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This particular factor is critical. Microsoft doesn’t want to upset its current user base, but wants to provide an alternative to the PS3's media and entertainment functions. So, rather than go all out and release an all singing, all dancing new version of its console it has chosen to go the safe route and by doing so given Sony a long needed PR victory.

Barely hours after the announcement a Sony spokesperson was on hand to say that the PS3, with its Blu-ray, HDMI and upgradeable hard drive, was already an ‘elite’ product, and there’s little arguing with that statement. Microsoft will cite the external HD DVD drive as its get out clause, but, though useful as an interim measure, it’s far too noisy and cumbersome a solution for the living room.

Of course this is all the result of Microsoft wishing to be first to market, and the fundamental compromises it had to make to fulfil this wish. In an ideal world Microsoft would’ve liked to have made a PS3 type machine, but in the timescale it had this was impossible. Microsoft is now paying for that strategy, though that doesn’t mean it was the wrong one.

Ultimately, though the Elite could be construed as what the original Xbox 360 should have been, sans an HD DVD drive, now it’s a half-baked addition that doesn’t compare well to the PS3. Calling it the ‘Elite’ is clearly a misnomer, there’s nothing ‘elite’ about it. It’s a standard Xbox 360 that’s had a lick of rather ugly paint, a bigger drive and an HDMI port hacked onto it.

Microsoft hasn’t even gone as far as to make the CPU using a 65nm manufacturing process, which would’ve made the console considerably cooler and quieter. Not to mention the fact that the HDMI port is not 1.3 compliant, once again conceding ground to the PS3. Had MS combined a cooler quieter console with 1.3 HDMI and an HD DVD drive then this new SKU could have been considered a genuinely ‘elite’ product, instead it feels like a hollow attempt to compete with the PS3 on its own territory, and Sony won’t let anyone forget that.

Once again, it’s a perfect example of a new SKU acting as little more than a marketing and PR weapon. If you want to use Microsoft’s IPTV services you could just as well buy the larger hard drive and be done with it. Beyond that, there’s little reason why an Elite edition Xbox 360 is either a massive improvement over the original, or a genuine alternative to the PS3 if you’re looking for an all round entertainment machine.

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