Best Buy Xbox bundle for $399 and HD DVD for $150

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 1st 2007 at 10:58AM }

Although really not evidence of the Aug. 12 price drop, there are some interesting things going on with the Xbox 360's pricing and attachments at Best Buy. We've received two separate Best Buy scans of a "360 Top Spin Bun" that will go on sale on Aug. 12 for $399 (the same day as the expected price drop). Though we're not positive, a Top Spin 2 pack-in seems to be the obvious component here (take that Wii Tennis!).

Also curious is that Best Buy has brought down the price of the HD DVD attachment for the Xbox 360 to $150. It's currently sold out online, but most major retailers are still pricing the device in the $180 to $200 range. It's not marked as a sale so, unless there is a computer error, the price looks to stay. Retailers plan to get more details on Xbox 360 pricing next Wednesday.

[Thanks Anonymous and El Conejo]

Tags: bestbuy, pricedrop, topspin, xbox360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

bearattack79 @ Aug 1st 2007 11:03AM

This is WAR

Alex S. @ Aug 1st 2007 11:03AM

Why in the hell would you buy this if the CC bundle includes Table Tennis at the $350 price point?

copa @ Aug 1st 2007 11:06AM

Agreed, that doesn't make much sense. Either the actual cost of the bundle is $350, or there are other pieces to the bundle.

And unfortunately, $150 is still too much for me to pick up an HD-DVD player. Nobody likes to pay for a format loser.

Tom @ Aug 1st 2007 11:38AM

Because Table Tennis is a horrible game

polly @ Aug 1st 2007 11:45AM

Table Tennis is way better than Top Spin 2. And $150 for the HD DVD add on and 6 free HD DVD movies is a no brainer.

GamerG @ Aug 1st 2007 11:59AM

Dont have a problem buying a cheap HD DVD player because the winning format future drives are bound to play the losing format eventually anyway now that there are drives around that read both.

In two years time you'll get dead cheap chinease drives that will play any HD format.

doomcloud @ Aug 1st 2007 12:30PM

both formats lose, why buy an overpriced disc when i can download it digitally

Joshua @ Aug 1st 2007 11:04AM

Should Microsoft lower the price of the HD DVD to $150 it would make the purchase of the lowered Premium with HD DVD add on right at $500. Yes the storage isn't as much and you would still need another $100 WiFi adapter but it would come close to matching the hardware features of the PS3. This doesn't really shock me to see.

baby sea tuna @ Aug 1st 2007 12:06PM

I don't see why people keep saying you NEED a wi-fi adapter for anything. The PSN downloads are slow enough anyway that I'm going to have to wire my PS3 when I get one...and don't even get me started on the Wii-Connect. Now why would I want to fuck up my XBL transfer rates with a wireless adapter? Face it, as inconvenient as it may be, wired is still the best current option for console gaming.

polly @ Aug 1st 2007 12:17PM

You should probably at least try it before saying how bad the transfer rate is. I used wired connection and the wifi adapter and noticed no difference at all. Downloads move quick, no frequent drops or lag online. The adapter works extremely well, and for the price it damn well better. But I agree it isn't necessary like the SDF try to argue.

baby sea tuna @ Aug 1st 2007 12:28PM

My friend has a wi-fi adapter, and the same ISP as I do, so I have tried it in a similar setting. My wired connection is a champ compared to that one.

On top of that, I've had nothing but trouble trying to hook up my Wii via wi-fi...almost to the point where I'm ready to just buy their ethernet adapter and run another CAT-5 up there. I don't doubt that in the future wireless will rule the roost, but at this point it just hasn't proven itself to me.

bl13 @ Aug 1st 2007 2:08PM

I've found the experience with wi-fi varies significantly with what wireless router you have. My old WRTP54G's wi-fi didn't even work well enough for internet browsing a lot of the time, much less gaming. The WRT54GL I have now is much more solid, but I still have my PS3 wired since it's right next to the router.

Kizzle @ Aug 1st 2007 11:04AM

They should drop the HD DVD drive even more. The A2 is down to 200 bucks and the 360's add-on lacks a significant amount of stuff the HD-A2 has.

I love the add-on as a "quick and easy" HD DVD player, but dropping it down to 125 or even 99 bucks would certainly look attractive to people sort of on the fence about HD.

0ldb0y @ Aug 1st 2007 12:27PM

Top Spin 2? Just in time for the U.S. Open?

Intentless @ Aug 1st 2007 11:10AM

I just brought mine back to the store so I could get a better deal but now with all these different price reports I might not be picking it up today... I might have to wait a bit... dang and 300 just came out.

Konny @ Aug 1st 2007 11:10AM

The problem with the HD-DVD add-on, is that its (1) an add-on, (2) costs too much for an add-on (almost as much as a wii or standalone player), (3) a console with TWO optical drives is just stupid, and (4) MS hasnt exactly been aggressive in pushing it. It was a no-show at E3 and they seem to be leaving the advertising/promotion to retailers.

FermitTheKrog @ Aug 1st 2007 11:35AM

I dunno about that. Two optical drives means less wear and tear on the main drive for game playing. Sounds alright to me.

Grant @ Aug 1st 2007 11:18AM

i think the real question is... who wants top spin 2?
ewwww.

rogue @ Aug 1st 2007 11:29AM

Can Microsoft afford to do a price drop after being billed $1 billion dollars for warranty extension? They haven't made a cent since coming into the video games industry... I guess you can do it with deep pockets that MS has

Jake @ Aug 1st 2007 12:05PM

Price drops, like any move you ever make as a business, are designed to make you more money. Selling more at a lower price can equal more $$$ than selling less at a higher price. They need to teach you kiddies Business 101, Statistics, and Political Science 101 in high school, required. I'm so damn sick of 90% of our population being tarded when it comes to anything that has to do with the world.

YouFaceTheTick @ Aug 1st 2007 11:32AM

So it's over $500 for all of this? Why not just get a PS3 instead, then? Weird.

Walkboss @ Aug 1st 2007 11:36AM

Because you want to play something other than MGS4 next year?

YoRone22 @ Aug 1st 2007 11:38AM

Because people like to have games worth playing.

Phranctoast @ Aug 1st 2007 11:53AM

games that also arent on the pc?

baby sea tuna @ Aug 1st 2007 12:15PM

Yeah well, phranc...in case you haven't noticed, most of the people on here use their PCs (myself included) to bitch about shit on the internet, not play games. So yeah, while some of those 360 games are on PC too, most of us would rather play them on our couches, on our big ass HD-TVs, than sitting a foot and a half away from the same kind of monitors we've been doing our work on all damn day.

Sorry, 360/GFW still counts as 360 exclusive. Troll elsewhere.

Nick Huber @ Aug 1st 2007 11:43AM

yeah at this point who is going to spend that much when the PS3 offers a better bundle. If blu-ray has won the format war, even a 100 dollar HD drive would be a waste of money. And agreed, who wants 2 optical drives on a console...

Intentless @ Aug 1st 2007 11:55AM

Blu ray hasn't won yet... and honestly it is possible they both could survive long enough to be killed by DL content.

Phranctoast @ Aug 1st 2007 12:13PM

Cd's still exist, and people are buying them. If cd's still exist and havent been phased out by DLC, what makes you think data on 30-50 gig HD discs will be phased out by DLC so quickly.

Intentless @ Aug 1st 2007 12:45PM

I never said quickly but they are so similar to the past format that the transition is going to take time... People still insist on purchasing full screen versions of things and are having trouble seeing the point to these new formats... Point being that by the time the transition takes hold chances are that DL content is probably going to be considerably more prominent. TiVo and amazon have their thing. There is on demand which is growing. Xbox marketplace, PS3 will probably do that too. iTunes store... Just saying.

Nick Huber @ Aug 1st 2007 1:04PM

Well I don't think Blu-Ray will replace movies all together. I seriously don't see DVD's being phased out for another decade. But as far as HD and Blu-Ray go, I think the winner has already been decided.

Neebs @ Aug 1st 2007 11:47AM

Where do you get these pictures?

ck @ Aug 1st 2007 11:52AM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Blu-Ray has won the format war as far as techies go - Target and Blockbuster both opting to go Blu-Ray only. If MS drops the price below $150, they might have a fighting chance, but I seriously doubt they'll make such a drastic move. Either way, both formats aren't going to change the home video landscape for at least another 5-7 years.

But I'm really considering buying the 360 now with the $350 bundle - it's a very tempting price point. And factor in a wealth of great games out already and on the horizon...

baby sea tuna @ Aug 1st 2007 12:22PM

Cause we all know that "techies" tend to shop at Walmart, right?

Incidentally, a good portion of the A/V tech blogs and forum members tend to lean toward HDDVD over BR as far as visual fidelity goes...but we know it'll all come down to brand recognition and word of mouth advertising in the end anyway, just like VHS back in the day.

Ryan @ Aug 1st 2007 12:27PM

Target is not Blu-Ray only, Sony bought an end cap.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/28/false-alarm-targets-not-giving-up-on-hd-dvd/

Blockbuster is not Blu-Ray only, they will carry Blu-Ray in stores but HD DVD is available online and in some of their bigger stores.

"Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores..."

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/17/blockbuster-chooses-blu-ray-is-the-war-over/

No one has won yet, most likely no one will. Toshiba tried to get Sony to agree to a standard using Blu-Ray discs and the Toshiba software but Sony wouldn't have it. Sony and Toshiba are throwing money at this problem hoping to come out on top but neither has the kind of money or power to force the decision. I'll admit HDDVD seems to have taken a hit lately but saying that Toshiba is going to lay down and say you win is the equivalent of saying that an NFL team has lost 2 games in a row so they are going to quit in the middle of the season and disband the orginization. It will take a couple years of Blu-ray truly dominating the market (they really honestly aren't even in the neighborhood of "domination" at this point) for Toshiba to pull the plug. This will be a long drawn out battle that will only be won by the companies that produce HDDVD/Blu-Ray 2 in 1 players.

Downloadable content at 1080p/i is a long way off. Though in 5-10 years it will probably be the thing that does kill these 2 formats.

So please for the sanity of the world can we all just decide that the best thing that could happen is all movies come out format neutral and let the customers actually decide.

But that would be like politicians doing what's best for the people and not for themselves and their corporate sponsors... it's just not going to happen.

RangerPrimeX @ Aug 1st 2007 11:56AM

I got my HD DVD drive today for $149 at Best Buy. Awesome!

Iced_Eagle @ Aug 1st 2007 12:03PM

Just printed price from Best Buy.com, and going to run over there in a little bit to pick this up.

I bought 300 in HD DVD yesterday in anticipation of today and was so excited to see that Best Buy has it even lower than I thought :D

Ivan @ Aug 1st 2007 12:05PM

For $150 I would rather buy some games for my 360 and Blu-ray movies for my PS3!! I don't why some people defend the inferior FORMAT!!! DO THE MATH!!!
15 GB < 25 GB!! The only thing holding this formats(HD-DVD)longevity is Universals exclusive support!!!