European Xbox 360 ‘Arcade’ owners are not being left out of the memory upgrade party after all, says Microsoft. Hooray!

The extra memory’s going to be needed too, seeing as the forthcoming New Xbox Experience (NXE) dashboard update is set to occupy 128MB of whatever paltry capacity Arcade and HDD-less Core console owners have got spare - and that‘s not likely to be very much. However Microsoft Europe has just confirmed that those of you likely to be afflicted will be afforded the very same ’storage solutions’ as Stateside gamers. It all breaks down as follows:

General
- Active LIVE members with no storage or with a 64mb memory unit: Offered 512mb for free or a 20gb HDD for £12.99
- Active LIVE members with 256mb or 512gb memory units but no HDD: Offered 20gb HDD for £12.99
- Console that has not connected to Xbox LIVE for 12 months and doesn’t possess HDD or a memory unit: Offered 20gb HDD and 3 month subscription to Xbox LIVE for £19.99

Arcade console
- Active LIVE subscribers without a HDD: Offered 20gb HDD for £12.99
- Non active LIVE subscribers without a HDD and not connected to Xbox LIVE within 12 months: 20gb HDD + 3 month Xbox Live subscription for £19.99.

Not bad, eh, and we certainly recommend taking the HDD option if you can afford it. Hopefully Microsoft will fill in the gaps about how to obtain all these cheapo upgrades soon. Meantime the NXE update is still on track for November 19th.