Xbox 360 HD DVD now dead, get 'em while they're hot

Well scratch that rumor about a dramatic price drop: according to Microsoft's Gamerscore blog, Microsoft and Toshiba are discontinuing the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. So long friend, we'll see you in the next life (or in the bargain bin at Goodwill soon enough).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[JuggleNuts @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:45PM]

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!

[TMF @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:51PM]

That's what I said about my Pokemon cards. Today, I weep.

[Joshua Walters @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:13PM]

@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

[oGMo @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:17PM]

You can sell it on ebay along with other winners like the Virtual Boy, 3DO, and N-Gage.

[torqueo @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:51PM]

Oh no you didn't! I know you didn't just compare an Xbox accessory to Virtual Boy! That thing was cool.

[killploki @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:06PM]

what is wrong with 3do? i still break it out every once and a while to enjoy some road rash....

[Jeff P. @ Feb 24th 2008 3:01AM]

Sure, and I'll be selling my Betamax recorder right alongside you.

[Blackstar @ Feb 24th 2008 12:49PM]

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!

[firephoenix @ Feb 25th 2008 10:03AM]

@ Joshua Walters

Before I read the whole comment I thought you meant you had 150 HD-DVD drives. I was like WHAT! Haha.

[Leroy Vargas @ Feb 24th 2008 10:22PM]

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.)

[CraigJ @ Feb 24th 2008 10:33PM]

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...

[pentapenguin @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:45PM]

That's too bad about the price drop...I was going to buy a second one for $49 for the other computer.

[Tom @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:12PM]

$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.

[fred @ Feb 24th 2008 10:08PM]

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!!

[gozer @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:47PM]

hell, i might pick up a second as an external for my comp.

[maximus @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:48PM]

Surely discountinuation will result in an even bigger price drop for the drives still sitting around.

[Seattle Yonkers @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:50PM]

Ah, Goodwill. Best summer job ever.

[Rob @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:52PM]

Where can we get these for $49? I mean, brand new.

[Tom @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:13PM]

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.

[Camperton @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:53PM]

Microsoft should do the right thing and make their replacement for this a dual HD DVD / Blu-ray drive. At least initially.

[DT @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:26PM]

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.

[Camperton @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:30PM]

So I guess no one wants a dual drive then.

[John @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:38PM]

Nail; head; you hit it.

[teej @ Feb 25th 2008 3:16PM]

replacement will be a Blu-ray (only, sorry) drive out by May. they're rushing it in hopes of reducing lost market share.

[solosmooth @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:55PM]

damn shame! I love my 360 hddvd drive. Oh well, time to dust off my ps3 I guess.

[hemmy @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:57PM]

This could be a problem for HD DVD.

[striggity @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:37PM]

lol..wtf?

[Infamouship @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:49PM]

Lol! Like really... did you just crawl out of a rock?

[giantenemycrab @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:58PM]

Ha ha, that picture totally makes that comment, hemmy.

[Rob @ Feb 27th 2008 2:18AM]

zat waz funny...

[cc123 @ Feb 24th 2008 3:22AM]

LOL! Thats like the funniest comment ever!

[THizzle7XU @ Feb 24th 2008 11:09AM]

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!"

[MemphisNET @ Feb 24th 2008 11:21AM]

Did anyone else think of ''What about Bob'' while reading his comment? LoL

[cc123 @ Feb 24th 2008 10:04PM]

THizzle7XU-

Good point.

What idiots.

hemmy-
reading that never gets old

[Alex Padilla @ Feb 23rd 2008 8:59PM]

Let's place bets: how long till a Blu-ray add on?

[Kevin @ Feb 24th 2008 12:20AM]

E3? :-)

[Mr Cool @ Feb 24th 2008 12:48PM]

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...

[teej @ Feb 25th 2008 3:17PM]

MS rep told my buddy May.

[Dylan @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:00PM]

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

[Shannin @ Feb 24th 2008 12:21AM]

because walmart dictates what the electronic world does...

[John B @ Feb 24th 2008 3:06AM]

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.

[michael @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:05PM]

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.

[KC @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:48PM]

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?

[Tony Rayo @ Feb 23rd 2008 9:51PM]

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.

[Abuzar @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:18PM]

Actually if the Xbox 360 DID have integrated HD DVD, HD DVD would have won the format war by now.

[michael @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:26PM]

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.

[DT @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:28PM]

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.

[Duke 2 @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:31PM]

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.

[Boostjunkie @ Feb 23rd 2008 11:17PM]

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.

[paultakeda @ Feb 23rd 2008 11:30PM]

"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.