The 1TB 2.5" x 12.5mm drives list for $249, not including the obligatory MS peripheral tax if such a drive were used (over $299 minimum). Again this is wishful thinking to say that they'll be used by the Xbox.

While MS could easily design a new HDD caddy thanks to the clip on design to accomodate the three platter, non 9.5mm standard drive size (developer kits have a larger clip on unit), unless the price of those drives can be cut in half by next year and MS decides to equally axe their Xbox peripheral tax, I don't see 1TB peripheral drives being sold at a bare minimum $199 even by late 2010. Considering that the base 360 may well be priced at $150 by late 2010, pricing a drive well above the console itself goes beyond unlikely; more like between highly improbable and impossible.

You may as well say that because $700 250GB SSD drives are being manufactured that they will or should be used in the Xbox too.

MS will want to make Natal as inexpensive as possible to promote mass market penetration. I don't see why this so difficult to believe.

It's not as though they count on charging twice as much for this as the Wii (which is unlikely to be a cent over $200 by next year) because they want to market it as being "over twice as advanced" as Wii motion controls. This is largely why the whole 1TB Xbox 360 SKU is really wishful thinking. When the drives can be sourced for under $100, sure it's viable, but as of now they cost $250. Considering how slow MS was to upgrade the original 20GB standard drive to 60GB, and have yet to upgrade the 120GB HDD, MS has yet to demonstrate the ability to alter SKU packages at the same speed of storage expansion availability.

Wait and see. I still predict that the Natal camera itself will retail for about $50. $60 at the most. The camera itself is simply two low res CCD based cameras (each a sub $10 part) and an IR light source emitter (read: IR LED bulbs like those in the Wii sensor bar, costing pennies). The hardware will not be expensive to manufacture. Natal itself is really in the software that utilizes the camera.

Excellent post.

I;m sure it means Xbox 360's and beyond. You know like the next Xbox 720? Windows PC's? etc etc.

They will all have Natal intergration at some point in the future.

i would check out the system if it actually exists next year.

I see. That makes sense.

Then I wish people would say 'Bundled' and not Built in as they imply different things.

XBox+ is the XBox 3

Why are mad PS3 fanboys always screaming "NATAL = XBOX 720 in 2010" when Microsoft already stated this gen is only half over (i.e 4-5 years until new gen)? This will be an Xbox 360, most likely with Natal implemented in and a massive HDD boost. No new specs, etc = no new gen.

I guess PS3 Slim = PS4.

It will be any HDD that retails at a place like NewEgg for $50 when the Natal launches. Stupid to dwell on the size now. I expect the Pro HDD drive to be upgraded to 120GB-160GB this fall simply because 60GB drives now cost the same as a 120GB drive.

A 250GB HDD can be sourced for about $60, which is currently the same price to $5 LESS than a 60GB drive. 320GB drives run as low as $60 as well. 120GB drives currently run about $50.

While I'm sure MS has a special order price deal with OEM parts providers for the current drives they're using, the point remains 60GB drives are more or less special order items today, priced significantly more per GB than much larger drives.

For $10 more, the storage bumps from 120GB ($50) to up to 320GB ($60).

When looking at OEM prices of 2.5" HDDs, there is little sense in keeping the current smaller drives in Xbox SKUs based on a simple price to GB ratio. Storage simply should not carry the premium price it currently does with the Xbox.