Engadget claims to now have confirmed the XBox 360 Elite. A few further bits of info:

# Eventually Elite hardware (in white plastics) will take the role of the Xbox Premium. That is to say, after the Elite is launched and sold out, future Xbox Premiums will have 120GB / HDMI.
# We do not yet know exactly when 120GB / HDMI will become the standard for Premium, but it is loosely estimated to be late summer or fall.
# Elite models run cooler than normal 360s, but they are not yet confirmed to have 65nm chips.
# Prices may remain the same with the 120GB / HDMI hardware upgrade in the Premium Xbox, but we may still see a price cut on the line when 65nm chips start shipping.

Yeah, I'm interested in seeing that too.. knowing Digital Eclipse though it's probably just two flavors of filtering. "Enhanced" is likely the plasticy version that is shown in the screenshots floating around, "Original" is probably the standard blurry stretching Digital Eclipse is notorious for. It'd be beautiful if they did a clean resize of the game (it would fit perfectly x3 in 720p), but it's not happening.

Based on other ports of 2D titles I've seen on the PSP, it doesn't bode well. Princess Crown, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Valkyrie Profile look pretty poor on the system. At least Princess Crown offers a 1:1 mode, the others don't. Valkyrie Profile is horrifying bad.

I like the black plus the larger HDD would be a big welcome for me(I only have around 4gb left). I may just have to place myself an order for this.

Wait.. so once this limited edition sells out, the premium set will have HDMI and 120GB. So basically you're paying $80 for a paintjob?! Or are they planning on instituting a price INCREASE? Jeebus, they could have eliminated the Core, dropped the current Premium to $300 and had this Elite replace the premium and they could have nut punched Sony (in America and Europe at least).

^ Yes, that's how I read it. $80 for a limited edition black coat. If you want it in white/grey or for $400, you have to wait a few months.

Yep. They could seriously put a hurtin' on, but this shows where the company lacks direction. Sure they have a big lead, but that is ONLY due to a year head start, nothing more.

As for the $80 paint job, Apple does the same with their laptops(or used to), $100 more for black.

Honestly, having supported the 360 from the beginning, this pisses me off. So I'd have to shell out an additional $200 to get a bigger HD, and even then, no HDMI support.

So if my unit goes down after this new one comes out, will I get a HDMI or older version returned to me?

You forgot the smiley.

There is no way you'd get a newer unit. Maybe in 5 years if they stop selling the older units and if they run out of refurbished older units.

It is the price you pay for buying now rather than later. If you bought a PS2 at launch for $300, were you upset when the price dropped to $200 a year or so later? Were you upset when the better-designed slim PSTwo came out at $150? It is just the price you pay for early adoption.

Older. Microsoft will still make the older systems it seems.

It is still unknown if HDMI will really be a jump up for games. The HD content from Live, will benefit from it.

Yay, the l33t60.

I need a smiley that's twirling its finger in a sarcastic display of cheer.

Well, my launch console finally bit it today.

I had no prior problems before, booted up the Viva Pinata demo and bam, 3 red lights.

I bought my console with my american express card so instead of going through microsoft, I'm going to get AMEX to credt my card with the $400 and buy a new console.

Hopefully if this new 'extreme' version is true than this will be a blessing in disguise. As I can wait until it comes out and it only cost me $80 to upgrade.

Bad news is that it will probably be about a month before I get to play again.

Why?

I've never once seen a difference between component and HDMI on my setup (when viewing movies). The display will convert (inside the set) to analog and then back to digital anyhow, so the idea that "all digital" is better doesn't hold much water.

That's different. They were still the same system. This is something else entirely.

Is there going to be something that would let me transfer everything on my old HD to the new one? Otherwise, I'm not even sure I'll buy it.

If you have the $, just get a memory card and transfer all of your saves and other stuff there. That's what I did when I had to get an new HDD.

Well, I'll now be on console #3. My second 360 just died a few days ago. I had been playing Crackdown for a few hours fine, and than the next day I had the three red lights.

I'm not too bummed about now being able to play a game on the 360, but I was looking forward to watching Children of Men in HD next week so that'll have to wait for a little while.

I've never had any problems with console systems prior to the 360. I never thought I'd already be on my third console like fifteen months after buying the system.

Like the original Xbox, not every save will transfer. I ran into one last year it wouldn't let me copy. Can't remember what game it was though. Burnout, maybe?

I'll be picking up Armored Core 4 and Virtua Tennis today

So anyone tried Symphony yet?

Too many of them.

I'm going to try and have a review up later, but it's definitely a

SOTN is amazing. I didn't notice much difference with the enhanced graphics until I switched them back to the original - the original graphics look very pixelated, especially on a big tv, and the enhanced graphics smooth everything out and make it look a whole lot better overall. The score is just as amazing as I remembered it - classic Castlevania. Now I remember why I spent so many hours playing this game 10 years ago - this is probably the best Castlevania game to date. Money well spent.

Bought it, love it. Fantastic port.

Worms, TMNT, and SOTN... March has been a fantastic month for Live Arcade. (Nice timing on SOTN, almost 10 years to the day since its PSX release). After Alien Hominid and those 3 games, they've gotten a good chunk of change out of me.