Microsoft has unofficially revealed plans to sell a standalone 250 GB hard drive for the Xbox 360, matching the size found only in special edition console bundles up until now.
Word of the larger hard drive is appearing in advertisements on the Xbox 360 console itself, according to Kotaku. Some retailers are also listing the drive, including Gamestop and Amazon, the latter of which says it'll ship on March 28 for $130.
Currently, the largest standalone Xbox 360 drive holds 120 GB, and also sells for $130. It's the same size that Microsoft offers in the standard Xbox 360 Elite. The only way to get a bigger hard drive was to buy a special edition console released alongside a blockbuster game, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. Microsoft previously said it had no plans to sell a 250 GB hard drive outside of its console bundles, but then made the drive available in Japan last month, foreshadowing this turn of events.
Personally, I don't need a 250 GB Xbox 360 hard drive. With the ability to stream media from networked computers, users can save lots of room by leaving their videos and music off the hard drive. However, with the console allowing installation from game discs, and selling full-sized retail games for download, I could see some users requiring more than 120 GB.
Even if you're not one of those users, this is still good news, given that Microsoft will sell the hard drive for $130, the same price as the current 120 GB standalone drive. That'll drive down prices of smaller drives on retail sites such as Amazon, making it more affordable for early Xbox 360 adopters to replace their 20 GB or 60 GB drives. Upgrading was once a ripoff compared to comparable external computer hard drives, which can't be used to store games from the console, but now it's starting to look reasonable.
