you are NOT FORCED to use blu ray. u can buy DVD. or buy a ps3 for the matter.

but sony uses 2.5' HDD, USB, BLuetooth, even a standard power cable, the only thing that was not standard was blu ray, but any case if wanted my RPG in 3-4 disc i would got a 360. period.

all companies try to make their format the decofacto format, microsoft it's also know for this their crappy .WMA, WMV, silverlight, office, and IE 6 useless rendering engine that goesn't againt the standards.

Woah, really? Some of you guys are actually SUPPORING this?!

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the sign post up ahead, your next stop...The Twilight Zone!"

Just one more reason for me to be glad i went for the PS3. Makes me roar with laughter seeing people actually defend MS while MS sticks their hand into their pocket and robs them.

I know what you are talking about. This kinda thing saparetes fan from a fanboy, or M$ lover in this case. It's like I would buy psp no go, even though I already own psp. As for the whole cracking down case. You're screwed if you have done it yourself harddrive. Simple as that.

I hope you can still use rapid fire controller, usb accessory that let you plug in keyboard and mouse for games, and transfer save games to HDD for achievement whores.

^ i hope your not serious about the rapid fire controller?

Last time I checked, those drives aren't authorized by Microsoft anyways. So if you have a modded drive you have broken the EULA that microsoft had you agree to when you bought the damnd thing. The only thing microsoft is doing is making sure you can't use them.

Does it suck to have to pay extra money for a hard drive? Damnd strait it does, but their hard drives are proprietary and there is nothing you can do about it. I knew this when I bought my 360 and so did you. So quit whining about it.

Just for the record, I do think it's a wrong headed policy of M$ NOT to allow gamers the ability to install any HDD they want, and instead have to pay for the overpriced 120GB drive, but at the same time, the comments are you must be an authorized memory unit, not M$ only products.  So as far as I know, you're not allowed to use HDD other than M$ anyway...it seems like they are talking about memory units.  Somehow, that turned into a freaking whine session about how M$ doesn't allow people to use HDD like Sony does...get a freaking PS3 and move on...lots of people do it!

"Licensed for Xbox 360

Third-party products bearing the Licensed for Xbox 360™ stamp have been tested extensively with the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Such products, like headsets or controllers, will also support Xbox LIVE play."

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/xboxlive/getconnected/xboxlivecompatiblelogo/xboxlivecompatiblelogo.aspx

It would be like cheering the chinese company making knock-off PSP Go look-a-like!

^ Hopefully you are right and those 3rd party memory cards may end up working.

M$ wants to eliminate priated shit that are cheap knock-offs...the  HDD issue is a separate one, and YES M$ should allow me to get my 500GB HDD and install it in my 360 if I want to.  But then again, I've been saying for years that it would be great, if the new 360 has an SD card slot or something to that effect.  I honstly think M$ is going to look strongly at flash memory in the next console...in 3 years, a 32 GB card will be cheap, and when you mass produce them on the billion level, it's only going to ger cheaper.