http://games.ign.com/articles/829/829372p1.html

It seems as though the MS strategy is to compete more directly against the wii in the relm of family friendly gaming systems.  Might not be a bad plan to have an Arcade version to compete with the wii, and then an advanced version with a built in HD-DVD next year to compete with the PS3 more directly. 

I personally think the 360 owes its success to being the middle of the road offering, but that is just me.

It's about time Xbox360 became more competitive on this front (casuals and family games).

Oh, microsoft finally officially annoucned this? It ws already showing up in retailers. But Microsoft is now throwing it's hat into the casual and family games genre also, I agree routsoumanman

They should have made a move like this when the Wii first started to make waves, but I guess they were confident in their lead.

Also, is it just me, or is MS the worst at keeping a secret? Everyone knows their next move well in advance, sometimes even a year before they actually officially announce it.

Sony isn't much better, but people still doubted the 40gb PS3 until it actually was released. As for the 360 Arcade, is was pretty much a known fact for months before the release.

Anyone think it is ntentional that they leak info like a sieve, or are they just that bad at keeping a secret?

Finally now they're bundling a memory card with it, the base version can actually save games out of the box =) Definitely a big improvement considering the rip off amounts you have to pay for a memory card.

I predict some good christmas sales of this bundle

 Strategic leaks...

Sony had to deny that the 40GB and the price drop because otherwise sales would be killed