Xbox 360 Hard Drives - Could we get a price check?

  • By SarjuS, GameSpot
  • Posted Apr 10, 2009 11:01 am PT

There's pricing and then there's egregious pricing. It's plainly obvious to anyone who's ever used a computer that the Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive upgrade kit could stand to have a better price point. Even the Xbox 360 60GB drive and the 512MB Memory Unit need price makeovers. Other blogs visited...

There's pricing and then there's egregious pricing. It's plainly obvious to anyone who's ever used a computer that the Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive upgrade kit could stand to have a better price point. Even the Xbox 360 60GB drive and the 512MB Memory Unit need price makeovers. Other blogs visited the topic almost a year ago, and since then prices have dropped -- just not nearly enough. A quick wander over to Best Buy shows the 120GB kit sitting pretty at $150, the 60GB drive lingers around $100, and the 512MB Memory Unit sits at $50.

Browse over to NewEgg and a conventional 120GB laptop drive now sits in the $45 price range. To be fair we should compare laptop drives with external enclosures to get a closer comparison, and even then we're only up to $70 and the drives are in the 250GB to 320GB range. The 500GB external laptop drives are $110. The pricing delta is even starker when we switch over to flash memory kits. You can easily find 8GB flash drives for $15, and 2GB flash drives go for as little as $5. Assuming we could divide up the 2GB flash drive into four equal parts, we're sitting at $1.25 for 512MB. Microsoft's 512MB Memory Unit costs a meager forty times more than the going rate.

Come on, kicking up the hard drive size to 250GB or 320GB would probably make people happier, and at the same time not add much to the cost of the product. And who knows, if the Memory Unit cost $5 instead of $50, they might actually sell a truckload of them.

611 Comments

  • popping4it

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 8:11 pm PT

    ps3 does the same thing in a sense. theres a $100 difference between the 80GB and 160GB model. basically charging $100 for 80GB and there is no option to buy a console without a hdd. Basically sony does the exact same thing except the cost is when you buy the console.

  • izmickey

    Posted Jun 22, 2009 12:39 pm PT

    @mayceV

    They just started with that package not too long ago. Last time i checked dude xbl also cost $50 dollars a year. Add that to your list.

  • mayceV

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 9:42 am PT

    @izmickey
    the xbox does not cost as much as the ps3 because if you buy the elite you get 2 games 120 Gigs, an HDMI and component cable whil in the ps3 you only get composite cable and 80 Gigs

  • beymod

    Posted Jun 6, 2009 5:32 am PT

    thanks.....

    http://www.beymod.com.tr

  • izmickey

    Posted May 30, 2009 6:54 pm PT

    @Blacksparky117 you do know that xbox360 costs more than the ps3 right? Microsoft is smarter by just striping the things that many people will still buy anyways. You damn xbox fanboy.

  • ow8

    Posted May 27, 2009 6:26 am PT

    Microsoft kills what it touches. It even killed itself (PC gaming) to instead make this ripoff 360 machine. And dont worry console lovers, PC users get !@#! by MS too... I had to pay 1000 MS points for an 800 point expansion. If I went to a store and they tried to do this, it would be criminal and I could call the police (not kidding).

  • Blacksparky117

    Posted May 26, 2009 8:55 pm PT

    Ok really i own Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft's systems and I can't understand the prices either i would consider the warranty risk of modding my 20 GB HD before i would ever go buy a 120 GB HD made by MS. As far as things like the wireless adapter and messenger kit and whatever you should move your modem closer/get a router, and get a cheap USB keyboard cause they cant drop the prices on everything but we can buy things that are cheaper and/or more universal and useful. As far as games go i dislike the PS3 because they have crappy games. I have had Sony systems since the PS1 and still think most of their games work better on the PC or Xbox. For the required upkeep and maintenance on a network (which sony fails to do) live is reasonably priced at $50 a year and it does more even without the benefit of a browser (which Sony still hasn't made completely flash compatible). For users of the PS3 they also overprice things yes you get what you need in the package but what dose their keyboard attachment cost? $80, and what do blu-ray movies cost? $30-35 so just cause you can upgrade easier doesn't make it better the system released at $600 with a 60GB HD and you then had to upgrade cause you had to install EVERY game you bought and at that time that was another $100 that came out to $700 in the end and that would buy me a plane ticket and 2 nights in a 5 star hotel in Orlando so i would like to pay a final price of $450 (what i payed for the Xbox and one other controller which is all you really NEED for it because I already had Halo 2 and with that who needs another game) rather than the $750 for the PS3 (what I payed after a HD expansion and 2nd controller). The only well priced system is Nintendo at $250 yes you don't get everything it is missing DVD and high def but with a slightly better game lineup and 720p i would never buy either MS or Sony systems cause they don't seem to get that the more affordable and user friendly it is the better it sells so both should take an idea from Nintendo's book and DROP THE PRICES the economy is down and no one can afford prices like that anymore unless you were outrageously rich in the first place so right now i don't support MS or Sony. p.s. MS service sucks you call and get someone who can't speak english and then they know nothing and neither does their superior which is why i have neglected to send in my 4 month old Zune that already broke. Sony and Nintendo have great service, kudos to them for that.

  • Mozza215

    Posted May 26, 2009 2:59 pm PT

    Just one more thing. People say, 'Oh isn't the PS3 expensive!' But no, it really isn't. Buy an Xbox core for lets say £100, add to that 120GB hard drive, similar to PS3, which has RRP of £100, we're up to £200. Add the wireless adapter, something the PS3 has built in: £240 and a years xbox live, free on the PS3: £280. But remember, there's bundles now, 3 bad games with the core for just £40. GRAND TOTAL: £320. PS3 80GB with InFamous (one good game) £280! See how Microsoft trick us by selling stuff separate!

  • Mozza215

    Posted May 26, 2009 2:47 pm PT

    People compain about pricing of Microsoft products a lot, the wireless adapter, microsoft points and messenger kits spring to mind. However the amount of work and effort put into these components is huge, to get it to comply with the xbox and recognise it is pretty impressive, but I have to admit the prices are steep and could come down, considering the Xbox core console is below £100 in most places now. But I've managed fine on a 20GB hard drive for more than a year now and have even installed FIFA 09! I still have 3.1GB left, which is enough for a few demos and videos which I delete once I'm finished with them. I do see where most people are coming from with the price though, with the way the World Economy is now.

  • mikekabal

    Posted May 13, 2009 3:01 pm PT

    I'm in desperate need of having to upgrade my 360 hard drive. I got about 280 MB left, and I don't want to delete anything, but there is no way I'm paying $150 for a 120 gb drive. I payed $200 for a 250 gb for my PS3, and that was a year and 1/2 ago. The least MS can do is bump the space to 200 GB for that price or cut that price down to $100.

  • cccs

    Posted May 13, 2009 8:47 am PT

    they want to earn as much money as they can from the accessories since they lose money when they sell a system

  • Amnesiac23

    Posted May 8, 2009 4:57 pm PT

    If they would lower the cost they would sell many many more.

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted May 5, 2009 6:52 am PT

    This was a problem from day one. How about a low cost 300+GB HD for the 360? Or support for standard USB drives? -It is long overdue.

  • ibanezdropd

    Posted May 3, 2009 2:00 pm PT

    I held out for a long time on getting the 120 gig for my 360. I finally found a used drive for about 80, which seemed infinitely for reasonable than the 150 they are asking for it new. MS is just power hungry and made A LOT of mistakes with the 360. I like my 360, but if they come out with a next console I won't buy it.

  • Nightrain50

    Posted May 1, 2009 12:29 pm PT

    just another reasong why pc's wtf own all consoles yet the sheep continue to buy into this crap

  • Gum_Horror

    Posted Apr 29, 2009 4:28 pm PT

    hopefully the next xbox will have built in Wifi and can use normal hard drives, I can get a 1 terabyte harddrive for $100 so why would I pay $150 for a 120gb harddrive.

  • WombatGuy

    Posted Apr 28, 2009 12:31 pm PT

    So what? It's the same thing Nintendo and Sega were doing with add-on peripherals in the 80s... Overpriced add-on peripherals are part and parcel of the console experience and have been for years. The Wii has basically turned into a peripheral sales machine... Sony's goal with the PS3 is different. Rather than sell you an overpriced hard drive, they're positioning the PS3 to try and sell you an overpriced Sony TV and overpriced movies on a Sony licensed media format...

  • Moloch121

    Posted Apr 26, 2009 12:18 pm PT

    PS3 isnt close to catching up to the 360 like really far behind..im not being biased I dont own either since I play PC games...im looking at sales from March http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/04/17/march-npd-hardware-sales-xbox-360-up-ps3-and-wii-down/

    But yes Microsoft is pretty much ripping people off im happy with my 1.5 terabyte harddrive thats more then console owners can dream of

  • SNOOP_CAT

    Posted Apr 26, 2009 11:34 am PT

    wtf! grand theft memory!

  • shani_boy101

    Posted Apr 25, 2009 9:47 pm PT

    its theft.

  • snooker8th

    Posted Apr 23, 2009 9:16 am PT

    Zune failed, 360 is now being overrun by ps3 and only holding share in USA.. no wonder Gates is resigning, he is a clever man.

    Mind you i do like windows Vista and playing Halo 3 sometimes, thats about it tho.

  • snooker8th

    Posted Apr 23, 2009 9:12 am PT

    I had no idea they cost that much! f*** that! my friend was trying to tell me you could put any HD in. He must have been dreaming!

    Just buy a ps3 and drop a 500gb laptop HD in. Install Linux and you immediately can use XE Emulator which lets you use every ROM imaginable. This pairs wirelessly with sixaxis too. So for about $700 Australian you a ps3 can get two controls, two games Killzone 2, FIFA 09 and a 500gb laptop HD. There really is no competition.
    So many exclusives coming this year.

  • Xaviersx

    Posted Apr 22, 2009 8:04 pm PT

    All I was trying to say @G was that you can find price gouging in most of the consoles histories. I also believe people should call/write those companies they feel are taking advantage of them by locking out system options, which also happens in other industries like the phone or use to be the mp3 player market. As for Sony, I stopped wanting to buy from them because of multiple reasons in the multiple Sony divisions, inclusive of the court case involving them price fixing cds along with other major labels, their rootkit incident, the general overpricing of their tv/entertainment hardware, and a few misquotes on how and when people enjoy their products. That's all, no great love of M$ or $ony, maybe respects for Nintendo.

  • klugenbeel

    Posted Apr 22, 2009 12:25 pm PT

    @gavannon,
    You forgot to mention how those IPs of Sony, have not even come close to selling the amount Halo and gears have sold. Killzone has yet to even sell 1 million units in the US, Halo in the first week of launch sold over 1 million copies in the US. Its not about score, the simple fact is, 360 games sell more and better than PS3 games. You are also commenting on something i said a week ago...so if your going to try and start an arguement, do it in a timely fashion as well.

  • gavannon

    Posted Apr 22, 2009 10:55 am PT

    @klugenbeel, I didn't want this to become a PS3 Vs. XBox 360 debate, but if we must...

    Forget sales... 360 came out over a year before PS3. Let's compare PS3 games to 360 games. PS3 has 19 games with 9 or more rating. 360 has 23. The difference is small.

    So what is that difference? 360 has Halo, Forza Motorsport 2, and Gears of War. PS3 has Killzone, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Resistance. Personally I prefer those PS3 exclusives... bored with Halo two years ago...

    ...and I prefer to not pay for basic online play. And love bluetooth headsets, and light, rechargeable, controllers. And my 80GB harddrive. And my HDMI Blu-Ray player. AND I love not ever having to return a broken game system...

  • aekforever

    Posted Apr 22, 2009 3:33 am PT

    Exactly as you said it retospectre, micro$oft steals from us, 50 dollars for 512mb? That's stealing.

  • retospectre

    Posted Apr 20, 2009 5:51 am PT

    micro$oft are trying to make back some cash from the massive losses from the red ring of death. this is why i went out and bought a ps3. not to mention £40 online subscription and refusal to post free downloadable content for games (just check orange box news) kiss my butt bill.

  • chococat85

    Posted Apr 18, 2009 11:01 pm PT

    I thought it was ridiculous when I went to Walmart and they wanted $160 once you add in tax for the Xbox 360 120 GB hard drive when I bought a brand new 350 GB external hard drive for my computer from them for $50. I ended up not buying anything but the game I wanted. It costs like $20 to make a external hard drive so why does Microsoft keep them so expensive? My theory from a business major standpoint is they have a 750% profit margin they don't want to give up.

  • trw534

    Posted Apr 18, 2009 6:39 pm PT

    thats right, they are really expensive.

  • spizzaza

    Posted Apr 18, 2009 1:13 am PT

    yeah, theyre very high priced. you can get a 0.5 tb internal hdd for around $60-80 AUD. however i doubt theyll drop them because people would just buy an arcade console and a hard drive.

  • monanri

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 9:57 pm PT

    This issue should have been brought up a long time ago. Xbox 360 Hard Drives have beeeeeeen too expensive. How is this one: I got a 320 GB Hard Drive for only $79, while The Xbox 360 Hard Drive was $179. Plus every standard size Hard Drive can be made portable. Another thing is work on the Red Ring of Death, for real this time! There are many other deals that out do Xbox 360 prices on memory.

  • sagggas

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 5:42 pm PT

    I totally agree that MS is charging way too much for their HW add-ons. However, the wireless network adapter was fairly priced when it came out, but hasn't come down much in the intervening years. You can, however, buy most any other adapter and have online access. The memory prices are ridiculous. Even with my buddy's employee discount, it still cost me over $100 for the 120gb HD. Lame. I looked into fudging it with a couple hacks, but the time I would have put in would have made it the same value to me, so I paid anyway. I do, however, totally disagree about the Live complaints. I've got a PS3 also, but the online experience there is no where near as good as that of MS. It took my buddy and I more than an hour to get properly connected on PSN to play Killzone2 together. Ridiculous. I am reluctant to admit this, but I would actually pay $100 for Live service. Now that you can find it online for $30-40, I think its totally worth it. All of you that have been online know how easy and seemless the Live/gaming experience is. Sony has a long way to go to catch up. Just look at how long it takes to download anything from PSN vs. Live.

  • tenlong

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 3:27 pm PT

    ms is greedy they sell a 200 $ system then charge 280 $ for all the extras{120 gig hard drive , wireless and charger or you can get the $400 elite] it is bs i rather $400 for the ps3 and get everything out of the box ps . i got both systems so shut up fanboys i love both but ms is greedy

  • Chaiwallah

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 2:55 pm PT

    MS XBOX has lost my business. They do not care about their customers. MS inhabits a fortress and their "customer service", so-called, is just another wall. I had an XBOX gold subscription on one of my accounts (I have 2.) and two weeks before it expired they notified me on that accounts email that I should extend it. I followed the link on the email and entered another prepaid card. They credited it to the other account I have which has a different email and has never had a gold account. I only play one account online. I repeatedly called their wall, I mean their "customer service", and was repeatedly told they couldn't transfer the time to the account with the expiring gold subscription. These people at Microsoft are plainly idiots and extremely arrogant. I just hope Google is working on an operating system. If and when they come out with one, I'll get all the Microsoft crap off my computers!!!

  • xophaser

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 10:17 am PT

    Why isn't the $100 wifi adapter, the wireless controller, XBL (times X number of years) on here. You get them all free on the PS3 (except the 20gb PS3 has no wifi). But you can stick any computer wifi adapter to the PS3 if you can get it to work. Some say XBL is better, but I don't care. PSN works fine and I can do what I need on it. Facebook is free too.___

    Don't get me wrong, MS is a good company and I like their other products (I know a lot of MS workers). But the 360 is an add-on peddler, charging for everything not in the orginal box. Bill is laughing all the way to the bank.

    ion496,
    that is so funny your mom wouldn't let Bill get to your credit card no more.

  • Finesse2000

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 10:10 am PT

    Microsoft is getting or has been real ridiculous for quite sometime with their prices. We pay for Xbox live, We pay for more Microsoft points, We pay for themes, add ons, game packs etc, We pay for their high price games,hardware, etc. MICROSOFT! WHEN WILL YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS GET A BREAK? Its already a recession and people are going through hard times. Gamespot community, is there a way so we can GET A PETITION TOGETHER TO SEND TO MICROSFT TO PROTEST THESE HIGH PRICES? We are the ones (the customers) that make Microsoft who they are, so now it's TIME TO GIVE BACK MICROSOFT!

  • brmdunn

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 9:15 am PT

    sounds like greed to me Things like that have helped get us in the mess we are now!! I work hard for my money and I dam sure aint going to pay to be ripped off.....Tec

  • Claverhouse

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 7:32 am PT

    This is an excellent article as I wholeheartedly agree with this. The games are too expensive and the hardware is likewise. Having been a PS1, then a PS2 owner I switched over to XBOX 360 because of a mixture of my friend owning the original XBOX then his XBOX 360 and the Sony debacle over the PS3. I have got quite a few games for the XBOX 360 since I bought it in 2006. This year I have only bought one game and that was on Saturday - Guitar Hero World Tour with all the instruments. Last year I believe I bought two games which were Fable 2 and Grand Theft Auto 4. My reason for this is as a said earlier the price point on hardware and software. Microsoft are still charging for everything which includes access to XBOX Live which is ridiculous. Prior to buying Guitar Hero World Tour my XBOX 360 was sometimes not used for weeks at a time because I was so fed up of my experience in total with Pay Pay Pay Microsoft. I am nearing my 40's and my first computer was a Commodore Vic 20 with 2.5kb of memory and then moved onto firstly a Sinclair Spectrum 16kb and then onto the more well known 48kb version. Now you can fit these games on a mobile phone and more.

    Possibly another reason for my view changing is that back then I believe games were more innovative with the space they had. There was one or two programmers rather than an office of hundreds. There seems to be nowadays a proliferation of 3d shooting games or car racing games. Where the genre doesn't fall into these categories more often than not a game has to include a shooting or fighting element - Why?

  • marky200544

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 6:40 am PT

    Guess the so called bailout money that microsoft got from the taxpayers for their new bridge over the freeway in Redmond was not enough. When they charge outrangous prices for everthing I start thing about the PS 3 as well. never much cared about Sony, but maybe I should.

  • darkecofreak22

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 5:44 am PT

    This is one reason why I advocate the PS3. You've got everything you need to play (minus a game, USUALLY) right out of the box. No memory card, no extra batteries, no charging station needed.

  • creepiesteve

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 2:58 am PT

    thats why p-eople shoul;d buy a ps3 i bought 320gb hard drive and it only ocst me 50 pounds.

  • ion496

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 2:32 am PT

    Honestly i didn't think that it would cost for Xbox live. I spent the 150 bucks for the wireless adapter, but then i get ripped off. My mom wouldn't let me use her credit card! M$ is outrageous! PS i like to call the Xbox the X-block because its just a big fat expensive block of lego.

  • fsaroyster

    Posted Apr 17, 2009 12:30 am PT

    This has probably already been mentioned, but I'm not about to trawl through 12 pages of comments.

    Guys I'm sure you'll probably disagree, or say its against the rules or something, but do a bit of googling and you'll find that you can buy a Western Digital 120Gb laptop drive for about £30, take your old HD enclosure apart, attach your new drive to your PC run the piece of software you've found whilst googling, format the drive as necessary, copy over your old game saves, profiles, etc and put the new 120Gb drive in your old enclosure, job done, 120Gb for sensible money, you can also use the 20Gb you've taken out as a portable drive, just pick up an external caddy for a £5.

  • mwa3

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 11:51 pm PT

    Hear hear! Man Gamespot you speak the truth ruth. Amen to that brothers and sisters. I've been wanting to upgrade from my 20G HDD for ages now, what with all the exclusive DLC the 360 been getting, ripping games to HDD, not to mention Rock Band and GH tracks, plus videos, arcade, etc.

    MICROSOFT THE GIG IS UP! (Pun intended) I want a serious price drop or a major memory upgrade, like right freakin now.

  • soulfunkdjx

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 11:12 pm PT

    Yeah it's true.The hard drive of XBOX360 it is very expensive.In that price i would like to see more Gigabytes or a lower price on 120 GB hard drive.Great good post GAMESPOT.Congratulations.

  • XiceX

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 11:03 pm PT

    WOW! i cant believe some game website finally stated the obvious. gamespot your the one with all the contacts stop talking about it and do somthing everyone here knew/knows that the prices are way to high but none of us can do anything about (i dont think). GAMESPOT HELP US!!! you interview microsoft people all the time!!!!!!!!!

  • Shuppie

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 9:00 pm PT

    Micro$oft should cut these prices in half, and they will sell 2 for every 0 they sell now, making the same profit. How many of us would upgrade our HD EXCEPT for the ridiculous price? I'll figure out a way to live with my 20 GB HD if an upgrade costs $150. If an upgrade costs $75, I'd buy one tomorrow. Basic sales theory: cut the price, sell more, make more money.

  • EAantiJOE

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 7:36 pm PT

    what a rip off

  • EvtheMan

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 7:18 pm PT

    The worst is the 512mb, not only is it the only memory they have that is portable, but 512 is not nearly enough to put an arcade game on or is it nearly enough to put a gamertag on. I got one thinking it would be good for save files but I quickly realized 512 is pointless in todays standards and won't hold jack

  • Smoolander

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 5:48 am PT

    Let's all bleat that MS rip everyone off, because Sony wouldn't charge a ridiculously high price for a controller which they had to re-add rumble to would.....wait, what do you mean they are.

    People need to stop thinking any off MS, Sony or Nintendo care about their customers.

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