Buying a new Xbox 360, is there anything I should wait for?

The Game Room
1

I’ve had an Xbox for a few years, which I’ve played off an on, and which I recently filled up the 20 gb hard drive on so I’m looking to upgrade. Since my current system is one of the older models and I know that besides the larger hard drive that the new ones have some additional new features I’m interested in (HDMI, built in wi-fi, quieter?, etc.), I’m strongly leaning towards buying a new system altogether and making the old one a secondary system in another room.

Now, I’m focusing on the new(er) 250 gb “slim” systems which go for $300 on Amazon, but I’d like to make sure there’s not something better or any upcoming price drops I should be holding out for. I see that there had been a 250 gb holiday bundle during Christmas which came with came with 2 games for the same price, and missing out on “free” games for the same price kind of disappoints me, so I’d be interested to hear if similar packages may be upcoming.

So, really my question is whether or not the standard $300 for the Xbox system going now is the best I’m going to do, or if anyone has heard of any upcoming upgrades, promotions, or price drops. Does anyone who follows this stuff closer than I do have any information or advice for me?

2

I bought the new model a few weeks ago, just for the Masters edition of the PGA golf game. I got the holiday bundle — actually only the racing game came with it, the other one was a download, and I didn’t like it. The racing game seemed good, but made me feel like a chump, because I can barely keep my car on the track even at the easiest levels.

As far as waiting for a better machine, from what I read before I bought mine, this is it for a while, at least for the Xbox. But you might want to check out the other platforms. I noticed that you can get more courses for the PGA game on a PS3 than you can on an Xbox, which didn’t make me happy.

I saw somewhere, just in the last few days, that somebody is offering the new 250-GB Xbox with a free Halo 2 game, which is a pretty good deal. You should google for that and see if it’s what you want.

3

There are no more revisions of the current system in the pipe as far as I know.

And the next gen of consoles seem likely to be a long time away.

So no, there’s nothing else coming, might as well purchase now.

About the only thing you might want to include is the Kinect bundle. Specially if you absolutely must virtually cuddle with animated tigers :wink:

4

They are having a buy a 4GB, get $50 amazon credit sale today 4/4 - I would buy this, wait for my credit and then buy any games I wanted + a 16GB flash drive - the only real difference between the 4GB and the 250GB when there are no pack-ins is the size, and a 16GB flash drive is like $15 bucks - so is 20GB (4+16) vs 250GB worth $135 to you ?

5

There has been some chat in the various “analyst” circles (i.e. the people who get paid to speculate about the video game industry) that there is likely going to be a price cut for the 360 and/or PS3 (a price cut on one pretty much forces a price cut on the other) sometime… maybe this summer.

Depending on how urgent your needs are, my own vaguely informed speculation indicates that a price cut is indeed starting to come due, but it might not roll around until the holiday season. If I were buying a second Xbox, I’d hold out for a price cut, but I’m pretty patient, so YMMV.

Other folks are correct though - there’s no upcoming hardware to plan for. Microsoft is getting all set to beta a new “disc format” (probably something to do with piracy), and no one is showing any signs of even seriously considering a new console launch at the moment.

6

A warning about the 4GB systems, some games are starting to lack features if you don’t have the Pro or hard drive version of the system. I’m not a console gamer but I know that at least Halo:Reach is missing multi-player without the Pro system. Someone correct me if I’m wrong about this.

Also, don’t expect much from a soonish price cut. We’re not talking $100 here. It’s going to be in the order of $20-$50, IMHO.

7

Also true - I wouldn’t expect any upcoming price cut to be more than $50, but eh… fifty bucks is another game if you’re not in a hurry. Just wanted to bring that up so that he’s not shaking his fist and shouting “Khaaaaaan!” if they decide to spring a price drop in august or something.

8

Of course I meant Halo Reach.

9

Halo reach is missing split screen co-op, not multiplayer. I believe that is the only game that has a problem with a flash drive vs hard drive. Edit to add, other than playing original xbox games.