Tuesday, March 9, 2010 is packing a retail punch for gamers, and good things come in 3′s.
In addition to the much-anticipated release of Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite console is getting a voluptuous bundle packed to the gills. Amazon.com just posted a link – albeit inactive as of this writing – to a Spring 2010 Elite bundle, which includes:
- Xbox 360 Elite console (120GB hard drive)
- Forza Motorsport 3
- Halo 3: ODST
All for $300! Well, $299.99 in marketing terms, but I wanted to keep with the “lots of 3′s” theme. If you’re looking for your first Xbox 360 (this is tempting the heck out of me) or your third 360 just committed Red Ring of Death Harry Carry, this deal can’t be missed.
I thought these elite bundles were a GREAT deal when I first saw them, so I recommended my parents get one for my sister last Christmas when she asked for a 360. They get it home and find out that it only comes with a standard A/V cable.
What’s the point of selling an “elite” bundle if you still have to go shell out an extra $30 bucks for an hdmi or component cable to play in HD?
If these bundles were paired with the arcade 360 system, I would perfectly understand lack of HD cables. Leaving it out of a bundle specifically made for “gamers” just left me feeling dissapointed.
@Mike S. $30 for an HDMI cable? Maybe you haven’t looked at the same site that is selling this great deal, but you can get HDMI cables for a few dollars.
It’s a digital signal so spending any more than $5 a cable is a waste of money.
They are giving you two amazing games and your complaint is about a cable that is a few dollars…. wow….
True about the cable. Gocables.com has HDMI cables for $7.00 – that’s what runs my HD signal from my PS3. Cables are cables, and no amount of marketing or “shielding” nonsense changes the fact that a $7.00 cable is virtually identical to a $30+ retail cable.
The problem with the 360 is the proprietary nature of pretty much every accessory made for it. I don’t own a 360 yet so I don’t know if a standard HDMI cable will work with it, though I’m assuming it does by TJ’s response.
I agree that finding cables cheap isn’t much of a problem for anyone that keeps up with technology, but my example is dealing with Joe Consumer (aka my parents).
They were ticked for purchasing a bundle I recommended to them, my sister opening it for Christmas and it not having any form of HD cable to play on her new TV. So they go to Wal-Mart that day and buy “HD Cable for X-Box 360″ for ~$30.
Is it a consumer’s fault for not knowing the ins and outs of audio/video cables and their prices? Yes. Could Microsoft have thrown in a combo av/component cable; which is included with the purchase of a non-bundled 360? I’m pretty sure they could.
Agreed, but I’m sure in the documentation or possibly even the outside of the box they have a requirement list, right? If not, shame on Microsoft.
Awesome guys, I have been looking for this information all around, there are no online information or any website or articles written about this information. I got an email about this from my friend, it was very important for me. The information you people have given here is really very helpful and will absolutely help in resolving my problem. This has been one of the finest articles about this. I really appreciate your work. Hope you people here keep writing good stuff like this!