14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has sent official word that it is not planning on releasing the 250 GB hard drive that is part of the Modern Warfare 2 bundle announced a few days back on its own. The company has not mentioned any clear reason for the move, but players have been speculating ever since the announcement about the possibility of getting a bigger storage device for the Xbox 360 home gaming console.
Larry Hryb, who is the director of programming for Xbox Live, has told Kotaku that, “This hard drive is not being sold separately.” The bundle contains a new Xbox 360 Elite console with a huge, 250 GB hard drive, two wireless controllers, a headset and one copy of the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 from Infinity Ward and Activision. The package will be offered to gamers at the same time as the shooter comes out, on November 10, for the price of 399.99 dollars.
It seems pretty uninspired on the part of Microsoft not to release the bigger hard drive on its own. After all, there are more and more downloadable titles on Xbox Live Arcade, which demand space, saves are getting bigger, game demos are always increasing in size and there are more and more titles that Microsoft is set to deliver via the new Games on Demand service, starting with BioShock. All this content is set to compete for precious, limited space on most old consoles and gamers would probably be happy to pay for a bigger storage device, even if Microsoft charged a premium over the normal price of a hard drive with the same capacity.
Still, Microsoft might be saying that it will not sell the hard drive as stand-alone, just so it can get as many people as possible interested in the Modern Warfare 2 bundle. Expect to hear more from Microsoft after November 10.