Xbox 360 Elite ... or not

Well, in case you didn't know yet, Microsoft announced the impending arrival of the Xbox 360 Elite, a completely new SKU that comes with a 120-gig hard drive, HDMI port and cable and comes in black. Now it resembles my car.

If you're tempted to assault the store when the Elite drops at the end of April, be warned. Check out what Joystiq (via Wired) points out about the apparent litany of boundaries that comes with the supposed treasure trove of storage space. The big stinker is that even if you have two 20-gig hard drives, you can only put the goods from ONE of those drives onto the Elite's big-daddy drive. Boo! There's more, but just check out the link to see it all ... it'll hurt.

As for HDMI ... meh. I'm pretty happy with my premium 360 that's managed to stay relatively healthy (as I say that, I'll fire up "GRAW 2" and watch, it'll start bleeding) and never really looked at HDMI as a make-or-break feature. I'm curious to see what the launch system owners are thinking ... probably nothing I can print. If you're in the camp that couldn't care less about HDMI, then paying $180 for more space probably isn't appealing to you -- not to mention the underlying feeling that you're being told your system is inferior. At least that's the message I get. And I don't think I'm alone.