Xbox 360 Elite goes official

MICROSOFT HAS officially announced the availability of the Xbox 360 Elite console.

This sleek black console, complete with black joypad and accessories, will feature as a third SKU along side the Core and Premium bundles, and will not be a limited edition unlike previous speculation suggested.

The console, packaging, peripherals, and specifications can already be seen on the Xbox.com US site here.

As rumoured for sometime, the unit will come complete with HDMI out - and will also feature an HDMI cable included within the box. Presumably this is a thumbing of the nose at Sony - the PS3 was criticised for not including the cable within the box, and charging a substantial amount for the additional accessory.

The package will also come complete with both component and composite cables. Nintendo and Sony take note.

Below you can observe the newly coloured 360, along with the Elite packaging and its respective paraphernalia.

The Xbox 360 Elite will have an estimated retail price of $479.99 and is expected to begin arriving in U.S. stores on April 29.

For existing Xbox 360 owners who wish upgrade their hard drives to the 120GB HDD, it will be sold separately for an estimated retail price of $179.99, including a data exchange cable, allowing existing 360 owners to transfer their data from existing hard-drives to the new 120GB.

Microsoft refuses to state when the 360 is expected to utilise the 65nm CPU/GPU parts that are known to be in development for the eventual cost reduction of the console. µ

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