The XBox 360 has been out for a while but with the release of the Xbox 360 Elite this year you will be finding more and more people with the 360 on their gift list this season. The question you need to ask is, is the 360 Elite really worth the extra expense? Well unless you have a mega-huge display on which you or your gift receiver play video games the answer is no, the elite is certainly not worth the extra expense. There are no additional bug fixes to the Elite system and nothing differs with the exception of SLIGHTLY sharper graphics. So our advice, stick with the older Xbox 360 unit.

The Xbox 360 Elite, along with the Wii and the PS3 has a useful online tracker that can be used to check it’s availability online, you can find a link to this tracker in the header of our site under "trackers" or you can simply click here. The only way to check availability locally; however, is to visit your local stores or to give them a call. We recommend calling ahead as this saves a lot of running around town. The Xbox 360 system is usually stocked at the following stores although the 360 Elite is in scarcer supply than the generic 360 unit. We expect a bigger rush for the Elite systems this year than we expect for the 360 general system so if you’re in the market for a 360 Elite we suggest you start your shopping now!:

Toysrus.com / ToysRus stores
Amazon.com
KBToys.com / KB Toys stores
Etoys.com
Gamestop.com
Boscovs
EBGames.com
Sears.com / Sears stores
Target.com / Target stores
Walmart.com / Walmart stores
Kohls
Kmart.com / Kmart stores
Samsclub.com / Sams Club stores
Bjs.com / BJs Warehouse Stores
Circuitcity.com / Circuit City stores
Bestbuy.com / Best Buy stores
Smaller local and privately owned toystores

Many of these online retailers will carry bundled items to go with your Xbox 360 / Xbox 360 Elite console purchase, depending on what accessories you want to go with your console you may or may not find these bundles useful.