MS to drop Core pack

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REDMOND, Wash. — March 31, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that they are cutting the Xbox 360 Core System from it's product lineup, and discontinuing support for it effective immediately. This comes after Sony's announcement to make a hard drive a standard feature for it's upcoming PlayStation 3 console. Microsoft is also pressuring 3rd party developers to make their games require the hard drive add-on, in order to get existing Core System customers to buy the hard drive add-on.

Understandably, Microsoft's latest move has caused some criticism from the gaming world.

After the announcement, we managed to get ahold of the Connecticut GameStop regional manager, Tyler Banks. "This is ridiculous, really," he said. "Microsoft made two packages for a reason: The premium package for the hardcore gamer who needs everything, and the Core System for the more casual gamer who doesn't need boatloads of downloadable content. Now that Sony has revealed more of their plans with the PlayStation 3, Microsoft is attempting to one-up Sony, all at the expense of the consumers who went out and spent 300 bucks on the Core System. That's 100 bucks extra for this now 'required' hard drive, which is only a third of the size of PS3's (360: 20gb, PS3: 60gb - Capn) and they've essentially paid the SAME PRICE for the premium package, only without all the other accessories."

Certainly, one would see this decision as a bit, well, wrong, but Microsoft's own Peter Moore had this to say:

"While some people may criticize us for this, 1 year from now everybody will be thanking us for improving their gaming experience. The Xbox 360 hard drive will empower gamers to reach a higher plataeu, both in the gaming world, as well as in the real world. The future is nigh, and we are the ones to deliver it. While adoption may be slow, this minor crisis will not be the end of us. It is but one last hurdle before the Journey and salvation!"

Calls to his office about what he was possibly high on were not returned as of press time.

Certainly, Microsoft would never be in this hole if they had just settled on one SKU with the built in hard drive, rather than splitting it's customer base into two groups, which is a business strategy that Sony hopes to trounce with it's upcoming PlayStation 3, which is rumored to be due this November with a built-in 60 gigabyte hard drive.
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http://vgrc.ddstuff.com/articles-281.html
 
hmm, strange decision; I can't imagine many of the "casual" gamers that the core pack is aimed at would be too pleased with having to spend £80 more on a HDD they're barely ever going to use.

I suppose the technical benefits of being able to cache to hdd will improve game performance though.

Assuming that isn't just a wind up, I've never seen that site before? Has it been reported on any of the major sites?
 
What do they mean by discontinuing support? It seems a bit mad but i can kind of see why, for me though i have no need for the hard drive as i dont use the online aspect of it and never will but all the other bits i have bought seperately so surely they made more money from me buying the bits afterwards anyway.
 
The Core Pack was the stupidest idea ever anyway.....Only people who couldn't get a Premium Pack for love nor money bought them......Only to find a massive HDD shortage!......Crazy :o
 
I refuse to believe these sort of news posted around april fools time, it might sound reasonable for Microsoft to drop the Core pack but to cut support for it seems too drastic. Also looking at all the larger more trusted game sites, I couldnt find any news on this and you would have expected them to posted something about it.
 
To be honest, I'm not at all suprised that MS are doing this, as I did always think the Core was a waste of time. Especially when games will be able to run a little better using the HDD as well. Now MS need to drop the prices of the HDDs, as it's going to annoy some core owners quite a bit in the coming year.

The PS3 is still only rumored to be officially coming out with the HDD as standard, but I still reckon there's a chance they'll not ship it with a HDD at all. If that's the case, MS will have done the right thing anyway in my eyes, as all new 360's then would have HDDs, and the PS3 not. But we can only wait and see.

The cheaper core probably helped sell more 360's just because of the price. Now MS really need to pimp the HDDs to those people that don't really want to spend another £80.
 
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Flamin prats!
I always stated that the core was a total waste of time and resources. Guess MS knew that there'd be shortages upon launch and thought they could get away with shipping the 360's without a HD at the time. It was a silly decision and now a lot of core owners will be deeply upset because games are clearly going to require a HD in future.

As for the PS3, it's miles off so anything anyone says is just all speculation and nothing else. Their hardware specs can change in a second so until it's actually in production...
 
Sounds like a Aprils Fools story to me.

But even if it is true, then it's probably for the best.

One of the main advantages of the xbox over the ps2 was the built in harddrive. Not only did it mean no memory cards, but developers promised faster loading times and larger playing areas.

They threw this away with the 360, and I can't see why. If there was only the premium system from the start people would still buy it, and then the harddrive was available to be utilised by all games.

I had to buy a core system as I couldn't find a premium, I then got lucky with a harddrive. Before I had the harddrive the system felt incomplete, I could hardly use the marketplace and I knew about the demos waiting for me. It's just cruel to tease people with things they can't have.

So all in all, IMO the hard drive shouldn't of been optional. :D
 
What a load of tosh!

There isn't such a thing as a "Core" or a "Premium" Xbox360, it's the packaging, same as there's a "GigaPack" PSP or a "Standard" PSP. They are both the same hardware, one has more stuff than the other. It's impossible to conceive that Microsoft will discontinue support based on hardware that has come in different boxes.
 
I can't see them stopping support for it, but if they do drop the "core" pack in favour of selling only the premium to allow developers to implement HDD only games the price is going to have to drop...sharply. £3.50 per gig? ouch.
 
so dropping support meaning just generally not selling them anymore, or dropping support as in when mine breaks their gonna tell me to either pay more for a premium or shove it?

i dont think the core was a waste of time. bought mine just after crimbo, figured it was a waste to spend all that money on the premium (mainly cos i couldnt afford to lol but still) cos i wasnt bothered about wireless controllers and cant ever see me downloadin demo's or high def content etc and as for the xbox emu, well only game id ever really play would be halo 2 and even then, thats only when im really bored of all my 360 games.

a hard drive would be nice but the current price is just stupid. if they really want me to buy a hard drive then they either need to lower the price quite substantially or release a bigger size for the current price, say 60gb for £70. that'd be a lot better

but yeah, i reckon its an april fools. cant find much else about it anywhere (only saw it on digg)
 
No one else read the bit about the MS official being high then?

I think it might be a joke ;)
 
I can see them dropping the core package to buy but I can't see them dropping support for the console simply because all the consoles are identical they just have different add ons.
 
Either an early April Fool's joke (dated 31st March) or just plain BS methinks. It's hard to take seriously an article which is littered with punctuation and grammatical errors as well.
 
IMO the drive on the premium looks tat but apart from that it is a more cost effective way of purchasing a bundle of items that the large majority of people are going to want to own anyway.
 
The site who made the story said:
Update 4/3/06: If you havn't guessed it by now, then I suppose now is a safe time to admit this was an April Fools joke! No ill-will towards Microsoft at all, though it was fun to see the fanboys ranting about this story on the various sites this story showed up on. Much thanks to everybody who got the story on digg; it was a raving success!
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How did so many of you fall for that?! Surely the Peter Moore quote gave it away, especially the bit about salvation.
 
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