Xbox 360 Gets 60GB Drive, Netflix Movies

Hoping to recapture momentum from Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft will triple the size of the hard drive in the midrange version of the Xbox 360, creating more space for downloadable content, such as movies and casual games. The company will also overhaul the Xbox Live service to offer more content, including more than 10,000 streaming movies from partner Netflix. Microsoft hopes the changes will broaden the Xbox 360’s appeal as a general-purpose entertainment device, drawing some consumers away from Nintendo’s lower-priced Wii and staving off an increasing challenge from Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Bigger Hard Drive

Beginning Aug. 2008 in the United States and Canada, the midrange version of the Xbox 360 will ship with a 60GB removable hard drive instead of a 20GB removable drive. The price will remain the same at US$350, and Microsoft has dropped prices on existing 20GB units to US$300 while supplies last. The hard drive enables users to store movies, TV shows, and casual games downloaded from Xbox Live, as well as music ripped from audio CDs. The larger drive will let the console store more data, making it more useful as a general-purpose entertainment device. It could also help compensate for the Xbox 360’s lack of a high-definition DVD drive to compete with the PS3’s built-in Blu-ray drive. (Microsoft sold an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, but that format has been discontinued, and Microsoft has not yet offered support for the alternative high-definition format, Sony’s Blu-ray.)