Xbox 360 Elite Coming To Japan

Microsoft announced that on October 11th, the first Xbox 360 Elites will arrive for sale in Japan. Like the US, these will be more expensive than regular 360s, but less than the Playstation 3. They hope that their big fancy 360 will help them carve out more of a niche in a territory where they trail badly.

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it would launch the advanced version of its Xbox 360 game console, Xbox 360 Elite, on October 11 in Japan, a country where sales of its game gear trail far behind rival machines from Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp.

The Elite's 120-gigabyte hard drive, six times bigger than the regular Xbox 360's hard drive and twice as big as that of Sony's PlayStation 3 console, can store thousands of songs as well as a library of high-definition TV shows, movies and arcade games. It will sell for 47,800 yen ($390), compared with 29,800 yen for the most basic version of the Xbox 360.

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