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Developer Infinity Ward is asking community members (registration required) to pick from one of five box arts for the impending Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare launch. The artwork is fairly similar for each of the selections, including a curious sticker next to the ESRB tag that says "storage required" under what appears to be an Xbox 360 disk drive and a memory unit.

If just a memory unit is required, the financial burden on those without disk drives won't be so hard ... but honestly, is anyone using their Xbox 360 without some storage method? We've contacted publisher Activision (and Jamie Kennedy, of course) for more information.

As the lifespan of the 360 continues, the Core will mean less than it already is worth.

I feel sorry for those Core owners. Microsoft, ironically, haven't given them much "choice" in this regard. If you want to play great games now and especially in the future; buy a hard drive or a memory card.

This isn't the first game to require a storage device. You needed it for Crackdown to play Co-op.

Didn't like only 5% of all 360 owners had the core?

wtf.. all games need storage devices if you actually want to save your game. and common, who plays through a game without saving?

Don't all games need storage devices to save?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360 Scroll down until you see a chart

The core doesn't come with a hard drive. As far as I know, unless you buy a hard drive or memory stick, there is no way to save your games on a core system.

The core has next to nothing compared to the premium and up.

MS gives customers the choice to purchase a cheaper console and then upgrade it later on when possible.

Let's compare little Johnny's choices for Xmas 07

360
Core Unit
Premium Unit
Elite Unit

PS3
20 gig (discontinued)
60 gig (soon to be discontinued)
80 gig

It's pretty clear which console of the two offers the customers choices.

Fanboys in glasshouses shouldn't throw rocks.

The fact is, having a choice is good.

None of you, if I'm mistaken, were in line for 14hrs to get a X360. I was. What did I see? Moms & Dads standing in line, waiting to buy cores, NOT premiums. By the time the Prems were sold out, there were maybe 3 cores left. Quite possibly one of the quirkiest things I've seen, but @ launch, it was more like 25% sales for Core vs. Premium without the whole forced choice of core, after prems were sold out.

People always malign the Core, and say it needs to die - it doesn't. It's merely a choice, because you can still play 99.5% of hard-copy games with a basic memory card. Lets think: $330 vs. $400. Some people might choose the former, which is why there's STILL a 10% attach rate for cores.

Yes, customers get screwed on a core because the HDD is the extra $100, and with a prem, your getting a few extra tidbits (like wireless controller and headset), but again, in some people's minds, it's a better choice.

What happens if MS drops the core to $199 and throws in a 64mb or 512mb card. Is it useless then? When MS launched the core in Japan, sales had a noticable upswing, and haven't been the same since. It provides basic gamers that might want a X360 for 3-5 games, a worthwhile, easier investment. It's not for the 90% of us, and thats why the 10% pick it up.

Every game requres a memory card to function properly. Even back to the PS1 days, it's been like that!

Choice is always a better idea than no choice, and that difference is one of the primary reasons the 360 is selling better than the PS3 (HDD choice, HD DVD choice). Most people choose HDD and no HD DVD, but they have the option of going with the core if that's all they can afford (and possibly upgrading later to a HDD), and the option of buying the HD DVD later on if it becomes the dominant format.