360 HD DVD add-on coming to US, Europe in mid-November for $200/?200/£130
by Ross Miller 
{ Sep 27th 2006 at 2:00PM }
Microsoft has confirmed today that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive will arrive mid-November for the US and Europe. The price will be $199.99 in the US, €199.99 in Europe and £129.99 in the United Kingdom. The European prices beat Game Industry.biz's predictions from earlier this month. The HD DVD drive will be bundled with Peter Jackon's King Kong and the Xbox 360 Universal Remote.
"[The HD DVD drive] will work with either Core or SKU. It puts [the price] on par with people who want to watch movies," said Scott Henson, Director of the Game Development Group at Microsoft. "The key part for us is to give consumers choice. We're not gonna lose money on this, but we will give it value."
Just last week, Microsoft's Peter Moore announced that the Japanese HD DVD drive would launch November 22 for ¥19,800 (about $170).
By region, the Xbox 360 + HD DVD combo is virtually the same price as the PlayStation 3, even among their respective models, in the US and Europe. The core consoles are different by a meager ¥300 in Japan (even after both consoles dropped their price); we cannot compare the premium editions because Sony has an open price for the megaton PS3. In the United Kingdom, however, a PlayStation 3 will cost you £375 to £425, while the Xbox 360 + HD DVD will only be £330 to £410. Will the British price delta sway any videophilic gamers out there?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Matt @ Sep 27th 2006 2:03PM
So that's what was up with that... God, I knew there was a reason I didn't respect Kotaku, I just forgot exactly *why* for a minute. :)
VampireHunter Z @ Sep 27th 2006 2:13PM
The price is exactly where I expected it. I only got 720p for now but I'm still picking it up. I was wondering if the regular remote would work since they haven't said anything about a remote. So I guess any 360 remote works.
Have Sony said anything about there remote or will the controller double for watching Blu-Ray?
joe cee @ Sep 27th 2006 2:15PM
too bad it doesnt support game storage...........looooooooooossssssssssserrrr
Pac Man @ Sep 27th 2006 2:16PM
The only major difference I see between having a 360 with add-on HD DVD and the PS3, is that you use Blu-ray to play games on, which you can't do with the combo. Still, it's a fairly good price I suppose.
crono141 @ Sep 27th 2006 2:23PM
I wouldn't WANT my games on Blu-ray.
Sure you could use all that extra space for uncompressed textures. Too bad the BR drive reads at half the speed of DVD.
Have fun with those load times Sony fanbots.
Wild Homes @ Sep 27th 2006 2:24PM
this is an excellent deal. getting this for $199 is like the Wii letdown in reverse. and the pack-in stuff is really great, too.
let's not forget, though, before the Sony fanboys roar in rage about how their system already comes with a next-gen player... what makes this a great deal is that it is _optional_ and will support 1080p for only $200. no one is forcing you to buy it, and if HD-DVD loses the format war (which just got more interesting, I get the feeling Toshiba has decided to come to the fight after all) you won't be stuck with a console using proprietary media.
atomicpondula @ Sep 27th 2006 2:33PM
well for a start it's HD-DVD which is my prefered risk out of the two formats for future dominance (Sony notoriously backing/inventing the wrong horse every time; Betamax, Atrac, Minidisc... BR?).
The price isn't bad at all, I only wish It had an HDMI interface (not for tech reasons but because my TV has 2xhdmi and one spare begging for use and it won't be a PS3 plugged in there!). And HD king kong should look great (the upscaled DVD looks good already).
ALICE UNCHAINED @ Sep 27th 2006 2:29PM
i'm in. HD-DVD for only $200? no brainer. if it fails, you're out only $200 bucks, which is significantly less than the $500 HDDVD or $1000 BD entry price points.
Scythe @ Sep 27th 2006 2:32PM
sorry but for an extra $200 after already spending $400+ on a new console and then not have it effect my game playing in anyway seems a little depressing. I have a DVD player already that does that, why buy another DVD player just because it play HD DVD's? Wow why can't it pay HD games with more storage space like the PS3 with Blu-ray? Wouldn't that help sell more consoles and be worth the extra cost.
I mean I can spend the $600 on a PS3 then play games and HD movies on the same console without buying anything to attack to it other then the cables to the tv. I meen I already have enough crap on my tv stand why should I have to add more.
The PS3 and 360 at first seemed the same but the 360 seems to be falling behind needing to many attachments and updates. Why wasn't the 360's 1080p activated from day one? Why did everyone have to wait a year to get this since it seems to console had it ready to go already? That just sould like somone was saving it as a trumpt card for when the PS3 arrived. Well if you ask me it's back fired on them.
gwangi @ Sep 27th 2006 2:31PM
Not bad and the add-in makes it even nicer. Too bad King Kong wasn't that good.
Mike Kazanjian @ Sep 27th 2006 3:11PM
I'm out! This price point sucks. My predicition is that by next spring you'll be able to purchase a stand-alone HD-DVD player for about 250 with plenty of more bells and whistles.
TexRob @ Sep 27th 2006 2:38PM
This is a no brainer, $200 for an HD-DVD player is fantastic.
Phranctoast @ Sep 27th 2006 2:39PM
"Have fun with those load times Sony fanbots."
the HDD is there for a reason.
Pete @ Sep 27th 2006 2:41PM
I have a 360, would love to play this in 1080p, but how the shit are you going to do that on any new 1080p television out there? None of them support 1080p via component or VGA. None of the good ones anyway (DLP, SXRD). As I understand it, any set that has an HDMI port on it will not accept 1080p any other way.
JPRacer @ Sep 27th 2006 2:46PM
The cool thing about this, like Wild Homes said, is this is optional. You don't have to pay for something you don't want. Currently I'm happy with DVD movies and don't need HD-DVD so I save $200+.
And please, don't say PS3 have 25 GB of storage for games. This is BS. There's no need for that. Look at games like Gears of War... Look at PC games. You can say the PC have almost an unlimited storage capacity and no game, even with full install, takes more than 6-7 GB. So DVD is clearly up to the task for this gen.
Phranctoast @ Sep 27th 2006 2:43PM
"Have fun with those load times Sony fanbots."
the HDD is there for a reason.
The New Revelation @ Sep 27th 2006 2:43PM
I'm not sure where I stand on this. For how great everyone seems to think this is, this is essentially Microsft playing catch-up with Sony... and I don't know how good that is. If both systems cost the same, I'll be going with the PS3. The integrated HDMI is what seals the deal for me, and I think that in terms of shelf-life, the PS3 will have have more to offer in terms of power/longevity with the Cell/Blu-Ray combo.
Either way, the fact that Xbox 360 will do 1080p over VGA with seemingly RCA audio is a deal breaker for me. I am one of the people who's ready for 1080p, and with that high-end video I need high-end -OPTICAL- audio. Maybe such a cable will be released for the 360...
Quite frankly Microsoft rushing the 360 to market and tacking on all these upgrades later, I just wish they would've held out an delivered it all at once. Wasn't MS just downplaying 1080p a month ago?
And @crono141:
Reports at the Tokyo game show reported very very very quick load times with the PS3. While you're playing games, they rarely have to load data, they usually just stream music. But by Sony making the PS3 by default have a HDD they are able to stream & cache data off the BD-ROM making load times much less. The PS3 essentially has a page memory file like windows that can be used as virtual ram. That lessen the load times significantly. It's not all about DVD/BD-ROM reading speed... well, it would be if the PS3 didn't have a built into hard drive.
Will I be the only person to have a Wii, 360, and PS3? Seems like it.
cubbiechris @ Sep 27th 2006 2:43PM
The load times on the PS3 are going to be brutal! I hate long load times. That is the main reason I didn't buy a PSP.
Occasio @ Sep 27th 2006 2:45PM
Too bad it has to be King Kong. If it wasn't for the whole Peter Jackson deal a coupon for movie of choice would be better. My TV has VGA connection as well.
Keef @ Sep 27th 2006 2:46PM
@13, they said that you will be able to get 1080i through component, and the FULL 1080p through the VGA cable, and nearly every HD T.V i have looked at, has a VGA input.
Nick @ Sep 27th 2006 2:49PM
This is just stupid, it's the same cost as a ps3 but it wont utilize the HD gaming, true HD gaming. 8 gigs on a DVD is already too small for current next-gen games out right now, like Madden. Madden games already have less content then their old-gen counterparts of the same year. Microsoft wanted to get out before ps3 and they are going to pay for it now.
Of course it's a great deal for anyone looking for an HD movie player and for those who already own an xbox. The fact still remains that HD graphics take tons of more space and and HD media format is really going to be needed when it comes to bigger, future titles.
I think Square-Enix already expressed their love for blu-ray because of the storage space it is going to require to play new Final Fantasy titles. Saying that mulitple disc's on a next gen platform is something they want to avoid.
crono141 @ Sep 27th 2006 2:54PM
"the HDD is there for a reason"
Still got to load it up the first time.
And besides, how many games can you cache to hdd when the entry level one (the one sony is going to begin focusing on) only has a 20 gig drive. Don't single layer Blu-Rays have 25 gigs?
Unless of course it compresses all that crap to make it take up less than 9 gig on the hdd per game.
In which case it would have been better off to go with DVD-9, dump Blu-Ray, and have a PS3 out last spring instead of only 500k units this christmas.
The New Revelation @ Sep 27th 2006 2:47PM
@Pete
The SXRD's that came out earlier this year support 1080p through the VGA, 1080i through component. HP's Pavillion line of DLP TV's accept 1080p through component and VGA. There was also a Westinghouse monitor (LCD I think) released earlier this year that supported 1080p via VGA. I know the SXRD has a true 1920x1080 picture (no wobbulation (960(x2)x1080) like the HP & Toshiba DLPs) so if I was buying a TV today, that's definitely the one I'd go with.
MosquitoControl @ Sep 27th 2006 2:48PM
No thank you.
I'll just wait for standalone players to come down in price.
Matt @ Sep 27th 2006 2:49PM
#3: Wow, if your post didn't signify some of the vast stupidity of every fanboy (regardless of system) in the world.
#12: a 60GB hard drive won't help worth shit for loading if every game is 25-50GB in size... you'd have to re-cache the entire game to memory each time you put it in to have the effect you allude to. And that would take forever, with the BD-ROM's terrible loading times. ;)
Anyway, I think the key here is choice... most of you probably don't have HDTV's, and even if you did, you probably don't have 1080p (I know my HDTV tops out at 720p/1080i), so the resolution is fairly moot. With that being said, the fact you require a VGA connection to attain 720p with the Xbox 360's HD-DVD drive is pretty... crap. The cable is $40, and lord knows it's worth five, maybe ten dollars tops in components.
The New Revelation @ Sep 27th 2006 2:48PM
@Keef, 19
Just because a TV has VGA doesn't mean it supports 1080p by it. A lot of VGA inputs just support standard computer resolutions that don't reach up to 1080p.
JPRacer @ Sep 27th 2006 2:49PM
Hey #16 (The New Revelation). Both the component and VGA connector have optical out for audio.
Phranctoast @ Sep 27th 2006 2:49PM
I like the idea of including a movie. It will make Sony do the same with the ps3. competition rocks.
so know the premium 360 cost the same as the premium ps3 but you get no wifi and 40GB less HDD space.
the core 360 will cost the same as the core ps3 but you get no HDD at all.
hmmmm
I guess MS will have to cut the 360 at least $75 soon.
This is great cuz the ps3 will see a price cut then also if that happens (like Japan).
Steve @ Sep 27th 2006 2:50PM
Why on earth are people complaining about this? Games on this generation of consoles, for the most part, will not need the storage space of HD-DVD or BluRay providing the resources used for the game are properly compressed before being commited to disc (which should in theory also help load times as you're moving much less data from the disc to memory). Therefore if you're a gamer who just wants to game, as #9 seems to be, you get a better deal as you don't have to pay for things you don't need.
If, on the other hand, you're at all interested in HD movies this is a VERY interesting purchase, not least because unlike the majority of HD players this will presumably output HD resolutions over component. The add-on price is a LOT cheaper than I think most had expected and even with a 360 Premium pack included it's going to come in cheaper than a PS3 AND include a free movie to boot (expect Sony to pack a suitable title in with the PS3 at launch btw). In fact, when you take off the retail price of King Kong (let's say £15 for arguments sake) and the universal remote (£18) you're paying £97 for the drive which puts it on the same sort of level as a decent DVD deck. IF the free upgrade for DVD upscaling to 1080p also allows upscaling over component (that seems a bit fuzzy at the moment) then suddenly the 360 becomes a very good deal for those interested in home theatre.
Tony @ Sep 27th 2006 2:51PM
It's really good that with the HD DVD add-on Microsoft are giving you the choice.
The choice of never going beyond DVD9 for games.
Matt @ Sep 27th 2006 2:51PM
#22: You are correct. Most televisions that have VGA or DVI in are capped at 720p.
#24: Way to buy into Sony's marketing bullshit. Would you like a cookie to accompany the kiss-ass check they are in the process of mailing you?
Player1 @ Sep 27th 2006 2:52PM
"sorry but for an extra $200 after already spending $400+ on a new console and then not have it effect my game playing in anyway seems a little depressing. I have a DVD player already that does that, why buy another DVD player just because it play HD DVD's?"
Well you don't have to buy it. That's your choice and a good thing. But I will point out that if you wanted to play HD-DVDs otherwise it would cost $800 for a standalone player that does nothing but play HD-DVDs.
Me @ Sep 27th 2006 2:52PM
The PS3 beats the hell outa the 360 every angle you look at it !!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA Sorry fanboys, but you will beg for a PS3 once you see the games running on it at your friends house !!!!!
agent864 @ Sep 27th 2006 2:55PM
Seek times don't degrade on blu-ray as you traverse the disk like DVD-9. So overall you won't be able to notice a difference in load times. Plus there's the option of caching to the hard drive to speed things up. There's no difference.
Landlocked @ Sep 27th 2006 2:55PM
Too bad you can't walk into an average Blockbuster and rent a HD DVD title. BB online will only take 2 months to get a new title to you.
You could buy...but that's not fun.
Matt @ Sep 27th 2006 2:57PM
#28:
Because The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, arguably the largest game of all time, used how much of the DVD9's 9GB? I think 4GB? Jesus. Maybe, if you want to argue specifications, you might want to be familiar with them. Ever think of that?
I would bet six hundred thirty nine dollars, ninety nine cents (the cost of the beloved Playstation 3, after tax) that the vast majority of us would not be able to notice a discernable different in image quality in compressed versus uncompressed on any kind of display. Not at this point in the game. Not when none of these consoles has the balls to render, in real-time, such information.
What good is having "uncompressed textures, oh my god!?!?!?!" if you don't have the horsepower to render it? And don't give me that "Cell processor for the win" bullshit, the Cell processor is not responsible for rendering graphics, the GRAPHICS processor is, and need I remind anybody that the GPU in the PS3 is nearly identical in performance to that of the Xbox 360?
DBX00 @ Sep 27th 2006 3:01PM
Matt
We no longer need to speak in theory about loading times since people have stated that the PS3 doesn't have horrible loading times from personal experience. You don't load 50GB to the hard drive at once, you can cache the information required as the player is playing the game.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/22/joystiq-hands-on-devil-may-cry-4-ps3/
(2nd to last paragraph)
Rumors are just that, rumors. Keep up with the facts.
SuicideNinja @ Sep 27th 2006 7:13PM
Still not sold on committing to a format, even if HD-DVD is probably going to be the losing "winner" anyway.
Dux @ Sep 27th 2006 11:36PM
Thats a REALLY good price if not a steal, HD-DVD for 200 dollars.
Me @ Sep 27th 2006 3:04PM
This is my point to the dumbasses that keep trying to make the 360 seem like a good buy still......First off the PS3 only costs $499 which is better than the 360 in every way ( processor, gpu, storage medium, innovation ). Soooo... for that $499 you get the latest in technology and alot of badass exclusives that no other system will ever have....you get a blu-ray player for HDDVD's and games....motion sensing controller enhancing the gameplay.....and the hdmi output is there for true HD..1080P.....OHHH and of course you still have a 20gb hdd !!!! The 360 just looks like old tech because its just that...nothing about the 360 is amazing or innovative and its not even a year old....lmao...funny shit.....Everything about the PS3 is exciting and innovative and will deffinately be a blast when im playing it my house !!!! CANT WAIT
THE REAL POINT HERE IS THAT IF YOU HAVE THE PREMIUM XBOX CONSOLE, YOU COULD HAVE JUST WAITED FOR THE PS3 AND SPENT LESS MONEY FOR ALL OF THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY. If you buy the HD-DVD ADD ON for the premium console you have spent $100 more than the gaming PS3 package and could have even bought the premium PS3 package......xbox sux...end of story
Pete @ Sep 27th 2006 3:04PM
Holy mother of God...it's like Sony's utter f-ing bullshit has permeated the entire gaming landscape. HD GAMING DOES NOT NEED F-ING HD OR BLU-RAY DISCS. Have you ever played Oblivion?? Are you going to tell me that f-ing Madden is pushing the limits of DVD storage, yet the biggest game, and most beautiful game, I have ever played fits nicely on a single DVD? Some of you have no clue what you are talking about. Sony spoon feeds you this crap, and you just take it in. They are trying to sell their Blu-Ray product! Of course they will tell you it is needed! And this whole "true" or "full" HD gaming thing. I hate Sony. Seriously, the PS3 is a kick-ass machine and they deserve props for going full-tilt on this thing, but the Sony marketing and brainwashing committee is just pissing me off. It's utter nonsense.
Darth Pixel @ Sep 27th 2006 3:07PM
PS3 is becoming cheaper everyday!
And with PS3, decoding happens in hardware, not in software.
You can slice and dice it anyway you want, connecting a HD-DVD drive to Xbox 360 via USB 2.0 to have the decoding happen in software...is an inferior solution any day of the week.
Plus, you will have to add the noise of the HD-DVD drive to the noise of the 360 fans. (Yes, the 360 fans will have to spin quite a bit since decoding HD stream requires a lot of CPU.)
Noise is great to watch movies, right?
Giddieon @ Sep 27th 2006 3:07PM
every since my 360 dies after 5 months of use I am not buying anymore shit from MS 162 bucks to get it fixed... forget that....
DBX00 @ Sep 27th 2006 3:10PM
Pete
Put Oblivion and change all the texture files to 1080p, add 7.1 Dolby HD and then tell me that thing fits on a DVD9 with compression and reasonable load times with no hard drive cache. People keep referring to Oblivion, but until we start seeing Microsoft pushing the capabilities of their core system with 1080p textures and high definition audio I think the limits of DVD as a game storage medium will become very apparent. Oblivion already is difficult to play without the hard drive of the premium system, what do you think will happen when you start pushing the graphics further and increase to 1080p as well.
Evan @ Sep 27th 2006 3:10PM
@16 "Either way, the fact that Xbox 360 will do 1080p over VGA with seemingly RCA audio is a deal breaker for me. I am one of the people who's ready for 1080p, and with that high-end video I need high-end -OPTICAL- audio. Maybe such a cable will be released for the 360..."
Have you even seen a 360 VGA cable? The 360 already supports VGA+OPTICAL! My 360 VGA cable has an optical outlet on the back of the plug, in addition to stereo RCA cables.
killploki @ Sep 27th 2006 3:11PM
so many bitter sony fanboys.....clawing at anything they can to try and make their precious sony seem worth buying. the ps3 is over hyped and over priced just like any other sony electronic device. hope you can all swim, because the ship is sinking fast.
crono141 @ Sep 27th 2006 3:14PM
You know, you don't need 25-50 gb for "TRUE HD GAMING" like sony has fed you. I've been gaming in HD for years, on my PC. Those titles NEVER took up that much space, and they probably never will.
And you want to talk about old tech? Did you hear that Intel will have at market in 2008, a greater than 4 core processor.
Not 5, not 6 not 7 (cell).
Not 10, not 20, not 30 but 80 freakin cores!!! by 2008!!! PS3 will be obsolete in 2 years, and its not even out yet.
Hell, you probably won't even NEED a graphics chip with that, just devote 10 or 20 of the cores to graphics.
So much for the 10 year lifespan of PS3.
serbz @ Sep 27th 2006 3:14PM
wait!!!!so 600 dollars for a 360 and an add on hddvd player is ok but 600 dollars for ps3 isnt.........man the fanboyism is getting out of hand
and dont give me the optional argument....i just cant wait till ms starts making hddvd only games like....(halo3) and than you have to buy the add-on
cubbiechris @ Sep 27th 2006 3:15PM
HD-DVD or Blu-Ray who the hell cares! I'll wait for another year or two and let it all shake out before I buy either of them. Guys this is about the games! Right now MS trumps the games Sony has coming out.
DBX00 @ Sep 27th 2006 3:16PM
killploki
If anything this justifies Sony's pricepoint and is bad news for XBOX owners hoping to get a combo system for less than the PS3. After TGS, I don't think Sony fanboys have anything to complain about. We've got the games, the necessary hardware changes, and soon enough we might get a price drop like Japan. All we need to hear now is that the online component delivers and the PSP connectivity is implemented at launch. Everything is good to go on this side of the camp.