Xbox 360 HD DVD now dead, get 'em while they're hot
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 23rd 2008 8:41PM
posted Feb 23rd 2008 8:41PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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30 years from now, I'll sell mine as an antique for thousands of dollars - you'll see! I will have the last laugh of this format war! Muwahahahah!
That's what I said about my Pokemon cards. Today, I weep.
@TMF
Those originals are worth a pretty penny to the right people.
I have about 150 of them (almost all of the Pokemon plus some trainer cards and stuff) and I have talked to a guy at the local card shop, and he was willing to give me $200 for them.
Sure, not the millions we all hoped, but thats more than $1/card and I KNOW i didnt spend that much on them. Especially since I traded up for most of them
You can sell it on ebay along with other winners like the Virtual Boy, 3DO, and N-Gage.
Oh no you didn't! I know you didn't just compare an Xbox accessory to Virtual Boy! That thing was cool.
what is wrong with 3do? i still break it out every once and a while to enjoy some road rash....
Sure, and I'll be selling my Betamax recorder right alongside you.
Oh, and don't forget your 8-track cassettes. And mini-discs. And 78 rpm LP's. And Digital 8 tapes. And laserdiscs. Wow, you guys will be sooooooooooooo rich!
@ Joshua Walters
Before I read the whole comment I thought you meant you had 150 HD-DVD drives. I was like WHAT! Haha.
Call me too so I can sell all my unwanted SNES carts! But first I need to find all the booklets and boxes that came with my copy of Mega Man X. I once saw a complete MMX listing soar to $50 on eBay last year. (I'll still keep my SNES console, Zelda, and my Final Fantasy games.)
That's what I thought about my Apple II, complete with floppy drive, original manuals and software, which is almost 30 years old. So far it's not worth shit. Well, $50 anyway...
That's too bad about the price drop...I was going to buy a second one for $49 for the other computer.
$108.12 at provantage:
http://www.provantage.com/microsoft-9z5-00013~7MSSX04P.htm
It's where I got mine for $169 a few months ago, now I feel sad.
just check out ebay i just got a toshiba hd-dvd player and 7 hd-dvds for $35 this is going to go perfect with my 50" plasma, sony surround sound, PS3, xbox 360 and wii i dont care if hd dvd is dead the studios are still making movies and there will always be hd-dvds on ebay so ill just buy the new movies on bluray and the old ones on hd-dvd for dirt cheap!!
hell, i might pick up a second as an external for my comp.
Surely discountinuation will result in an even bigger price drop for the drives still sitting around.
Ah, Goodwill. Best summer job ever.
Where can we get these for $49? I mean, brand new.
Provantage is $108.12 and I'm betting that's going to drop soon, but it's still pretty good of a deal I think.
Microsoft should do the right thing and make their replacement for this a dual HD DVD / Blu-ray drive. At least initially.
Yeah, that would be the right thing to do. They should also send out a technician in a helicopter to come to your house and install it. Also, they should give you a couple thousand dollars for your trouble.
So I guess no one wants a dual drive then.
Nail; head; you hit it.
replacement will be a Blu-ray (only, sorry) drive out by May. they're rushing it in hopes of reducing lost market share.
damn shame! I love my 360 hddvd drive. Oh well, time to dust off my ps3 I guess.
This could be a problem for HD DVD.
lol..wtf?
Lol! Like really... did you just crawl out of a rock?
Ha ha, that picture totally makes that comment, hemmy.
zat waz funny...
LOL! Thats like the funniest comment ever!
It's even more funny that two people took that comment seriously. I can't help but hear Dr. Evil, "I'm surrounded by idiots!"
Did anyone else think of ''What about Bob'' while reading his comment? LoL
THizzle7XU-
Good point.
What idiots.
hemmy-
reading that never gets old
Let's place bets: how long till a Blu-ray add on?
E3? :-)
Hopefully by the end of Spring. Didnt Microsoft have a Blu-Ray add-on prototype in the works? I remember reading an article saying something like May...
MS rep told my buddy May.
The 360 hd dvd drive was doomed when WalMart picked Blu Ray. Everyone else chose it too, but WalMart effectively killed it. Check it out here: http://www.managedq.com/search.php?q=walmart+chose+blu+ray
because walmart dictates what the electronic world does...
You say that sarcastically, but Wal-Mart has strong armed music studios to make censored CDs specifically so as not to be offending to Wal-Mart's apparently puritanical buyers. And although this is 3rd party information, I know people in the movie industry who have said flat out that Wal-Mart is directly responsible for a number of DVDs that were released in pan-and-scan ... sorry ... "full screen" even though the film makers did NOT want a pan-and-scan ... sorry ... "full screen" release.
Because Wal-Mart sells more CDs and DVDs than any other retailer in the U.S., they might not dictate but they are *HIGHLY* influential when it comes to what they will and will not sell. And Hollywood does pay attention to that.
I'm at least glad that MS didn't put integrate HD-DVD into all their latest Xbox 360 consoles, or that could have been a bigger problem.
I'm glad MS wasn't take a big risk into a format war, and coming out with a big loss. I could see the headlines today if that happened.
Giving the HD-DVD as an add-on was a far better option.
I have one myself, and I liked the quality. I also liked how HD-DVD didn't seem as expensive as the BluRay discs. To me, HD-DVD seemed perfectly fine, and people are even commenting on how it was more complete, and better than BluRay.
I'm thinking BluRay only won because people were looking for a way to quickly end the format war, and a lot of your media people just chose BluRay.
Oh well. At least it's the end, and my HD-DVD add-on can still play HD-DVD discs and upscale DVD's.
One thing I know that would have saved MS lots of money and the issue of scratched disks if they had included the HD-DVD drive instead of the current standard drives.
That is a very interesting thought. What would have happened if MS included the HD-DVD drive as the main drive, instead of providing it as an add-on? Would it have prolonged the format war and eventually have killed BD?
What are you saying? If 360s came out with built in HD-DVD drives that might have changed the outcome of what is happening now. Also, if nothing else, it would have given developers more space, which is desperately needed in this time of HD gaming.
Actually if the Xbox 360 DID have integrated HD DVD, HD DVD would have won the format war by now.
Hey, I'm not saying that it was an entirely good idea not to include it also.
But taking risks, over something as dumb as physical discs that can be costly to MS and its users didn't seem like a good idea to me either. I mean really, everybody knows that HD-DVD vs. BluRay is just the middleman when HD downloads come in full force later.
Maybe, if MS had taken the route of including HD-DVD, things might have changed. HD-DVD could have won. But the possibility of playing a more costly risk, especially when some people don't even care about the format war (DVD's are still good enough for most people) doesn't seem right to me.
Making it an option for Xbox 360 users sounds more nicer to me. Though it would have been interesting to see both an HD-DVD add-on AND a BluRay add-on being sold. If HD-DVD were that better of a choice, people would have picked it. Chances are, it would.
I think that MS never released a 360 with the drive built-in showed their lack of commitment to the format. They weren't nearly as gung-ho about it as Sony was with the PS3. I think they sort of knew all along that HDDVD may not be the winner, and this was a good way to hedge their bet.
The irony of it all is that M$ did have an integrated HDDVD / XBox sku, but was a matter of too little too late. Yes, they played the non-committal strategy for quite a while and when they and Toshiba were ready to co-launch the new sku, Warner had already thrown their allegiance the other way.
Truly a lesson in how one decision can impact the outcome of an entire media format... and the future evolution of a gaming system for that matter.
Yes and if they had integrated the drive from the beginning it would have cost $200 more, came out a year later, and had slow loading speeds. It would have been perfect competition for the PS3. I kid, I own a PS3, but don't tell me it doesn't have bad load times.
"DT: I think they sort of knew all along that HDDVD may not be the winner, and this was a good way to hedge their bet."
Microsoft *did not care*. It's an external drive and the 360 games are not HD-DVD format. The HD-DVD add-on was there to support the HD-DVD because Microsoft thought it was the better format, but they always said that this can change, and if it did, no biggie: they just make another add-on. Microsoft's entire direction with the 360 platform is games and media content via the internet -- not via physical formats.
To think that the HD format war is an analogue to a PS3/Xbox 360 war is and always has been incorrect.
PS3 has bad load times? Sure it does, just like the 360 is quiet.
If the 360 had a HD-DVD drive built in I probably wouldn't of got one so early as the price would of been ridiculous. A bit like the price of the 60 and 80GB PS3.
@ michael
I don't think the HDDVD addon could upscale DVD's everything plays at 480p. See this article:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/09/21/xbox-360-hd-dvd-playback-maximum-1080i-via-component-1080p-vga/
@ Treats!
*cough* DMC4!!! *cough*
See Penny Arcade comic:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/06
Ok... is this the final nail on the HD-DVD coffin?
Yes, if the coffin has a million nails. Enough already.
No it's no longer a coffin, now it's an Iron Maiden.
Perhaps we can have Bruce Dickinson give the eulogy? Fitting eh?
But...will the coffin BLEND?!?!?!?!
hd-dvd's like a freaking vampire--even now, i worry it won't stay dead. i think we should drive a wooden stake through it, too, just to be safe.
"No it's no longer a coffin, now it's an Iron Maiden.
Perhaps we can have Bruce Dickinson give the eulogy? Fitting eh?"
I think you mean the eugoogoly. You know, the thing the eugoogolizer does.
Engagdet you keep kicking a dead horse.
Would you like them to never write HD-DVD again? According to people like you Engadget can never again post an article about HD-DVD, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, the Zune... anything else? I love, just love, how people who's time can't be wasted to read "another" story about topic X still find the time to post and authenticate a comment. Boggles the mind, really.
there are multiple ways to scroll on your computer.
you can use your scroll wheel, trackpad if you have a laptop, arrow keys, page up/down...
@Shane Lloyd:
Clearly, if he has an avatar, he's not authenticating each comment.
i tried that one and goo came out its ass
Ah, buh bye.
No one would be complaining about too many engadget stories if Sony/Blu-Ray had been the loser in this.
There will always be people willing to complain about *insert subject here* =).
*Scottish Accent*
I'll see you in another life, brother.
if you are hinting at desmond from LOST, then that means the HD DVD addon will come back multiple times
"they may take our dives, but they'll never take our one less layer of DRM!"
Congratulations Engadget, you've successfully beaten this dead horse so much it's corpse has nothing left to it.
what are they supposed to do?
skip this big news?
lots of people have 360s this is important.
some of the articles are beating off the horsey but this one isnt
I have a Xbox 360. Do I really care that they are discontinuing it? No. In a matter of fact, anyone with common sense should expect this. Why in the hell would Microsoft continue to support HD DVD and make the addon? Just make a BD addon and don't support a dead format.
Guess I'll pick one up on the cheap so I can tell my kids "In a time long, long ago, there was this format called HD DVD..........."
its still big news and this is a news site.
Wouldn't be the first time XBOX took your money! Remember rushing out to purchase one with the promissed release of "Natural Ultimate Digital Experiment" as reviewed searching N.U.D.E.@xbox.there sight? Get your money back!
I heard a rumor that Microsoft never integrated the HD DVD because they have a BLUERAY 360 ready to go?
Now I'm pissed about hd dvd - I spent $200 for the drive when it came out - bought about 25 movies...
I've decided to forgow dvd/hd dvd/blue ray and just rent for $4 a movie on apple tv or netflix.
BUT IF THE 360 COMES OUT WITH BLUE RAY THAT would be awesome. I got a ps3 anyway but at least it saves me a blue ray drive on the bedroo or office or living rooms...
Wouldn’t it be cool if Toshiba and Microsoft got together and paid off all the movie studios? Monday’s headlines would say “Holly Wood had a change of heart, HD-DVD wins!” This would have been the outcome if only Microsoft had a horse in the race other then a codec. It should only cost them, $40 billion or so. In fact I think Bill Gates should do it him self just to piss off Sony, how funny would that be. Hey I would even give a little to his foundation if he can give me entertainment like that.
"30 years from now, I'll sell mine as an antique for thousands of dollars - you'll see! I will have the last laugh of this format war! Muwahahahah!"
LOL! I can see you on Antiques Roadshow now...
umm....if the drive is dead then why is still on the XBOX site under accessories?
did somebody jump the gun before writing the article?
It's no longer being made but is being sold.
For 50 bucks, Why Not?
ah next engadget prize giveaway i see...
One HD Format FTW!
Ok so what is the physical hack for these bad boys? Nice blue laser... hunh? There has to be something bad ass and destructive we can do with these things. I read about a hack for a CD laser to test water quality samples. Part em out for science!
you could like make a blue laser pointer i guess.
I know so little about the xbox 360 I bought for my sons. I paid over $400.00 for it. Can someone please tell me what this news means for us. Thanks.
Not a lot Jeannie. The HD-DVD drive was an add on you had to purchase separately. The 360 uses a standard DVD drive in the unit so the whole format war rubbish was irrelevant to it's use. You can just sit back and let your sons waste the hours away playing on their 360 knowing that you made a good purchase.
...until it red rings, and then you have to send it away for 4 weeks.
This was to be expected :)
Hey, if they make hd-dvd writable drives, i'll buy one for $100.
I hear they like mudkips
That's why it pays to keep up on tech news. I saw the news that it was anticipated for HD-DVD to die two weeks ago. I sold my HD-DVD on eBay quick. I lost about 2/3 what I paid. But, some money is better than a door stop....
rip little buddy
good riddance
Its Sad To Hear This. Good Thing I Never Bought It. I Was Going To But Then I Change My Mind For A Blue-Ray.
another win for PS3
This seems intresting
.. But I'm not holding my breath. I'll wait until it's officialy gone as Microsoft could counter the announcement, saying that they have no plans to discontinue the HD-DVD add on.
Xbox 480 will be on Blu-ray?
but if microsoft put a hd-dvd drive built in to the 360 it would have been more expensive than the ps3 and microsoft wouldn't want that