Microsoft Releases 250GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive In The United States

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For gamers who never have enough space, Microsoft is now offering a 250GB hard drive for their Xbox 360 console. While the hard drive was previously out in Japan as a standalone accessory, Microsoft was only offering the 250GB hard drive in bundles with new Xbox 360s.

The hard drive costs $129.99 and includes the transfer cable to transfer content from one Xbox 360 hard to another. Microsoft often faces complaints since their console hard drives often go above and beyond the price of a regular OEM internal hard drive. Microsoft’s official reply has always been that the hard drives are thoroughly tested for faults, that they have special power requirements and that their price should be compared to external hard drives, not the cheap OEM internal ones.

I’ll let you decide if that’s true or if Microsoft is profit taking (probably a little of both). The Xbox 360 originally shipped with only a 20GB hard drive. During the lifespan of the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft has added more and more content – video, music, downloadable games – to their Xbox Live service. Also, unlike Sony, Microsoft also has offered some full Xbox 360 games for download on their service.

Sony has made clear that (aside from original PlayStation games and those light PSN games) they don’t plan to offer full titles for download on their service. Microsoft, on the other hand, has been talking up digital distribution for games for a while now and seems to be heading in the direction of gamers buying triple-A $60 via the Xbox Live service.

Obviously, if you expect a gamer to download Gears of War 3 (or some other hypothetical future game) then they’ll need a big hard drive. Like it or not, with Microsoft offering this bigger hard drive, it’s another step in them heading to a completely digital format with a lack of physical media.