The issue is microsoft says it must meet X requirements to be fully compatible, but doesn't make these requirements known, they just say, if you don't wanna risk it, buy our drive with 50% markup, just like you did our hard drives that had a 100% markup on prices.
So my point still stands, microsoft doesn't give the reqs for the drives, and doesn't give a flip, they could VERY easily unlock the drives on the consoles to allow users to upgrade the hard drives to what size they need, and to what speed drives they would desire with out adding risk to people being capable of unlocking security features.
Yes they could very well unlock it so that any device can be used. But if they did that it would be exactly what Carnage said, bad for business. the XBOX is one of the biggest money makers for Microsoft at this point in time. It makes far more money for them than anything else by itself. It makes more money than Windows, Office or any other products they put out. So for them to just open it up and let the consumer do what they want means that they lose profit.
If you were in business and it was your company, isnt this what you want as well? To make money? So of course they are going to lock down the system to use only things that they want or allow. It is no different than the Playstation or Wii. You cant just put any old hard drive in the PS3 and have it work, it has to be a specific size in order for it to work. If not people would be hacking that system up and putting TB hard drives in there so they would never run out of space, the same thing would be done with the XBOX. People would love to have more storage on the Wii as well.
Everything about consoles is about the branding. Nintendo makes all of its money from its accessories. They lose money on every Wii sold but someone buying a Wiimote at $40 and a nunchuk at $20 is nothing but pure profit for them. That makes up the lose they incurred from the sale of the Wii. It is the same reason why such games like Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Smash Bros Wii, Mario Kart Wii and many others are still $50 to buy today even though the games are several years old. Nintendo calls them "green" titles in which all the money from them is pure profit. It doesnt matter if you got your system on release day or just got one for Xmas, the game is still considered "new" cause there has been no sequel released for it. That is why you never see a price drop on those titles. Making the Wii a tough system to sell when people see these games that have been out for years but are still the same price as they were when they were released. Heck for a period of time before they did the Nintendo Selects, Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 were both $50. How can you justify having the 2 games in the series the same price? Yet they did.
All of this doesnt even come close to the Terms of Use either. XBOX has it right within their forums that you cant touch the storage. So if you tried to use your current HDD with the newer console, you risk having your account and console banned from them, as stated right
here. So yes, Microsoft is making it very difficult for users to use their own devices to do what they want with their console, but that is also their right being the inventor, manufacturer and provider of the console. It is no different than what was done back in the days of Atari consoles or the early Nintendo and Sega consoles. Granted most of them didnt need to have built in storage, but doing any modifications to them was also strictly forbidden.
So I do see your point, I am not trying to argue that you are wrong. But the simple fact of the matter is that Microsoft, just like Sony and Nintendo, have the right to do these things. It is their device and their service that we are using. We agree to their terms when we buy the device and we have to follow them. It isnt all that much different than purchasing a copy of Windows or Office for a PC. Heck even buying a game for a PC isnt that much different. Cant just install it on any number of systems you want and play using the same serial. It is a practice that is been done for a long time now, it isnt something that is going to change soon.
