The rumors were true, and Microsoft has finally opened the curtains to reveal their new Xbox 360 Elite gaming system. At first glance, you will notice that this puppy comes in black, not kiddie white. That’s because the Elite is packing some new power. The hard drive has been upgraded to 120GB and you will now find an HDMI connection on the back of the system.

“Today’s games and entertainment enthusiast has an insatiable appetite for digital high-definition content,” said Peter Moore, corporate vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Xbox 360 Elite’s larger hard drive and premium accessories will allow our community to enjoy all that the next generation of entertainment has to offer.”

The new Xbox 360 Elite has a price of $479.99 USD. So what you should be asking yourself is this: sure it has an HDMI connection, but does it upconvert DVD’s to 1080p? Nope. Does it come with an HD DVD drive built in? Nope (you will need the stand alone HD DVD player for $299). So basically you get a larger hard drive, HDMI support and a system w/ accessories that come in black? Yup. But with that HDMI connector on the back, that could be a sign of future features, like DVD upconverting for example. Only time will tell!

Picture and more information can be found on the Xbox website.