Next-Gen picked up some details from Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, product manager for all things Xbox, detailing why you're going to pay $179 for a 120GB hard drive, despite the fact that PC owners looking for comparable storage will pay far less.

Greenberg appeared on a recent Game Theory podcast to help deflect some consumer rage.

If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives.

I know it sounds expensive to a lot of consumers but we are comparable to those types of drives and also we have to go through a lot more testing and security.

It may not sit well with folks looking to upgrade their 360s, but his argument that an off the shelf drive from a hardware supplier is not exactly comparable to what Microsoft is selling has some merit. Then again, I'd have a hard time swallowing that price, too. More PR quoting at Next-Gen. Michael McWhertor

Hard Drive Price is Fair Says Microsoft [Next-Gen]

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