Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will begin selling a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a high-definition video connection. This in effort to broaden the console’s appeal beyond the rhelm of gamers. Is this a mistake?

The first generation of Xbox 360’s came with a 20 gigabytes hard drive but many owners complained that it filled up too quickly with movies, TV shows and games from the Xbox Live Marketplace online store. The new
The new Xbox 360 Elite will sell for $479.99. But can you believe this, Microsoft actually cuts its loyal customers a break by offering those who already own the 20-gigabyte unit the chance to buy a snap-on 120-gigabyte hard drive for $179.99. Bothe upgrades are set to launch on April 29.

The new High Definition cababilities include an HDMI connection that they say is supposed to improve image quality but is Microsofts sneaky way of trying to reduce Piracy.

We all know the Xbox 360 can already do a lot. You can connect it to your home network, stream movies straight to the TV. But is this Microsofts cheap way of masking the fact that the Playstation 3 (which has finally seemed to get its act together) has a Hi-Def DVD player and the 360 doesn’t? Ok you can buy an external player for a reasonable $200 bucks but isn’t that what Microsoft wants us to always do, buy more accesories. Why not just include it when you build the unit? We’re not supermodels here in need of a thousand accesories. And this Xbox Live Marketplace, I go online with my 360 to GAME! To be honest if I want to download movies I do that on my computer. So let me get this straight they want me to BUY an upgrade to make my box HD then BUY a subscription to Xbox Live then BUY the movies from the Marketplace. Too much.

here’s a video of someone talking with one of the designers of the new XBox 360 Elite. Check it out below