Since the launch of the Xbox 360, consumer’s have been greeted by various Xbox 360 Accessories, many of them will seem way over priced for what it really is, like the harddrive’s. Many gamer’s already know why the accessories’ are priced like that, not because of greed, but because of how the device is manufactured (Bio’s is on the device, etc) and the various security measures (The exclusive casing) on the device itself. But what about the people that don’t know about this? What will this mean for Microsoft?

Consider this, you are just the average Joe who games but know’s little about the things behind it. You walk into Best Buy and see the Xbox 360 120GB harddrive listed for $179 compared to the external PC harddrive listed for just a fraction of that cost. How do you react to such a thing other then cursing at Microsoft and possibly “switching sides”?

There is possibly very little Microsoft can do to appease these people without losing money at this point, I assume they will learn from this and design the next Xbox with this in mind. But the question remains, why did Microsoft choose this way of business? They obviously saw the numbers and realized many accessories will make them a small profit, so why not use a alternative?

What could Microsoft possibly do to ease the burden felt by consumer’s forced to by accessories that cost well over $100?

• Allow regular Wi-fi adapters to work with the Xbox 360, their is really no security flaw that could be caused by a simple USB wireless adapter.
• Webcams possibly? Although only a small niche complain about this issue it could be done, although a ton of people who be happier if the Wifi adapters were made compatible.

That’s about it, their’s really not much more you can do without compromising the security of the Xbox 360.

Although Microsoft is allowing users to use most computer accessories on the Xbox 360 without a problem:

• Headsets: If it fits in the controller it will work just fine!
• Keyboard and Mice: Any USB keyboard will work just fine in a Xbox 360, I believe mice will also work although I am not to sure.
• External Storage Devices: If you don’t like streaming your movies, music, etc from your computer you don’t have too! Just pop them onto a external storage device and the Xbox 360 OS will detect it without a hitch. Your won’t be able to store saves or anything on it though, it would be a obvious security flaw.
• Games For Windows Controllers….nuff said!

I believe that is about it, if I have missed something feel free to add it below!

What are your thoughts on this matter?