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Is this a good or bad thing?

Just had the thought about our Philips CD-i and the Digital Video Cartridge Upgrade. Now we're seeing the same type of segregation in the next lot of consoles. The PS3 is said to offer differing capabilities whilst the XBOX 360 has the same issues that faced CD-i with certain games. With core pack owners having to buy a seperate Hard Drive to play certain games like Football Manager 2006 and Ninety-Nine Nights due out in September! Before Microsoft promised 'Base-Case' compatibility with all units, a white lie it seems.

It's a good thing in my opinion, it stretches the consoles life and it gives more potential to new software. It's a shame now Microsoft promised base case compatibility from the first place, Philips came with the DVC later because it wasn't ready from the beginning. The harddrive of the 360 just isn't an upgrade, they just offered a cheaper model without it at the same time. A little different, no?

Of course it's an upgrade!

Adding a hard drive to your system surely qualifies even if the core technology pushing the games remains the same. My comparsion with CD-i stands, with the requirement of this upgrade to play certain games. Admittedly at a basic level, although the price tag of the hard drive is easier to swallow than the hundreds of pounds for a Digital Video Cartridge back in the day!

In my view, you upgrade (as in update) a system to let it compete with the market for a little longer. Microsoft just offers 2 systems, one with and one without the harddrive. OK, it's an upgrade, but it's a different upgrade, then.

You can't buy seperate harddrives, can you? I mean, can you also upgrade the core 360 system to a premium machine?

True. I'm simply making a point about the division introduced by the two different packages to consumers. Looking towards the future what do you make of the external Blu-Ray drive? Yet another 'upgrade' that again Microsoft promised wouldn't be a requirement. Then again we heard this same promise for the hard drive didn't we!

I guess you mean the HD-drive, then? Will games be only pressed as HD-DVD in the future for 360, then?

That's the one! Developers have reported difficulty compressing all the information onto regular DVD's so who knows. Maybe an integrated HD-DVD XBOX 360 will be released with time. I'm certainly not ruling out the possibility, another reason for me to hold off on buying one!