I could get on launch, and it died 3 times. I put the info into that site and it says "Congratulations! According to our records you have the necessary hardware and storage space to enjoy the new Xbox Experience. " So there you have it, core systems are not eligible for this upgrade, so that must mean that no system is eligible. Nothin but a scam to get new people to buy the arcade\core system and think they will get this program. Dont buy into this BS I called customer support spent 45 minutes with a person that had no idea aabout the program, and went on about how I needed to buy a hard drive or memory card. So as a launch customer I am very upset with MS and all the problems over the past 3 years. I have had over a dozen calls to MS over that time and never once was it a good experience. The first replacement took 3 calls and a lot of frustration to get it fixed. the second one took 1 call and about an hour on the phone. All other calls have been for other problems, never resolved. I dont like sony but I think its time to jump ship.

THIS IS A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM NO ONE GIVES A FLYING FU*K ABOUT!

MS should just sell the 20gb as an accessory for $20 so all core owners can just buy it then have to go through check to see if they qualify for a 20gb or 512 mb and advertise it as an option. This way "eventually" all 360's will have HDs in them and as HDs get bigger and cheaper install the 20gb on future 360's as a minimum for all arcades as live gets better and bigger. Just my opinion.

wait >.> why would you even be on XBL if you dont have a HDD in the first place, >.> cant play most of the online games because of the fact they have downloaded content out the butt. so i dont see why most of these people complain, since you kinda need a harddrive anyways, stop being so cheap and go get one, thats all i have to say.
-nai-

Couldn't have said it better