Phil Spencer is the boss at Xbox, so, as the man at the top, he should be trying to sell gamers every Xbox One SKU Microsoft is providing. However, that is not the case where the Xbox One Elite is concerned.
Here's the thing, the Xbox One Elite is a solid specimen with a neat 1TB Solid State Hybrid hard drive. It also comes with the new Elite Controller that is being sold for a whopping $150. This whole package will set you back around $499.99, and from our view, that's very reasonable.
Microsoft also stated that the drive should allow gamers to boot from standby mode 20 percent faster than normal, so right away that might sound impressive to gamers around the world.
But in truth, it doesn't seem as if this flashy new 1TB SSHD drive is capable of faster load times or anything else that might help games install more rapidly, or even to speed up the Xbox One operating system overall.
This became even clearer after Phil Spencer, surprisingly, made a statement to IGN that made us think twice about getting an Xbox One Elite system.
"If you're really happy [with your Xbox One console] you should go try [Xbox Elite], but it really wasn't meant to try and flip you from the setup you have now. It will be faster, but I don't know if it would be fast enough to say that you'd want to go off and spend hundreds of dollars to do that," Spencer said.
From his statement, the Xbox One Elite is not being directed at current owners, but mainly those who have yet to purchase an Xbox One is looking to do so. It is also being marketed to the folks who want to the best of everything Xbox has to offer, and the Elite is it.
Our advice to owners of an Xbox One, just invest in an external SSD drive and plug it into your console via the USB port. Should you require the Elite Controller, then that can be had for $150, or just wait until the inevitable price drop.
At the end of the day, we applaud Phil Spender for not attempting to misguide gamers.
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