The 250GB Xbox 360 hard drive is now available from North American retailers at $129.99, according to maker Microsoft.

The price marks some savings over the earlier 120GB hard drive, which debuted at $179.99 and more recently dropped to $129.99. Other plans for cheaper storage solutions are reportedly in the works, as Joystiq recently obtained documentation implying forthcoming support for USB storage devices, such as thumb drives.

And now for everyone's favorite part, in which we point out an earlier statement from Microsoft: "This [250GB] hard drive is not being sold separately," it once said.

Update: The standalone 250GB hard drive includes the data transfer cable required for current hard drive owners to copy over existing data, Microsoft has confirmed.