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[Xbox-Scene]

Moore: The Hard Drive Killed Xbox1 Posted by XanTium | September 17 17:31 EST | News Category: Xbox

From guardian.co.uk: * Was Xbox more about getting a presence in the living room than turning a profit? * Peter Moore: It was certainly very important. We couldn't afford not to be - we believed that broadband connections were going to move out of the bedroom into the living room, which they have done, or that wireless networks were simply going to take over and your broadband connection would be ubiquitous around the house. There was a huge bet they made on the original Xbox, not to put in dial-up, just to put a broadband modem in there at a time when the great majority of people were still connecting via dial-up modem - it was a ballsy bet to say, ah we don't care about you, you're a bunch of luddites we're going to move on to the people who connect the real way. And in the same way, not having a hard drive in every Xbox 360 was a hard decision, but we wanted to get price under control. The hard drive in every Xbox killed us; we we're still selling it at $199 and the hard drive was like $70. That's why we prematurely left the original Xbox, because the more we were selling - there was still great demand - it was killing us, and there was no way to bring the price down. So in the end we determined at around the 25 million unit mark that we just needed to slow this thing down and just not sell any more, and move to the 360 as quickly as we possibly could. And to this day people still believe we left the Xbox too early but it was purely for financial purposes. Full Story: guardian.co.uk

[Merkaba]

its hard to believe M$ was paying 70 bucks for a 10 gig hard drive at the end of the life cycle for xbox1.  mayyyyyyyybe @ the beginning.

[Tiuk]

I had always heard it was the bad deal they had with nVidia for the graphics chip.

[h_2_o]

I too call BS on the whole HD costing too much garbage.  every instance i've seen of a breakdown for costs for parts since the saturn the breakdowns have been using MSRP prices for individual components.  It is BS what they say they are costing them to make, and that cost for the HD is just another example.


I know i know that development of a system needs to be recovered somehow but do not freaking tell me that when you are putting in an order for 25 million parts you get no discount on it at all, that is just well i'll just not believe the numbers.

[spamenigma]

they missed a trick! could have paid all the modders $20 to send their old hard drives back after *ahem* upgrading them

[big_boludo]

QUOTE(spamenigma @ Sep 18 2008, 12:40 AM)

they missed a trick! could have paid all the modders $20 to send their old hard drives back after *ahem* upgrading them

And we could have made more money modding the new xboxes containing our old hard drives and repeat the process over and over.  Microsoft still thinks that the 120GB hard drive for the 360 is a bargain at $149.99.

[tabsaid]

I think MS just didn't want everyone buying 150$ media center/emulation machines.  They knew why people where buying xboxs still at that point.  I truly don't think many people bought them for just a standard console toward the end.

[jimk72]

It still realy sux they stopped. The xbox was as close to a perfect system as you could have had at that point in time. All my xbox games are new in box and all my 360 games have sratches already (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) The convenience of just turning on a system and having all your games right there is the best development in recent history for games. Sitting on your couch and getting bored of one game and switching to the next without getting up is what gaming is all about. I wish there was a way to do this with the 360. I would buy all my games through the download service for this. they offer xbox 1 games, why not new games? This would option would kill any other system. Parents would never have to worry about disks getting lost or scratched or taking up space in the entertainment center. They just need to get the auth. rights fixed so if your drive fails your not F&*$ed.  I have 4 xbox 1s all with huge HDs and they just sitaround because they are bored with the old games and no new ones come out for it.

This post has been edited by jimk72: Sep 18 2008, 01:20 AM

[bubbafett4hire]

QUOTE(tabsaid @ Sep 17 2008, 08:16 PM)

I think MS just didn't want everyone buying 150$ media center/emulation machines.  They knew why people where buying xboxs still at that point.  I truly don't think many people bought them for just a standard console toward the end.

Very true but at that point MS still could have made hardware money off of it or seen what had been done in terms of homebrew and offer a XNA version or so for the Xbox 1

QUOTE(jimk72 @ Sep 17 2008, 08:19 PM)

It still realy sux they stopped. The xbox was as close to a perfect system as you could have had at that point in time. All my xbox games are new in box and all my 360 games have sratches already (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) The convenience of just turning on a system and having all your games right there is the best development in recent history for games. Sitting on your couch and getting bored of one game and switching to the next without getting up is what gaming is all about. I wish there was a way to do this with the 360. I would buy all my games through the download service for this. they offer xbox 1 games, why not new games? This would option would kill any other system. Parents would never have to worry about disks getting lost or scratched or taking up space in the entertainment center. They just need to get the auth. rights fixed so if your drive fails your not F&*$ed.  I have 4 xbox 1s all with huge HDs and they just sitaround because they are bored with the old games and no new ones come out for it.

I still miss those days but have high hopes come the new dash can't wait to see what exploits if any come out,maybe we'll be able to spoof the 360 and buy our own drives finally $150 still to rich for my blood

[Devedander]

Another vote for: No way it was costing MS $70 a pop to put drives in when the xbox hit $199.  

Even if they had to stick to some special controller or something there is just no way MS was getting hosed that hard.  

Maybe MS really IS paying >$100 for the 120GB drives they put in the elites...  

[SC10-E]

LOL the way its worded its sounds like he REALLY didn't care about the dial- up people, not just a figure of speech

[gronned]

I actually agree with you guys. Couldn't MS get 10gb hdd's for less than $70/piece? If I walked into a computer store by that time, I could easily get an old hdd for that price. I'd be very surprised if MS didn't get it for less than half of what I paid in the stores.

[majik655]

This is the way I always thought why it would be that high in price.

Have you ever especially now tried to purchase a say  20 gig hard drive (NEW NEVER USED)?
Not to mention even finding a NEW 8 or 10 gig drive.
Well it is not easy.   AND gig for 1$ ratio is waaaay higher.
You can get a new 160gig for 50$ normal pricing at a hole in the wall computer store.
Thats 3+ gigs for each dollar spent.

A 20 gig BRAND NEW IBM ATA IDE hard drive from bizrate (quick search) is 57$  !!!!
a 20 gig SERIAL ATA is 16$ !!!   xbox needed an IDE.

At the time a 120 gig hard drive was new at 120-150$ (when xbox first was modded)
Now they are what 40$ if that.

So at the time a 20gig hard drive was still more than what it is now at 57$   say 70$???

Plus doesn't microsoft have to pay more for the casing they sell it in?
It cost more money  to make OLD items and at the time a 8 & 10gig was waaaay harder to find.

Just my 2 cents... I may be totally wrong.

[BuforTjstass]

@majik655

I see what your saying, but why not just start selling the original xbox with an updated larger capacity HD?
And aside from that, provide some downloadable  content, and other things via an online update. Killing the old Xbox was financial, but it was about not wanting it to be in competition with their new machine. It would have killed the 360's  numbers against the PS3 if people were still buying the old xbox. MS wanted to win the console war, even if they had to take a shit on their old customers. That old high priced hard drives line is a load of B.S. That's my two cents

[CesiumVirus]

QUOTE(majik655 @ Sep 17 2008, 10:01 PM)

This is the way I always thought why it would be that high in price.

Have you ever especially now tried to purchase a say  20 gig hard drive (NEW NEVER USED)?
Not to mention even finding a NEW 8 or 10 gig drive.
Well it is not easy.   AND gig for 1$ ratio is waaaay higher.
You can get a new 160gig for 50$ normal pricing at a hole in the wall computer store.
Thats 3+ gigs for each dollar spent.

A 20 gig BRAND NEW IBM ATA IDE hard drive from bizrate (quick search) is 57$  !!!!
a 20 gig SERIAL ATA is 16$ !!!   xbox needed an IDE.

At the time a 120 gig hard drive was new at 120-150$ (when xbox first was modded)
Now they are what 40$ if that.

So at the time a 20gig hard drive was still more than what it is now at 57$   say 70$???

Plus doesn't microsoft have to pay more for the casing they sell it in?
It cost more money  to make OLD items and at the time a 8 & 10gig was waaaay harder to find.

Just my 2 cents... I may be totally wrong.

20gb hard drives are extremely hard to find these days, which is why the price seems so inflated