Storage Solutions 100GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive on the Way

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octave

Adept
Dailytech
Microsoft pushed Xbox 360 storage capacity to 100GB
With Sony's PlayStation 3 coming in November with a 60GB hard drive on the high-end system, Microsoft's mere 20GB hard drive included on the $399 Xbox 360 looks rather small in comparison. That will all change with the new 100GB hard drive add-on which will be introduced during the first quarter of 2007 in Korea.

With so much Xbox Live content now available for gamers including downloadable music/video content and game demos, the 20GB hard drive can fill up rather quickly. And while we do know that the 100GB hard drive will be available as an accessory, there is no word yet if the hard drive will replace the 20GB unit used in the high-end Xbox 360 at a later date.

There is no word yet on pricing or the North American availability for the hard drive, but we'd imagine the same Q1 '07 time frame as the Korean launch.

Also on display was a 256MB memory card for those that prefer to save their games to that storage medium. Other peripherals of note that are coming shortly for the Xbox 360 include the HD DVD drive, Wireless Racing Wheel, Wireless Headset and the recently released Live Vision Camera.
Gameinside

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No 100GB drive but,

Microsoft Hints at 80GB Xbox360 Hard Drive

Expanded storage likely given new Video On Demand
At a recent Microsoft event to promote upcoming games and the new Video-On-Demand service, a retail Xbox 360 unit was shown with an 80GB hard drive installed. While it's 20GB short of the previously rumoured 100GB hard drive, it still offers a fourfold increase in storage capacity for users to download their new content onto. As with the stock 20GB hard drive, a portion will be allocated for system use. Nevertheless, the photo shown is purportedly of a stock Xbox 360 with an upgraded drive.

More detailed space requirements for the new Video-On-Demand service have come to light as well. A 44-minute TV episode weighs in at approximately 550MB in 480p widescreen and just under 2GB in 720p format. Movies are much larger with a two-hour movie reaching 1.7GB for a 480p version and 6GB for the 720p version. Although the Xbox 360 recently gained the ability to output 1080p, no content has been offered yet at this resolution.

Also being shown off was the HD-DVD drive in its retail packaging and in action.
 
Following on from Microsoft’s announcement that they will be offering downloadable TV shows and films via xbox live, Microsoft once again showed no support in offering an upgrade to the current 20GB hard disk that comes with a premium Xbox. With a high definition 720p likely to fill around a quarter of a 20GB drive people are starting to see the limitations that the current hardware allows, and if Microsoft are to promote their console as a media centre as well as a console then this problem will need to be addressed soon.

Shane Kim, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios estimates that the current detachable 20GB hard drive that comes standard with the Xbox 360 Premium model can hold four to five hours of high-def content or about 15 hours of standard-definition video.
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News at GameSpot
 
A much needed move by M$. But they should try to compress the price of the 100GB as much as they can, and allow the transfer of video files (divx, wmv, mpg) and music from the PC and release a media centre to play all that, if they want to get the edge on Ps3.
 
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