Black Xbox 360 rumors abound

When the rumor mill gets a'turnin' you're bound to have a few false-starts, and it seems the new black Xbox 360 meme is no exception. The snazzy "black Xbox" seen above might look quite black and Xboxy, but we're sorry to report that it's just a developer box, plenty of which have been out since before launch for testing out pre-release games. Also, if when Microsoft does actually build a black version, we're kind of hoping they stick with that chrome drive tray from the regular 360, and maybe go with a truer black instead of this piddling smoke color. We're definitely not writing off the rumor entirely, according to some "leaked info" from Microsoft's planned X06 announcements this week, they'll be announcing Xbox 360 Black for the holidays, along with 1080p Halo3 and other fanboy pleasers. We also got a tip from somebody who claims to have a friend at GAME that says the black Xbox 360 will be a premium only color, and might even come with an integrated or bundled HD DVD drive and possibly a larger HDD. We suppose we'll know soon enough -- X06 is over tomorrow -- but that doesn't mean we can't stay busy drumming up the hype and unrealistic expectations until then.

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Read - Black Xbox at Microsoft event
Read - X06 info leaked

[m. sherman @ Sep 27th 2006 11:16AM]

who cares?

[The Other Jason @ Sep 27th 2006 11:23AM]

I read something in the XBOX magazine a few months ago that the DirecTV XBOX was supposed to be black and have a big hard drive for DVR stuff... Maybe that is what the black XBOX will be!!!

[Wonderboy @ Sep 27th 2006 11:25AM]

Excellent! I'm not a huge gamer and thus am not about to spend the money for an XBox 360 or PS3 (maybe the Wii, after I get a chance to test the new game-play)... at least I'm not about to buy them for their gaming capabilities, but I'm interested in PC-extension capabilities.

The white 360 would stick out like a sore thumb, so hopefully a black version will come out, and hopefully it'll be up-spec'd, cause while I'm not a big spender for gaming, the opposite is true when it comes to my home theater setup (of course the lack of HDMI really hurts the 360's chances of making it into my living room... which I'm sure it's completely heartbroken over). ;-)

[JoKoLoKo @ Sep 27th 2006 11:31AM]

I bought a Fantasy360 replacement black case, but left the chrome bezel for the DVD tray on there.
I agree, it looks awesome!

[MacGyver @ Sep 27th 2006 11:32AM]

m. sherman: I couldn't have said it better.

This is news? Listen up kids, all you need is an xbox 360, some twine, and a rusty spray can of black paint and you're all set!

Problem solved.

[cupertino @ Sep 27th 2006 11:39AM]

I agree. who cares.

if you want a black xbox, get some krylon and masking tape, FFS.

[Mrmean @ Sep 27th 2006 11:57AM]

seriously, there is nothing more engadget worthy than this? I'd take a hello kitty find over this..

[Anonymous Coward @ Sep 27th 2006 11:58AM]

Apparently you have a different definition of BLACK than I do; that looks grey (or silver) to me...

[Huey2k2 @ Sep 27th 2006 12:21PM]

Apparently I am the only person who thinks the black 360 looks stupid.

[EBG @ Sep 27th 2006 7:30PM]

Yeah.

[OGHowie @ Sep 27th 2006 12:22PM]

The rumored black Xbox 360 is not that grey one you have pictured, but an acutal BLACK colored one that was being advertised on Gamespot and then pulled.

[Adam @ Sep 27th 2006 1:00PM]

Is that the proper ventilation setup for keeping your xbox360 running smooth and cool?

[Greg @ Sep 27th 2006 1:05PM]

Seems to me that if you don't care about the color then you should go on to the next story and stop whining.

[LordPaul @ Sep 27th 2006 1:12PM]

"who cares"

People who can be bothered to post asking "who cares" I presume.

[Brian @ Sep 27th 2006 1:22PM]

who cares?

[ozi @ Sep 27th 2006 1:31PM]

yeh it would look exotic&hot with gold or silver chrome trimmings :)

[Andy G @ Sep 27th 2006 2:02PM]

Sounds like Engadget wants the 60 GB Black PS3 casing. Truer Black, Chrome Trimming, sounds a lot like PS3 case, I doubt Microsoft would use the same color scheme.

[JimyD @ Sep 27th 2006 2:30PM]

I care because the current white Xbox 360 looks like something my sister would have up on her dresser next to her makeup mirror. It should at least match other stereo components so either give me black or silver, not iPod white.

[Martha Stewart @ Sep 27th 2006 2:46PM]

I for one refuse to purchase an xbox 360 until they come in a color that matches my drapes!

-Martha

[charlie @ Sep 27th 2006 4:55PM]

Hmm... maybe they'll have the black xbox as part of a premium package when they reconfigure the xbox bundles for the holiday season. I'm thinking that we'll be seeing an xbox bundle with the 20GB hard drive for $299 (whether it comes with wireless controller as opposed to wired, component as opposed to standard AV cables, or the headset, idk, i just expect an xbox 360 bundled with a hard drive for $300 this holiday season, and also the end of any x360s without hard drives). Maybe their higher teir package could be a black X360 with internal (or bundled black) HD-DVD drive and a 60GB or 80GB hard drive for $499.

[Luke @ Sep 27th 2006 6:03PM]

"Maybe their higher teir package could be a black X360 with internal (or bundled black) HD-DVD drive and a 60GB or 80GB hard drive for $499."

I'd buy one for that price, but I think Microsoft would be smarter to lower the prices on the current xbox 360s. They don't need to do it just yet, but they could steal so much of the Wii and/or PS3's thunder buy dropping the price $50 to $100 the week the next, next-gen console comes out. Further, if they sold the HD-DVD drive integrated into the premium pack for $100 more, it would sell better than the PS3 even...

[Philip @ Sep 27th 2006 5:56PM]

LOL so M$ are going to release two different versions of their next gen console and these will come in a crap colour or a cool colour for the beter model... who does that sound like I wonder... $ony ! you all spam the crap out of them for doing it but they were open about it now M$ are underhandedly releasing a much beter version without prior knowlage and no-one is getting pissed at them WTF!!!

[P @ Sep 27th 2006 6:21PM]

Pff, I am waiting for the brown model.

[lizard.boy @ Sep 27th 2006 10:18PM]

You can already get black third party cases from Team Xtender, but thats a warrenty voider for sure.

[Dan @ Sep 27th 2006 11:40PM]

Hmm, black premium versions of products previously only seen in white? Sounds eerily familiar...