@Leetgeek

I seriously doubt the veracity of your claims. However giving you the benefit of the doubt I will set you straight on a few things.

Firstly Live is a free service. Live gold is the charge service. The only thing you gain from Live gold is the online playing. In other words you can still download games, movies, demos, and other content. With no cover charge.

Secondly the 360 does not require the hard drive to play games. This is not the PS3 I cannot recall any 360 game requiring a mandatory install. There may be a couple, but I sure as hell cannot think of them. The arcade has more then ample memory for game saves.

Thirdly you do not need a modem to play the console in the first place, and if for whatever reason you decide you want to play online the console comes with a good length of ethernet cable. Mine came with over twenty feet of cable. So you can run your own line into another room. Given that you have no intentions of playing online that is still an option for the occasional download of content if you decide to increase your consoles memory.

Bottom line the arcade is still a fully functional 360. The hard drive is a peripheral not a requirement. The live gold service is also an optional service. Even though you will get a free month of it regardless. I do not even see where you are going with your logic other then trolling.

You say you do not want to play online. Well if that is the case then what exactly do you need a hard drive for. Unless you are going online and downloading content the hard drive is totally redundant.

I wasn't aware modding a console for the sake of playing home-made game is "encouraging piracy". Heck, I have my iphone modded, does that make me a theft?

OK well thak you for letting me know. And no this is not a "stealth troll" I'm wondering how many saved games you think I'd be able to get off the memory stick. Remember that I am absolutely not going to play the 360 online and I have a gaming PC so keeping the system cheap is important to me as I would get much less use out of the system then a conventional 360 user. Also the new arcades do they have HDMI output?

dolemit3
PMSL, thank you. Having a crap day at work & that was just what i needed, A good chuckle. Its a good question though.

Yea there is no worth in getting the Arcade 360. It's got to be the biggest scam against people in awhile. And I know it's for people who are just looking for a console to play but it doesn't save you any money if you really want to invest in a 360.

The pricedrop of the Arcade alone is simply for advertising reasons. Maybe it'll appease some people who just want to pop a game in everynow and then but for real gamers it's a rip-off.

 I'm not sure the size of the memory card that comes with with the arcade sku, is it 256mb?

It might be 512mb, in any case 256mb is enough space for around 15-20 games (with a good few saves in each game at least).

The bit I've bolded...ALL 360s have had HDMI for a good 9 months...But it seems that recently Microsoft have started repairing Xenon based 360s that get RROD with a motherboard that doesn't have HDMI (Before this they would upgrade your motherboard to have HDMI out).

I'm almost certain that ALL 360s being sold today have HDMI...as in 99% but you should just look at the box as it will clearly say.

M$ almost got me to buy 2 360s. I need another one to play while my wife hogs the 42" lcd. But I figured I could just wait.

Your forgetting that only people who are technically incompetent whine about people with modded 360's because they don't have the ability to do it themselves (and it is a simple process) . Also I've had mine modded since January 07 and haven't been banned off of live for playing my backup games.

Hmm that would push it past ps2 in my Book. Ohh I'll have a killer set up. Leaning back twoards 360 arcade now. Hmmm could they go as low as $150 soon ohhh wow my gamefly account will really be paying for itself. Sorry PC but we'll always have Guildwars.

You can actually buy a certain make of Hitachi drive, reflash the firmware and then use it with the 360 just fine.