Asian Xbox 360 - good idea?

[Brim]

A couple of months ago, I sold my 360 to help fund my addiction for expensive Dreamcast stuff.

Anyway, I miss it and I want another. So while browsing PA I came across an Asian 360 premium complete with 220v PSU (so no need for a hefty stepdown) for ?230. The selling point being that all the Asian games are listed at ?23 each.

My questions therefore are....

Are there any obvious setbacks to buying one of these rather than a PAL one?

Are all the games listed as coming out on Asian launch date (16 March) really coming out? (I'd be buying Ghost Recon, Fight Night 3, Battlefield 2 and Burnout Revenge)

Why are the games so much cheaper?

Could I get online with it in the UK?

Many thanks for any help.....

[sj33]

An Asian 360 is a decent short-term solution, nothing more.

People bought Asian 360's on launch because they were so easy to obtain, and they didn't want to wait a few months - understandable. But people will soon hit a wall, X game will not work on their machine, or they will be limited to Japanese games or whatever. The player just creates and additional hurdle for themselves.
It just doesn't seem a sensible thing to blow ?230 on.

[Spatial]

Games are probably cheaper to help MS try and crack the market.

Getting it online won't be a problem - you can sign any region system up to a Live account and it'll work.

[asnozz]

i would go for it, although the only problems i can see are the possibility of western games getting released later in asia (or not at all, although most major releases came out on the xbox) and the possibility of getting a faulty machine (maybe wait until a hardware revision?)