…although, I wish that trend would come to an end. I couldn’t have been happier this morning, when I read the news that Toshiba had come to their senses and dumped HD DVD. Instead of relaxing on the couch while I sipped my morning coffee, I listed my HD DVD add-on and all my movies on eBay. All the while, in the back of mind I knew I was finally going to get an Xbox 360 Elite. I never thought the day would come! I figured I would also have a bunch of white Xbox 360 hardware and would never be able to live with a mix and match setup. But once the HD DVD add-on was gone, that all changed. On my lunch break, I took a drive down to my local shop and returned shortly after with an Xbox 360 Elite.
Shortly after dinner I set it all up, sat back on the couch and thought to myself, “Hmm, it doesn’t look very black. More of a grey, really.” At first, I shrugged it off, grabbed a controller and replayed a couple campaign missions in Halo 3 with Hannah. At one point when we were both down for the count, Hannah looked over at the new Elite, then up at me and said, “It looks kinda… grey, doesn’t it Daddy?” It does! And that’s because it is grey!
I thought I would do a little comparing to see if it’s really that obvious. Setting the Elite controller in front of the console demonstrates nicely, how truly not black it is. I guess you can throw “Microsoft doesn’t know that grey isn’t black” in the pile of things that Microsoft doesn’t know. Along with, “Microsoft doesn’t know that HD movies do sell game consoles.” HD DVD, what? You watch… Xbox 360 Blu-ray add-on will be announced before the season’s out.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve no doubt witnessed some coarse words tossed in Microsoft’s general direction directly at those mother bitches. I don’t enjoy this… ranting and cursing like a belligerent asshole. And I can honestly say, there aren’t many other sources that have forced as much frustration upon me as they have. Although, the vast majority of that stems from their bastard child, Internet Explorer. None the less, it just seems to be one thing after another with them, and because of this, I have a very short fuse when it comes to all things Microsoft.
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34 people have had something to contribute so far.
Omg… are they trying to tell us that Grey is the new Black? The deception! Haha once again Microsoft didn’t fool you yeah?
Heh, well they did fool me, since I ended up buying it without knowing.
My first reaction was to try and defend the “mother bitches” because I thought I recalled the Elite being promoted as having a charcoal finish. Then, I looked it up on xbox.com – http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360elite/ – and there it is plain as day: “premium black finish.”
As much as I want to root for them in this generation, Microsoft always cuts corners on the little details that keep them from putting out a truly quality product. I even bet that the pic on of the controller next to the console on that page is doctored.
They do make it very hard to like them, don’t they?
lol, good that Microsoft didn’t actually name Xboxes by color (like Sony does sometime)
..”Xbox 360 Silver”, “Xbox 360 Black”?!
still, kinda dissapointing about HD-DVD and all that.
Way to go on colour matching, Microsoft. It really sucks that they can’t get something as simple as that right. I’m pretty disappointed with MS after seeing the Red Ring of Death yesterday. Had my console since September and it’s already dead.
Matt that sucks for sure. It’s amazing how many people have been snake bit by the “Red Ring” syndrome–and I’m sure it leaves a bad taste in you mouth as far as Microsoft goes.
I’ve been fortunate when it comes to the both the original XBOX and XBOX 360. I still have my original 360 purchased at release, and an Elite as well, both work fine, no glitches so far.
Microsoft will make it right, but it’ll suck having to be without the console for a few weeks. For me, I dig the XBOX and all that XBOX Live has to offer. And although black isn’t black anymore, aesthetically speaking, it’s much better looking rig than the PS3 brick–in my opinion.
There’s a lot of reasons to be hate’n Microsoft, but hey, you can give them some lovin too.
Matt “Short Fuse” Brett vs Microsoft, not that fight I would love to see!
It’s unbelievable the amount of the market that Microsoft have even though they manage to do so much wrong to everyone!
And yes, that photo shows that it is infact grey.
The thing that makes it all the more embarrassing if you were a Microsoft person would be that they got the black on the controller right, so they obviously know the difference and don’t care. What it shows (and this is nothing new for redmond) is a lack of attention to detail.
That lack of attention to detail is why windows is perpetually harder to use, internet explorer is less functional, and their security is much worse than they could be.
Just look at the first Zune, a device that was so out touch design-wise that they actually thought that “skid marks brown” was going to be a hot color, and the button in the middle looked like the click wheel of an iPod but didn’t work the same way as one, thus confusing people.
The dirty truth of the Xbox 360 is that it wouldn’t have sold as much as it has if it wasn’t for the fact that it came out a year before the PS3 and the Wii.
Microsoft is brilliant at executing a business strategy and edging out their opponents – when that’s all that matters, but when it comes time to build something in house, well, they’re nothing to write home about (except Xbox Live, they nailed that one). They’d be much better off just acquiring an actual design firm, leaving them isolated off campus and letting them run wild.
Good points, Rob.
My favourite incident regarding the Zune was when they secretly bundled some hot pink ones as a bonus, only to receive the opposite reaction they expected – people hated them! Indeed, so very out of touch on so many levels.
I think you’re probably right about that.
HAHAHA Fantastic…
In the words of Borat:
That XBOX is black.
NOT!!!
Holy shit. I have an Elite and have never even noticed how grey it is. Do you regret buying it now?
Is it just me or is yours especially grey? Look at mine (but then again this is next to the Premium) http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockersdelight/1432859051/in/set-72157602930490405/
No, I don’t regret buying it. I’m just not as satisfied with my purchase as I’d like to be. I might look into this, and if I find out that some consoles are indeed a lighter shade than others, I’ll get me a replacement.
Same, I’ve had mine for about 4 months, and never noticed how grey it actually is. Weird…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediasoldier/2279933856/in/photostream/
Wow you didn’t even touch on DRM issues and you still had a full rant post:)
Man that f’ing sucks – I totally didn’t expect that it would be dusty black – so ghetto, what else in your media stand would match this?!
Oh, I’ll get to the DRM issue when my data transfer kit arrives, no doubt.
Yeah, neither did I! I’m actually not as irate about it as it might seem, but I’m not stoked either. And as you can imagine, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Brilliant, only a designer would notice this, I’m pretty sure that the a button in 1px lower then all the others o the controller, although I might be wrong.
Hey now that you mention it…. haha
Hey Matt. I haven’t done any searches for this, but maybe there is an all black faceplate you could buy. The rest of the console would still be grey, but maybe it would be more bearable if the front is at least black.
Ok, screw it, I did a search, and the first thing that popped up was a see thru black:
http://www.modchipman.com/xbox-360-faceplate-equinox-black-p-650.html
Hope that helps.
I’ve actually got the black after market faceplate. It doesn’t look so hot on the console, though. Partly because it’s a bit beat up – I had just thrown it in a box with a bunch of other crap, foolishly.
I’m sure my mate’s 360 Elite is ‘proper’ black, but now you have me doubting myself.
I’ll go and do some investing (perhaps, if I HAVE to, play CoD4 online for a few hours) and see if it’s black or not so black.
“Mother bitches” is a very underused phrase by the way.
That’s weird, my friend has an Elite and the black is nearly the same colour as the controller. Maybe it was just the lighting or something.
I don’t know why Microsoft went with the white color for the Xbox 360 in the first place. Black is so much better.
I disagree on that one; but I suppose it’s a matter of opinion.
I Laughed out loud as soon as I heard “Their bastard child, internet explorer”.
Microsoft, the company that just don’t have to care.
I’m sure my elite is black. In fact I’m certain it’s a darker shade than that filthy grey they’ve slapped on yours. I’ll take a photo later with the controller next to it to compare… then you can mock me when it turns out all our elite consoles are in fact grey!
haha Microsoft definitely disappoints but i was glad they gave away a free game a couple weeks back… shows they are trying =T.
I knew exactly what MS was going to do when I heard they were going to give us a free game. Of course, one would think that you’d get to choose a game, but no. MS tells you which you can have since there’s thousands of people right off the bat that will miss out since they already own it. And people with multiple profiles on the same console are restricted to only having one of their profiles compensated for the down time. In my case, I got fucked on both counts.
Yay Microsoft!
Look at the white side of this black issue, Matt. At least you’re less likely plagued with RRoD on your Elite.
What I don’t get is this. What happened with your current Premium now that you have an Elite?
Actually, not so much. While my Elite has a manufactured date of December 28 2007, it’s not a Falcon model… which pisses me off. Why are they still making consoles with hardware that’s prone to failure months after they’ve identified the source and started correcting it? I’d love to know.
I actually have 2 Premiums – I lent one to a friend a few months back, which actually just RRoD’d on him this past weekend. So that’s now 3 consoles I’ve had die in about 7 months time. But anyway, I’m going to sell them both once I get my HDD transfer cable and when this latest casualty is returned.
Wow!
The Elite didn’t look pitch black to me in the store, but seeing the controller in front of it like in the picture you mad… a bit of a disapointment alright.
By coincidence, I happened upon this page yesterday:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1555030620080115?sp=true
I’m guessing that material is a bit too expensive to make our boxes from though.
Hmm. Yours looks much greyer than mine. Mine isn’t JET BLACK, but it matches the controller much more closely.
I was honestly ready to say. no!
MINES BLACK!!!! And disprove. Maybe you just got unlucky.
And then I went and set my controller next to it.
Now it’s going to bug me.
But I honestly didn’t notice until now, haha.