The Xbox 360 is the first of the third generation gaming consoles that appeared in the market. It was released a full year before its competition did. The Xbox 360 offered high quality graphics and superior gameplay over everything that was in the market at that time. It also has media playback functions, HDTV support, and not to mention wireless controllers right out of the box. There is also an additional connectivity option called Xbox live. It is not essential for basic play but it allows you to play online with friends or even people you don’t know for a much more enjoyable experience.
It came in three packages, the arcade, pro, and the elite; with minor differences in the content and pricing of each package. The arcade doesn’t come with a hard disk drive. The pro comes with a 60GB drive. And the Xbox 360 elite is equipped with a 120GB drive. To discuss the pros and cons of each device we would just like to combine the elite to the pro since we all know the advantages of having a bigger disk are.
So we would only focus on the arcade versus the pro. In the arcade package, you only get a 256Mb memory card to save all your data in. This isn’t nearly enough unless you only plan to have saved games stored in it, but that would be a shame considering the 360’s features. Now, the pro comes with a 60GB hard drive, this might not be that much but it is often enough to save a few media files in and a few original Xbox games. Having no disk drive also means that you can miss out on the downloadable content on Xbox live like game demos and videos.
You might think that it’s ok to buy the Xbox 360 arcade since you can buy a hard disk drive later on in case you decide that you need it. But when you sum up the price of the arcade and the 60GB drive add-on, you would get a price tag that is much higher than the pro. That means you simply paid more to get the same thing.
Remember that a hard disk drive is a major part in enjoying all the Xbox 360 has to offer. Even if you don’t get the highest capacity available, a 60GB version is already enough to take advantage of the new Xbox 360.