For the unique subsections of Canadian citizens who are also Xbox 360 Arcade owners, there are two things you should be doing today. The first thing is voting (if you haven’t already done so) and the second is signing up for free memory from Microsoft [link via GamesIndustry.biz]. Of course, that also goes for non-Canadians as well. In fact, by entering in your serial number and console ID on the online form, you could be eligible for a free 512MB or a refurbished hard drive for a price between $30-40 (CDN). It’s a pretty good deal anyway you slice it, considering the use of the hard drive for downloading movies, games, demos, trailers and all kinds of other great content from Xbox Live. But why the sudden spike of generosity?

The New Xbox Experience dashboard is set to launch this November 19th with a completely overhauled interface and a Mii-like system called Avatars which will be your own…avatar within your Xbox 360. It’s the next big update for Microsoft, and while it will replace the existing Blades navigation, it will cost you 128MB of space. For Elite and Pro owners, that’s a mere pittance compared to the gigabytes upon gigabytes available by default, but for Core or Arcade owners it may mean deleting some pretty important game saves from your memory card just to accommodate a built-in navigation system. That was the problem, the free memory cards and reduced price hard drives are the solution, and it is a rather inelegant but effective one on Microsoft’s part.

It seems that Microsoft’s decision to divide their console base into hard drive or no hard drive right off the bat may have been a mistake, and their actions now almost an admission to that fact. Sony did right by offering lower end storage with their systems, but still making it a mandate of the brand of PS3 to include it. While hard drives are sold separately for the Xbox, it runs about $150+, which is an insanely overpriced amount for 20-60GB of storage. While this is justifiable on Microsoft’s part, with DRM and enclosures costing a bit more than simply a drive you can throw in yourself, it still never really caught on in a big way with the core audience. The creation of the Arcade only further aggravated this problem, and with the recent price drop it sets the bar even lower, almost taking the Xbox a step down from the Next-Gen thrown it so desperately sought.

If Microsoft manages to get the word out to users, through retail channels and promotions, this may end up being a very big deal for developers in the long run. While I’m sure it is an expensive concept, delivering even a small amount of storage and indicating to the users the benefits of having this could empower more developers to utilize this in the future. After all, the NXE will allow you to install your games on the hard drive, reducing loading times among other things. The biggest problem is that you end up with egg on your face in regards to whether or not this should have been offered in the first place (which it probably should have). The last thing you want is to further alienate your users by adding “required” attachments for a console they just purchased. Free is the best price, and we can only hope that Microsoft continues to get the word out and this solution is adopted.

Go for the hard drive if you’ve got a spare few dollars kicking around. Between videos, demos and game installations, it almost feels like a necessary item for the current foray into the online world. You won’t regret it.

Images courtesy of Microsoft