EDITOR’S NOTE: Be sure to catch Mr. Workman’s next installment in this popular series, Dear Gabe Newell, Go **** Yourself! Sincerely, An Existing Customer.
Yeah, you read that right… Microsoft can go **** themselves. This isn’t exactly a new rant, but it’s a newly fueled rant. Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb just detailed the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Xbox 360 complete with a 250GB hard drive. He actually went out of his way to state “this hard drive is not being sold separately.” Guess what Larry, you and the rest of the Microsoft collective can take that 250GB hard drive and shove it up your asses. Not because the new limited edition offering is bad, it’s a comparatively incredible offering… but because of the big *** YOU you’re sending to existing customers.
Here’s the deal; I have a 20GB hard drive in my Xbox 360 and lose a decent chunk of that space right off the bat. I’ve got about enough room to install a single game or go crazy with DLC for a few games but other than that, I’m pretty much stuck buying a replacement hard drive if I want to realistically partake in Microsoft’s latest push for digital downloads.
Let’s just toss this out there for what it is. The 60GB hard drive for the 360 is about $99. The 120GB hard drive is about $149. This new MW2 Limited edition is estimated to sell at $399 and it comes with two controllers, a headset, a $60 copy of the game, as well as the Xbox 360 painted in the (admittedly “adequate”) custom MW2 style. To be fair, MW2 is a $60 game, there’s absolutely no doubt there. That 2nd controller is easily also another $40 so let’s just round that to $100 for the game and 2nd controller putting the price of this limited edition 360 effectively back down to the new $299 price of the Elite. Ignoring the paint job, what portion of that $299 do you think is really associated with the hard drive upgrade? I mean we’ve already established that Microsoft thinks a 60GB hard drive is worth $99.
What the **** Microsoft… let’s not beat around the bush here. You’re not going to sell the 250GB hard drive separately because it will expose your****ed up “because we can” pricing schemes to even the most oblivious Xbox 360 supporters. There’s “because we can” and then there’s “because we can and you’ll do it because you’re our ****ing bitches now go buy this ****ing thing right the **** now!”
We’re not dumb… anybody can go to an online retailer and notice that a 250GB hard drive can be had for UNDER $60! That $99 Microsoft wants for the 60GB drive? Yeah, you can have your choice of 500GB hard drives for that price. Don’t look now, but your greed is showing Microsoft. Screw the “we’re a business, we need to profit somewhere” mentality. Profit from the content you want to sell us, not where we put it. McDonald’s doesn’t charge me $3 for a “to go” bag when I eat there.
Write this off as 360 bashing if you want, but why a company invests so much time and energy into offering so many avenues of digital downloads and STILL treats hard drive space like downtown Manhattan real estate is ****ing beyond me. Here’s a Pro-tip Microsoft:
DON’T FINANCIALLY RAPE PEOPLE THAT ARE SIMPLY LOOKING FOR A BETTER WAY TO BUY MORE OF YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
The Limited Edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 is a great value that spits in the existing Xbox 360 owner’s face by pointing out the epitome of BOHICA pricing. I can totally understand why someone that hasn’t yet bought a 360 would buy it, (or more likely someone wanting to remove themselves from the endless string of refurbished 360s that keep dying) but you have to admit it’s a pretty big “**** YOU!” to existing Xbox 360 owners that it’s priced so low for what you’re getting and that you can’t even buy a hard drive larger than 120GB at any price right now if you wanted to.
I’m sure this will piss off a few people, so bring it on… I welcome your thoughts on this topic.
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Amen, brother. Amen!
F*** Microsoft. F*** them up their stupid asses!
Jay & Silent Bob…
Yeah, I caught that.
Your sentence that is in all caps is probably one of the most intelligent things you’ve ever written rothbart.
(and that’s not a dig at you, it’s just one of those sentences that really makes you go “seriously, wtf microsoft”)
As much as I love the 360 I have to agree with you Roth. I have so much stuff on my 60 gb that its filling up and I wish I could upgrade to this nice 250gb. Might even get me to purchase more Games on Demand.
I agree. I refuse to buy a bigger hard drive at the price MS is charging for. I barely have a gig left on my current hard drive. I guess I won’t be buying anymore DLC once that fills up. What’s sad is that the developers will hurt more than MS because I don’t have the room on my hard drive to put any new games.
I’m also surprised by how much the hard drives have dropped in price. I got 200 GB hard drive for my PS3 last year that cost as much as a 500 GB one now. Granted mine was a 7200 RPM, but still… that’s a huge price drop.
And yet MS continues to sell the 120 GB hard drive for $150….
F*ck You Microsoft!
I hope someone prints this blog, takes it to the head of MS marketing and jams it strait up his/her ass. Excellent read.
Ah man they aren’t gonna sell the 250 seperately. Total bummer man I was really hoping it would be and the price of the other HDD would be dropped. Spot on Mr. Rothbart.
You SONY FANBOY. I’m so sick of your whining about every little thing Microsoft does. If somebody at MS takes a dump, you’re there to report on how stinky it was, or to count the corn pellets. Nevermind that I have it on good authority that you mailed your PS3 off in a coffin today. Hmmm no blog about THAT little circumstance huh?
Give me a break.
Let’s be fair here Doc, the only reason YOU’RE not enraged by this is you don’t play enough games to WARRANT a bigger drive.
Think about this from a real GAMER’S perspective. Not yours.
I actually totally agree with Rothbart. This HDD issue is coming to a head right here.
Nail on the head.
What is this opposite day?!? You guys are messing with me. YOU AGREE with this whiner?
Did Rubenstein send YOU a birthday card too?
Doc… I believe your a sad fanboy.
Yeah he wines a lot, but he’s also right more times than is appropriate. MS wants you to spend all sorts of money on DLC, but forces you to overspend on undersized proprietary hdd. It is like trying to sell 50 gallons of ice cream to a fat guy with no freezer.
EX xbl: Frenrihr
I used to be a launch 20GB 360 owner, but I got tired of Microsoft constantly clusterfucking me…
They wanted me to pay 100usd just so i could get my console online? FUCK THAT, I build my own 10 meter Ethernet cable and that was below 15usd.
After NUMEROUS rings of death, i decided to sell my 360 and go elite (falcon elite) because they didnt break. It did. So I sold the elite, and now I’m a happy 250GB launch PS3 (60GB) owner and i have never run into any issues.
PSN: necronzero
Microsoft doesn’t want my money. No wait, they want my money SO BADLY they don’t want more of my money.
Screw hundreds (if not more) over the life of the system, PAY YOUR ****ING $149 for 120GB right now! We want $149 right now, screw the rest. NOM NOM NOM!
+5 to Krelith. Doc, play games and then your opinion counts. Editing Far Cry 2 maps doesn’t count!
Sean, really nice article, and hope to read more from you.
Though the main reason I believe Microsoft is gonna offer the 250GB XBOX360 is to later on Clusterfuck those customers as well, somehow Microsoft will make them spend a lot of cash.
Just realize how much people has payed for XBL since the console’s launch. It’s been quite a while.
I mean, don’t make some XBL features free, but at least let silver members play online for free… HECK! even the wii lets you play online for free!
Also I can’t assimilate how people get happy with features like Twitter/Facebook being added to XBL, if they’re free on PC/PS3.
Microsoft needs to get their shit straight if they want more customers. I won’t be getting a microsoft console again unless microsoft’s next fixes a lot of issues.
Rothbart still thinks that turning on Rockband to play “Still Alive” once a quarter consititues playing games.
Wanna know why Rothbart’s Xbox hasn’t broken again? You can’t break what you don’t play.
That would be true.. but we are talking about the 360 here. The system that sometimes comes with complimentary red lights out of the box!
Yeah, spot on… and as Lono said in his comment… this is going to be the shining spotlight on the issue. There has always been a “quiet” (in interweb terms) argument about the HD pricing, but this instance will no doubt shine a big ol’ spotlight on MS’ greediness and bring the issue to the forefront…
I heard the next generation of Microsoft’s consoles will take fragments of your soul as payment for peripherals.
Oh wait, that’s happening NOW
OMG give me a fracking break. The 250gig drive will eventually be for sale on its own probably after the holidays. You been waiting this long for it so continue to wait or just drop the system all together. If you had the 250gig today you would still bitch if it was a 400gig coming out instead. You still going to run out of space if you are bitching about a 120 gig you already own. Haters gonna Hate.
You totally missed the point. It’s not about the availability of the 250 HDD it’s the pricing scheme that MS has adopted that is the most ridiculous and it is highlighted by the $399 price tag on the MW2 Elite bundle.
If you could read, you’d have figured that out. Nice name by the way…
I think Rothbart made a good point though. They are slowly pushing and trying to lead with downloadable content (DLC game add-ons and full games) yet they aren’t giving hardware support. The idea will ultimately fail if they don’t start supporting it from a hardware stance.
@mboojigga: tell me then what will happen to HD prices if a 250GB is brought out standalone? Will it be $250? Will MS finally drop the RIDICULOUS price of the current HDs? I don’t mean like 10-30% I mean like 50-70%.
I think one of two things HAS to happen, either they’ll FINALLY cave and give us a DIY kit (a HD enclosure you can plop a retail drive into) and we’ll all be happily paying a fair retail price for storage so we can buy MS content, or they’ll expose their blatant greed by either releasing the giant (ha ha) drive at a truly giant price or cough up that they’ve been gouging us for a LONG time on existing drives.
The 120GB drive is getting harder and harder to find. Many of the big chains (Walmart, Best Buy, etc) have stopped stocking them and have been told that the SKU has been canceled. While this may be a purely Canadian cancellation, it really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a bigger drive is coming. They just aren’t talking about it yet.
True but they are just hurting themselves from a PR standpoint. I’d like to hear something from them along the lines of “Look guys, we are planning to bring this out we just aren’t sure when we can”. Its a lot better than “No comment at this time”
Lol thought I’d make my own comment in here.
Ok we all know M$ are a bunch of douches but this console package isn’t meant to be a long term thing. It’s just a splash release like the Halo ODST package. They are probably going to make limited copies and they will last till the end of christmas.
It could also be a ‘test the water’ thing to see how much reception they get over the possibility of releasing a 250GBHD. Digital Distribution is only getting bigger and with the Games on Demand they will need to account for that.
I highly doubt you will see a DIY kit as it is Micro$oft
- Gav
See? Some people around here have a brain.
I already bought the 150gb hard drive and I’ve spent enough money on any memory I’ll ever need. Although I doubt I’ll ever need a 250gb hard drive, the fact that they exist and I’ll never be able to purchase one unless I want an extra Xbox in the near future really bugs me. It’s like Microsoft is taunting everyone who already bought the 120gb hard drive.
This blog post reminds of the scene from the movie “The 25th Hour”, where Ed Norton talks to himself in the mirror.
I totally agree with Rothbart here. I was able to put a 500GB hard drive in my PS3 for less than the price of a 60GB hard drive for my 360. It really goes to show how much Microsoft is gouging the prices for their hard drives and wireless adapters. A standard USB wireless adapter can be had for less than $20, yet Microsoft charges $80-$100 for theirs. Unless it has a built-in dicksucker attachment, I hardly think that’s worth my money.
I love my Xbox 360, but I’m not ashamed to say that these outrageous prices are the reason I just hacked a 120GB laptop hard drive and put it in my 360 instead of buying their official drive. I want to give Microsoft money, but I don’t want it to be extorted from me.
Write this up step by step sir… we need an SG exclusive on how to keep the money from the “man”
This article sums it up well enough. It’s really easy to do if you find the right drive.
http://www.360-hq.com/xbox-tutorials-64.html
The 120GB WD Scorpio BEVS hard drives can be found for $68.80 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Notebook-WD1200BEVS/dp/B000Q82I3I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1253156710&sr=8-3-fkmr0
You’re on your own with the HDDSS.BIN file required to make the 360 recognize it though. You either need to dump one from an original drive, or acquire one through less legal means.
I’ve been using mine for more than a year, and everything but video content works fine on it, no banhammer. I really don’t think MS cares that much since it can’t be used for cheating or piracy.
I do feel ripped off here. I payed $479.00 when the 360 Elite first shipped. One less controller, no game, 130 GB less of HDD space. That was just over 2 years ago. Not to mention that I had to ship the console TWICE to repair the RROD. WTF
God damn MS. They’re really looking cheap right about now with the price drop, and now this. I pay an extra $50 a year for XBLA and it’s another $99 for a wireless adapter. Meanwhile PS3 has all of this. And now this with the hard drive? My hard drive has 3 GB left and getting smaller daily, and this is their fix?
Whatever.
Well what do you expect? This is how Microsoft has been making up for their “low” prices for a long time. When you’d go out and get a PS3 you’d pay more, but you pretty much got the whole show all in one purchase. You didn’t have to go buy a bunch of add ons to make it a real system. You didn’t have to pay for a monthly service. It just worked.
But then the PS3 got clobbered in the market place because everybody bitched about it being too expensive. I don’t mean to turn this into a console fan boy war, I just find it amusing that this is suddenly worth bitching about now. Microsoft has been pulling a fast one for a long time.
@Steve: And I’ve bitched about it for a long time… the difference now is that the playing field is a LOT more even and a LOT more people are familiar with what Sony’s offering as an alternative.
Microsoft had the benefit for a VERY long time of being the indisputably best experience available by a long shot… they’re now starting to drift a bit off course as the competition narrows the difference and if they’re not careful, people might find “good enough” more appealing than “best” if it’s easier and cheaper. It’s all about entertainment in the end. I don’t need to see the absolute best movie available to be entertained…. hell, I saw Encino Man in the theater… and LAUGHED!
I love your shiny bald head. It’s full of great thoughts.
LOUD NOISES
I agree with you Rothbart, and I’m a 360 fan(but not fanboy, they’re too stupid to properly weigh up each side of the argument)
I’m a “PC” guy, I use MS software everywhere and develop exclusive for windows… now when it comes to hardware… not even drunk xbox ? you must be crazy
I bought a PS3 (yeah a fat one $600) about two years ago and no regrets so far…
I love you rothbart
This is a good article n’all, an’ Ima gonna let you finish, but PacManPolarBear’s article on his PS3 crashing (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2009/09/batman-killed-my-ps3-sony-is-the-joker.html) was better. Just sayin’.
I still think Sony’s outright lying about a price drop or the release of a ‘Slim’ version of the PS3 trumps Microsoft’s latest dig at consumers.
But that’s just me.
What pbeompous dumbasses. Im getting fed up with microsoft. my first out of warranty conso
e breaks, i buy a 400 dollar elite because i was out of spAce on my 20, they drop the price, dont include proprietary cables. they overcharge on hdd’s…Roth’s nailed it, with Sony releasing Ratchet and uncharted, abetter version of ffxiii, and an equal price, im feeling my first legit itch to jump back on the mothership sony. i dont want l4d2 or borderlands for christmas now. i want…
a ps3.
Oh boy. someone must’ve posted this on N4G. Looks like class just let out at PS3-U.
Oh har har Doc. I’m just really bad at my phone brower, I couldn’t even see what I was writing. I lurk the forums often, likely more than you…
And I love my Xbox, I’m just get mad at Microsoft after all the BS.
I’ll get over this when ODST comes out on Tuesday, though, soo excited!
It is OK Doc. Let it out. That is the only way you’ll make it to the next step.
Anyway, anyone want cookies?
This is why I just said screw it and started playing pc exclusively. Less fanyboy shouting matches, and cheap hard drives =)
This is a standard thing for Microsoft charging absorbent amounts of money for stuff that should be a whole lot cheaper. Don’t get me wrong I game mostly on my 360 but 5 dollars for an advatar light-saber. 40 dollars for a digital copy of a game that you can get a hard copy for 20. 50 dollars a year for Xbox live.It’s all gravy for them. I mean we are the ones who keep pumping money into this machine. So blame mircosoft but also blame yourselves. Oh and just remember that the samething happens at the other two companies but microsoft gets most of the hate cause they are mircosoft.
Not to step away from how awful MS is at charging for accessories but this package isn’t even smart. For a game like Modern Warfare whose strength and most popular aspect is multiplayer MS should have totally dropped the 2nd controller cut the memory back down to 12o and to replace them added a 6 month card of xbox live, at least a composite cable, and a wireless adapter.
Long live the blue show!!!!
Take a look at PC worlds guide to ****ing M$
http://www.pcworld.com/article/150970/upgrade_your_xbox_360s_hard_drive_on_the_cheap.html
despite my “pick the side that’s winning” scheme of joining arguments i have to side with rothbert becasue of my PS3 like fanboyism and my attitude problem towards billion doller companies like micrsoft. But this is actually a serious problem. How can microsoft seriously except anyone except prehaps morons to buy this crap?! Around $299 for a 250GB harddrive? If 500GB harddrive are really the price rothbert says they are which i have complete trust in him then he’s completely 100% right at the moment and Doc seriously i know why you aren’t repleying it’s obviously becasue you can’t edmit when your wrong,
i know you founded this site but that dosen’t mean your gonna be right all the time and that we should praise you like a god though if you became a god then that might prove rothbert wrong. In fact become a god….a gaming god! ^_^ and yes i like putting these ^_^ in nearly every single topic i talk in, every since i did one i’ve become addicted. This is a problem i’ll have to solve soon so can someone tell me where to get a 500GB harddrive for a PS3. I only have around 11GB leave of my 80GB.
I love when articles like this really get the community going
Rothbart, bring back your rants!
As much as I enjoy reading reviews as such, these always create debate among the site go’ers.
I DISARGREE. I HATE RANTS. RAAAAAAAAAA DOWN WITH CRASHCRAZY!! CRASHCRAZY SUCKS! BULLSHINKLE! Like that crashcrazy? I could make articules that would cause rants if i was allowed to make them like “why all 360’s fanboys need a pair” and “Lono: How to enjoy being shouted at” BTW lono not a go at you but you just seem the most volotile of course you could replace the word lono with timewarp and still have the same if not bigger effort.
Totally agree and I did do the BEVS Scorpio route mentioned earlier in the do your own HDD replacement on the cheap article. Here’s the thing, the XBOX Explorer app wouldnt work, so I HAD to go buy a damn 512 MB memory card from M**crosh*t which btw is like $47.00 FOR A GODDAMN 512 MB card! Microsoft is f***cking us hard on this bulshit and it needs to stop, the damn hard drive isnt anything special except for a stupid plastic case and a proprietary damn connection to the console which would gather probably costs 50 cents to make in Mexico.
Honestly I have to disagree. A new Hard Drive is far from a necessity. Yes a larger one is overpriced, but you don’t need it for anything. You can buy any dlc and still fit it onto your hard drive with no problems on a twenty gig.
What the MW2 xbox is, is a GIGANTIC enticement for someone who is not sure about whether or not they should get an xbox. If you were on the edge and saw this deal would you not jump on it?
It’s like saying: well I have a house and a car, and it works fine, but I want a new car. Cars are really expensive and overpriced. Oh wow they are selling an awesome new Camaro but only with a house. I already have a house, but I want that car! well too bad buy it or you don’t.