Microsoft Doesn't Encourage Elite Purchases

As SPOnG reported earlier, US gamers will be able to snap up an add-on 120GB hard drive for their current 360 for $179.99 (£92) if they don’t fancy splashing out on an entirely new Elite system when it launches Stateside later next month. But of course, this means you are still left with no HDMI output on your ‘current-gen’ 360.

Xbox’s director for global platform marketing, Albert Penello was asked today why, after months of saying that an HDMI output was unnecessary for high-def gaming, that Microsoft was finally releasing a console with the port, following Xbox boss Shane Kim’s comments late last year that 720p was the "super sweet spot" for gaming.

"That's a good question," Penello told the interviewer, "I think what's interesting is that we have proven the point. One of the reasons we talked about that at the beginning was we were competing with a bunch of empty promises. We said 1080p can be done through analog, the picture quality isn't any better on HDMI, and I think we proved that."

He continued, "I don't think (HDMI) is necessary, it's not necessary to give a high-def experience… The HDMI decision was partially something that we have been thinking about how we were going to introduce. And now that there are a lot of televisions that have HDMI, we felt the time was right."

Penello also told the interviewer that he "wouldn't encourage a current owner to come out and buy the Elite…We are releasing the stand-alone 120 GB drive... that's really going to be the primary solution for those who want more storage."

^{Source: Kotaku}