Xbox 360 HD DVD player still coming this year

At Microsoft's E3 presentation today, one of the most eagerly awaited pieces of infomation concerned the company's plans to offer an external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360. And the company delivered -- sort of. Yes, they showed off a slide with a picture of an external player designed to match the 360. And the slide did state that the player will be available "this holiday." And, yes, that slide included images of HD DVD flicks that it will presumably be able to play. But the crucial details, such as a ship date, pricing, and, perhaps most important, info on whether or not the player will support HDCP or HDMI, were nowhere to be found.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 26th 2006 12:31PM]

Every single person that has posted an opinion here, including myself, has wasted minutes of your life that you will never get back. Does anybody really think that the launch of PS3 is really going to hurt MS right now. Even when MS comes out with an external drive, there is not going to be any great fight between these two. If you have any PS, you probably stuck with them. If you have xbox, you probably bought or will buy the 360 and add-ons. How many HD dvd movies can you buy right now? How many HD video games for consoles have been publicly published by manufacturers that will be released for either of these systems? Face it, if you bought a particular brand before, you will do the same again. By the way, before any mass production of movies is made, which won't be for at least another 2 years, the format war will continue on a basis of video games. All ages are playing them, and therefore the systems that sell the most HD games will decide which high def format will survive. By that time, it won't matter which one you bought, blueray or hd-dvd, there will be a third to take all there places.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 6th 2006 9:49PM]

it won't be higher then $200. Peter Moore in a interview was asked if the combo will be more then the PS3's price & he said no. then when asked more about prices, he said it gives them plenty of room for priciing.

obviously with this statement, it will be $200 or less. there is no way Microsoft will price the combo of the premium $299 + HD-DVD drive more then $599 if that's what the PS3 sells for. so $200 or less. my guess $199, with a combo price of $598. after 4 months maybe mark the combo price down $50.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 17th 2006 5:33PM]

Did anyone ever stop to think about this. Sony and Microsoft are battling over the high defenition wars and both want nothing more than to win and screw the other. All the markups microsoft has made on the 360 and all the units they have sold in the us wouldnt selling a HDDVD player for 100 be one of the best moves in video gaming history? THink about it. Most people who bought or are thinking of buying a 360 have and HDtv already. So if they sell this for 100 not only do they give a major MAJOR boost to the HD format(the cheapest blue-ray player is around 1500) but it would also sell a lot more 360s. I think microsoft can take a little loss on this one (sony is loosing millions if not billions on the PS3 at launch) and i think it would make them so much more money.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 1st 2006 9:00PM]

Microsoft will not take a loss at $100. Think about it, a game is $60. The disk is probably

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 21st 2006 2:07PM]

I have a Japanese 360. Will the HD DVD interface and play US DVD's all the same? As you know, I can not play US dvd's on my J spec 360?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 17th 2006 3:08PM]

Price of individual drives obviously does not matter. Sony is putting out a system that plays blu ray for 500 and 600 dollars. A stand alone player costs $1000.00 right now. And its around their for drives for a PC as well. If Sony can sell their system like that then Microsoft can sell the HD DVD player for just as good of a deal.