The Xbox 360 - why you shouldn't buy one

This may seem like heresy, I know. Tom saying not to buy a 360? Hear me out.

I rate the 360 very highly. It's a good piece of kit, at a good price, with some good titles. Microsoft are still the underdog and have none of the arrogance that comes with success - they're supportive of gaming centres and indepedant retailers, and they're pushing the 360 hard for pro-gaming.

By comparison, Sony are evil and snooty. They hate European gamers particularly, the consumer in general, and you'd sooner get a ski lesson from Satan than get Sony's help if you want their gear in your gaming centre.

Why then am I saying "Don't buy a 360!"?

Simple - upgrades. Look to the west, my friend. In the US, the 360 Premium has just had a pricecut. There are pictures all over the place of a new 360 Premium SKU with an HDMI port. There are also rumours of a new 360 model with an internal HD-DVD drive. The 360 in Australia has also taken a price-cut as well.

We're also looking at a new manufacturing process that will be pushing out the same SKUs but with more efficient (and therefore cooler) memory chips and CPUs, as well as coming with the cooling fix that resolves the Red Ring of Death that has plagued so many 360 owners.

So don't spend those pennies yet. Microsoft are fairly consistent with testing the water in the US, then pushing changes to Europe. Especially with Christmas looming, we can expect to see price cuts across the board, as well as new SKUs with extra goodies in them.

Even if you don't need or use HDMI, the bundles on older Core and Premium systems are going to get very tasty. Boots are already doing a great Premium bundle that comes in at £249, and that sort of thing is only going to get better.

Hang on a bit longer, and within the next two months you should be able to grab some real 360 bargains.

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