Probably to force tech heads to throw another $100 their way. The thing is, the lack of an HDMI port has nothing to do with gameplay. The video game console is not affected one way or another. If you want higher potential resolution output, you throw down another $100.
They\'re offering two skus, for better or worse, and that\'s the main question that the consumer is faced with when selecting between them.
They should have released the fully-loaded console only, for $550, if you ask me. Or just bit the bullet and stuck with $500 which, when compared to the X360 doesn\'t seem too bad.
-Dan