If I was an Xbox 360 Arcade owner, which is pretty damn impossible because if I bought a 360 it wouldn’t be that crap SKU, I would be quite annoyed at Microsoft. Not only do they release a console bundle that attempts to woo the casual gamer market, but then they make it redundant within months of its release.

The highly touted (by Microsoft) Nintendo Mii/Sony Home clone is soon to be released. It does come with its own originalities I should add, including, but not limited to, a new dashboard interface, party support for joining games and Netflix movie rental. Along with the announcement of this announcement they declared Xbox consoles need a minimum of 128MB of space. This is if you do not want to actually use Xbox Live for any of these new wonderful features, including movie rental and demo or game download.

So anyway, Microsoft are releasing a Live Starter Pack in the US this weekend, which contains all the stuff missing from the Pro version of the Xbox 360, namely the headset, 60GB HDD, Ethernet cable and a 3 Month Live subscription. I find it laughable that they make a poor console SKU that I’m sure the oblivious will blindly purchase due to its low price tag, then almost force them into purchasing extortionately priced proprietary once they learn more about the console.

Rant over.

This release is actually quite good for those who like to spread the cost, as the price for the pack is the same as the price difference between the Arcade and Pro SKUs ($99). So, if you knew what you were getting in to with the Arcade and went with it anyway then fine. Just don’t think with just your wallet.