Xbox 360 with 250GB Spotted Online; Would You Need that Much Space?

One fun aspect of tech in general and gaming in particular is when old products are phased out and/or prices are slashed, to be replaced by something bigger (or smaller), better and faster.

If you planned to grab the Elite Xbox 360 today at its new $299 price, then rejoice and bask in the glory of your one hundred twenty-gigabyteness, you may want to hold off. Earlier today Amazon.de had a listing for a 250GB Xbox 360, two wireless controllers and Forza 3. The price was a familiar $400 US (279.99 Euros), but the listing has since been pulled.

It's not surprising that Microsoft stopped production on the 360 Pro to have the Elite model take its price tag and status as the "mid-range" system; it's just surprising how soon rumors andscreengrabs surfaced in this case. The Elite 360 price drop was rumored for a long time and confirmed just a few days ago by Microsoft, but it looks like there's a new Elite system on the block, presumably with production already ramped up and in full swing to supply hungry gamers for the upcoming holiday season.

The real question for consumers, both seasoned 360/gaming vets and newcomers, is do you need 250GB? I've been tempted to get a second Xbox 360 if only to have one for the living room and one for the bedroom when I want to watch Netflix or just play a game other than Lego Star Wars XV -- now with more characters to do the same stuff! I think a second exclamation point is warranted here. !

But really, do you need 250GB of storage in your 360? No, you don't. Wait...yes, you might. It's likely that by Q3 next year we'll see Project Natal Xbox bundles hitting at retail, and it's highly likely your Xbox 360 will need more disk space to store all the data Natal's motion sensor captures as you dip, duck, paint, dodge and make paper dolls with Milo. You may recall that the Xbox 360s presumably used for E3 demos had a large rectangular brick where the hard drive normally rests. Was it a higher capacity hard drive, jury-rigged to the console just for the demo? Probably, and you can bet that Natal will require at least 120GB -- the current Elite Xbox 360 storage limit -- to work. Even then it might be a minimum vs. recommended system requirements thing.

"You don't have to have a 250GB hard drive on your 360, but you'd have more fun with Natal if you did." -- Xbox 360 manual, Q3 2010

Don't plan on getting Natal? The 60GB Xbox 360 Pro currently being phased out will be plenty for you. Don't plan on installing games to the Xbox 360 hard drive? You could easily get by with the 20GB hard drive. I have the 20GB 360 Pro, with a couple of games installed on the drive, a few game demos, and tons of downloadable content, and I still have ~4GB free. Besides, installing games to the Xbox 360's hard drive doesn't negate the need to put the game disc in the optical drive, nor does it speed up load times noticeably. [Kotaku]

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