By Eli Green
January 21, 2008 - 22:30
Many of our and other sites' readers already know, we posted a story ten days ago, January 11 th , stating that a local retailer found old Xbox 360 models dating as far back as 2006 in the new 2007 Holiday Bundle boxes. We had an update to the article two
Today, Microsoft Canada replied to our questions, asking how this happened and why models from 2006 were appearing in the new 2007 Holiday Bundles, with a statement saying, “Our focus is on the best experience possible and all the consoles are capable of 1080p output for games and movies through either HDMI or VGA cable connections." While this statement did not address the fact that the 2006 year models were appearing in these boxes, it did, implicitly, admit that Microsoft knew it was packaging the new bundles this way.
The only advice we can give to consumers looking to buy an Xbox 360 with a newer chipset and HDMI port is to check the box very closely to see which console it is, as we have said since the original article. If the box doesn't say that the Xbox 360 has an HDMI port, it probably doesn't have one. The other option is to opt for an Xbox 360 Halo Edition or Xbox Elite, which are all built with HDMI ports.