E3: MS Readies Elite, Video Content for EU
More hard drive space and the content to fill it up with.
You'd be hard pressed to find too many people angry about the absence of the Xbox 360 Elite in Europe. With no movies or TV shows to download, all that extra hard drive space that comes with the console would likely go to waste. Microsoft has taken care of both sides of that equation.
At its press briefing at the E3 Media & Business Summit this week, Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox 360 Elite would be coming to Europe on 24 August.
The Elite includes an 80 GB hard drive and an HDMI connector for getting the best possible picture on HD TVs.
Microsoft also said that it was making ground on bringing its video download service to Europe.
No exact details were given, but Microsoft's Jeff Bell said that the service would be launching in Canada and in unnamed European countries sometime this autumn.
In the US, there is already more than 2,000 hours of content available from around 30 studios. Americans have spent more than $125 million downloading content from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Most recently Disney has signed on to the service, allowing some of its classic movies and all its new movies going forward to be available on Marketplace.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo