Not a lot of detail on this yet,
but Peter Moore has just announced at Bill Gates' CES keynote that there will be an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox
360, and that it will be released this year. We've heard rumors on this
every which way, so anything less than an Xbox exec saying it straight out wouldn't have convinced us.
So now the question is, HD DVD games or
no HD DVD games? Moore says "the
new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers
with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form." But they've
been so tricksy on this one, it's hard to pin the drive to straight movie playback at this time.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
js @ Jan 4th 2006 11:20PM
Stupid move in my opinion. Why couldn't they just integrate it and set the release date in 2006?
Entrance @ Jan 4th 2006 11:21PM
...And it will cost even more than the PlayStation 3.
Zadillo @ Jan 4th 2006 11:22PM
I have a hard time believing this would ever be used for games (just given the history of previous add-on peripherals and support for them)..... and if so, it seems like it would be limited to maybe a few special edition ones.
I really have to wonder what the purpose of this would be. I can't see how an external HD-DVD drive would really integrate well with the XBOX360 just in terms of appearance, and I wonder what benefit you would get from using that to watch HD-DVD's through the XBOX 360 vs. just going ahead and getting a standalone HD-DVD player. The XBOX 360 doesn't even seem that impressive as a DVD player as it is (can someone tell me if it's actually the case that it doesn't even have any sort of resume memory? When I play DVD's with it, it forgots any settings or where I was watching something if I turn it off and turn it on again), so I can't see why I'd want to choose it as an HD-DVD player either.
Mike @ Jan 4th 2006 11:24PM
They didn't integrate it because it would shut out everyone who buys a system from now until then or totally kill sales until it comes out because people will want to wait. While it kind of sucks it will be external I think this was the best solution (other than not launching the console at all until the drives were available but then they'd get killed by sony).
mike @ Jan 4th 2006 11:25PM
Is everybody expected to have some external drive mounted/sitting on top of their Xbox 360? Would it be physically attached to the Xbox like the HD is? I can't imagine the former being that popular... It smells an awful lot like Microsoft is trying desperately to save the concept of HD DVD games on their system and the HD DVD format in general.
Rami @ Jan 4th 2006 11:27PM
As much as I would love an internal drive.... This is a GOOD move on Microsoft's part. Now they can add HD-DVD games without alienating those customers who bought the first batch of consoles. With an add-on drive, both early adopters and new buyers can enjoy the benefits of HD-DVD
Ise @ Jan 4th 2006 11:28PM
Thompson drive...thats all I got to say...Thompson drive
drseatbelt @ Jan 4th 2006 11:29PM
drseatbelt: thats a shot in the foot if ive ever seen one
Chris O.: ha
Chris O.: yeah seriously
drseatbelt: that... that aint good.
Chris O.: they just couldn't hold their load long enough
Chris O.: had to blow it premature
drseatbelt: yeah
Chris O.: and now they're on the phone, embarassed, asking for a second date
drseatbelt: "but my capacity is 4x what it used to be"
drseatbelt: "and im a good listener"
Chris O.: "Tell that to the other girls, you had your chance with me Xbox"
drseatbelt: "fine, but youre only hurting yourself, with the looming Halo 3 announcement"
drseatbelt: "and all your friends are on LIVE"
deafblind @ Jan 4th 2006 11:29PM
Simply put to beat Sony to market, and anyway, is HD DVD really that important? People buy consoles to play games on them, DVD support is a nice to have. It certainly wont stop me buying a good quality HD-DVD player when the format wars have calmed down some anyway :P
Liam McNulty @ Jan 4th 2006 11:30PM
So even if I buy an Xbox 360 in 6 months, I'll still need to buy an external drive to handle HD DVDs?
I really, really hope they're making plans for an Xbox 360 with an internal drive.
Gamers have proven time and time again "External drive" and "game console" just don't add up.
lazydesert @ Jan 4th 2006 11:31PM
$300
Brandon Paddock @ Jan 4th 2006 11:31PM
Because:
-The system would end up costing a lot more, and probably have even greater supply problems.
-The system wouldn't ship until mid-late 2006.
-The perceived advantage from having an HD-DVD drive is far smaller than the advantage of shipping now with more reasonable costs.
I'm betting it plays out well in the end.
Billy @ Jan 4th 2006 11:31PM
Further proof that Microsoft is full of sick, money craving bastards. "If you want any decent next gen content, buy this $150 drive in addition to the $400 console you just bought!"
Gee, sounds great. So much for the 360 holding a price advantage over the PS3. Now if only I could get a release date out of those damn Sony officials.
Jo Madre @ Jan 4th 2006 11:31PM
1# then that wouldnt be a M$ move. They had to rush.....remember....they wanna beat Sony, plus long waiting period would mean that they would have more time to fix all the bugs in the 360. Sorry but they just cant do that....they cant.
Kirk @ Jan 4th 2006 11:32PM
This is great news, especially for all of the 360 owners who will not need to invest in a pricey HD-DVD player; assuming this things not gonna be too expensive..
Nathan Ziarek @ Jan 4th 2006 11:32PM
Yeah, I don't like the idea of addons like this and the hard drive. Ultimately I think it makes them under utilized, like SegaCD or the 32X. if I am a game developer, and I am going to spend $10 million making and marketing a game, I want that release to go to the widest possible audience. If I look out at the market and see that, yeah, 75% of the people have the hard drive, but 25% don't, am I going to make the game require a hard drive and alienate that 25% (or 10 or 5) or do I scale my game to the widest possible audience and not require the hard drive?
Same thing for the HD-DVD drive. Let's say it runs another $200 on top of the 360 Premium System. Do I, as a developer, spend more time and money developing high res textures to fill the space and then market the game only to the small segment that bought the HD-DVD drive?
And now, with two seperate add-ons, I have more choices to make. Do I make a game that requires HDDVD and not the hard drive? Use Both and limit my market even more?
As a gamer, do I now have to study the box to make sure my Xbox meets the system requirements (currently the domain of PC games and one of the reasons consoles are tempting to me - true plug n play).
It just seems to confuse the product. Microsoft either should have waited and sold the system with the HD-DVD drive (which would have lost them even more money per box) or decided that the XBox doesn't need to be everything and let it stand with the DVD drive.
My cent and a half, anyway :-)
Liam McNulty @ Jan 4th 2006 11:33PM
Oh, and as for the current Xbox 360 owners: I don't think there are too many out there. It wouldn't be too much of a burden for Microsoft to offer some sort of upgrade program.
Nicholas Moline @ Jan 4th 2006 11:38PM
I love the idea. It will be much cheaper than a stand alone HD-DVD player so why not buy this? Also, if they make games for it even better, I buy it for movies, I use it for games too. This is a win win situation. Especially for those of us who bought the XBOX360 at the release. I have already forgotten that purchase.
HeistGoneWrong @ Jan 4th 2006 11:38PM
You're kidding yourself if you think this will be used for anything but movies. Do you really think load times would be acceptable coming from an external USB 2.0 device? HA!
Teve Torbes @ Jan 4th 2006 11:39PM
I'm curious how they will connect the drive. I don't think USB 2.0 provides enough throughput for all HD-DVD content. So I'm guessing it will piggyback on the SATA connection thats used to connect the hard drive. I'd like to see how it will connect like that (and hopefully not look like sixth finger.)
Joseph T. @ Jan 4th 2006 11:41PM
Perhaps we haven't thought about where the heck this is plugging into...
Back USB port? Sorry my XBOX 360 mounted wireless adapter is filling that spot.
Front USB port? Well, I have a shuffle plugged in one port. Now I have to plug in my external HD-DVD drive to the other front port and have it hanging out the front, sitting next to the 360 and it's monster power brick.
Yuck.
Jason @ Jan 4th 2006 11:43PM
For anyone that still thinks HD-DVD games will come out:
http://www.theinq.com/?article=27372
Don Lapre @ Jan 4th 2006 11:43PM
Dreamcast was supposed to get a DVD drive to compete with the ps2 also.
GadgetMike @ Jan 4th 2006 11:44PM
Totally pointless for movies in my opinion, the main unit runs too damned loud to ever watch DVDs on. The only way I'll get this thing is if it supports games.
Chris @ Jan 4th 2006 11:46PM
Great move, thats all i can say.
And for those saying that its gonna be some external thing thrown together think again. Look at the wifi adapter its external but fits perfectly with the console.
Most likely future consoles will see internal hddvd drives once it isnt that much of a price hit.
As for using HDDVD for game si dont see it nor do i see the need for it. Like has always been said with most of all the xbox1 games using MUCH less than the 8gb DVD many using much less than half of the disk. SO needing 30gb in the forseeable future i dont really see as a requirements.
The 360 is a solid console dispite normal release-date bugs that every console has to fight with.
ONE BIG THING I NOTICED: someone saying that the ps3 will end up costing less than a 360 premium + hddvd... i really sincerly doubt that... by the time the ps3 launches we will be looking at 3rd or 4th revision hardware probably, much lower production costs and since the mass distrobution ability for the hddvd drive it will be priced VERY competitively. Especially considering we all know toshiba and ms are rubbing boots in every concievable way. (Not to mention the fact is HDDVD is already known to be cheaper than bluray to manufacture) ... I mean look at the time frame we are talking probably Q3 2006 for the ps3... and as sony has already CONFIRMED it is not going for a worldwide release its going to release in japan first and other places later (but they havent said how much time between other areas releaseing) But then again i kind of saw that coming.
Q3 2006... lower production costs for 360, second/third string games coming out for the 360 so major graphic improvements and usage of the 360's power.
Hope Sony finds a money tree or something because we all know that MS will throw the marketing and money muscle behind the 360 to defeat the ps3 launch.
But thats just my 2 cents.
Aaron @ Jan 4th 2006 11:47PM
I own one and yes a lot of people own xbox 360's. Everyone out ther.
This will be used for movies only I would think.
If I buy HD DVD's eventually, I would not mind a cheaper HD DVD player Solution
Josh Glaser @ Jan 4th 2006 11:53PM
So wait...even though the internal drive is easily replaceable after you remove the faceplate (right...?), they're still going to use an external drive? Wha?
TJ @ Jan 4th 2006 11:57PM
i agree with #12. As someone who sees the industry from the inside, you want to reach the largest audience possible. You don't want to make a game for the xbox, ps2, ps3, 360 and STILL have to spend the time, money and expertise on a seperate 360 sku. Microsoft is phrasing it the way they are because there aren't going to be any HD games for it. Not to say that the games won't be great graphically...
On the flip side, the ps3 won't see games with larger amounts of or better quality content than the 360 for a while, unless the game is designed exclusively for the ps3. Just a manpower thing there. No one wants to spend the amount of money required to fill a 50GB disk during the transition from current to next gen.
just my 2 cents with a little "in the know" thrown in.
Dan Bejma @ Jan 4th 2006 11:57PM
Of course, HD-DVD games wouldn't read as fast as the DVD drive already in the 360. I truly don't think that game-makers will be taking advantage of it. Hasn't it already been shown that the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives have a much slower data rate?
srw @ Jan 4th 2006 11:58PM
I think it very likely that we will see an X-Box 360 with integrated HD-DVD drive in the near future.. I think they are only announcing the external drive now because they don't want to cut into sales of the current X-Box model.
JD @ Jan 5th 2006 12:07AM
I agree with post #15. The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was "Sega CD". There have already been articles comparing the 360 to the doomed Dreamcast. It seems like MS just keeps following the "How NOT to launch a console" handbook.
What amazes me more is someone from MS is actually announcing this now. It just makes me want to wait until a "new" bundled (and probably cheaper) version of the 360 is released. Since there are no must-buy games out there right now, there's no reason for me to buy a 360 now. I'll just wait for Sony and Nintendo to release their products and then decide what's worth buying. Microsoft better have something more than Halo 3 by then.
jason w @ Jan 5th 2006 12:13AM
Man some of you people are dumb. They said for HD DVD movies only. I think this is a nice add on if you want the HD Movies on your 360 and you can leave it off if you dont. I like the HDDVD content back up that was shown at CES. Imangine backing up 20 or so HD movies to a EXTERNAL Hard Drive or to your 360. Instant access to all those movies on a hard drive. Now wonder if the director and actress info features they showed will work on the drive. Lets hope so.
TJ @ Jan 5th 2006 12:13AM
let me rephrase something in my last comment... i meant to say there wont be any HD-DVD games... there are already HD games for it.
jason @ Jan 5th 2006 12:47AM
oh man more money to spend on the xbox 360. hd dvd movies? over what? component cables? wheres the hdmi? the machine was clearly not built for enjoying hd entertainment to the fullest. just like the xbox wasnt built to watch movies. the ps2 is still probably the best console to watch dvds with progressive scan function.
unless this all changes and microsoft releases a newer xbox 360 with more functions. but that will just piss off the people whom bought in into the 360 early. also there might not be consistent compatibility over media when one machine does one thing and the other does something else.
james @ Jan 5th 2006 12:51AM
OT, what's with all the extra spaces in the posts lately?
Russ @ Jan 5th 2006 1:05AM
making it an external add-on is extra attractive to microsoft - because they can add the HD-DVD license fee to the price of the add-on (rather than the console).
i think i heard a rumour that the DVD video license fee was part of the remote control purchase on the original xbox.
JoJoTheDadeo @ Jan 5th 2006 1:10AM
Who in here does not think that a pc equipped with a hd-dvd drive installed and a fresh copy of vista can stream an hd-dvd to a 360 via the media center extender? MS is going to build in support for hd-dvd to vista blue-ray has royalties paid up to sony(not sayin m$ doesn't have their own reasons) but every pc sold will come ready to play hd-dvd's... Who's got more money again? Bill or sony?
Shmoe @ Jan 5th 2006 1:13AM
Good move by MS. Will certainly take an external HD-DVD drive over none at all and certainly over Blu-ray.
Would prefer internal, but would like to see MS offer to swap current 360s with an internal HD-DVD model, refurbish and upgrade the used units with HD-DVD drives and sell them at a bit of a discount. MS could simply ship you an HD-DVD 360 after you register your current 360. All you would have to do is provide a credit card or bank-draft number in case you don't send them your old 360 in a MS-paid box.
alexp @ Jan 5th 2006 1:14AM
One big advantage that I can think of: Component video output. This will make the system make major sense to thos that have an older hdtv set, and will be the only of the next generation dvd players to have that output. Also, I estimate $200 for the player because it will basically only be the bare drive, and the full player that toshiba is showing is $500 on the lowend. Since the x360 has all of the other components. Also, usb 2.0 has all of the required bandwitdth because you can smoothly stream hd content on a wireless g network ant that bandwidth is only 54 mbps. USB has the bandwidth available for 480 mbps (theoretical) and is theoretically faster than firewire yet that never seems to be the practical case.
alexp @ Jan 5th 2006 1:17AM
sorry about the typos
kilo113 @ Jan 5th 2006 1:27AM
yeah, will be for movies only. and the hd-dvdbluray for games are overrated; there probably won't be that many games this round that'll use more than two dvd9 worth of space for game assets. 253050gb of space looks good on paper, but no game will likely come close to filling it up unless there's a crazy amount of video used.
that said, a lot of people would prefer to have one bluray or hddvd disc game instead of a multi dvd game, but it's not looking like 360 games are going to have storage issues soon.
anyway, this bare hddvd drive is a nice idea, but if it's for video viewing only MS should also in the future ship systems with the drives built in along with the external units. also if computer hddvd drives hit the market well ahead of this addon, i don't think many people will jump for it since you could just use your pc to view the movies and output to your tv as well.
d8thstar @ Jan 5th 2006 1:39AM
i really don't understand why people are so tied to one company and have to hate on competing consoles; competition is good folks.
i think this is a great move on MS's part. there will be NO HD-DVD games. the drive will simply be for movies. why buy an external drive instead of a stand alone player? it'll be much, much cheaper. a stand alone player will require processors to decrypt and process the information, something that the 360 will be able to do easily.
being a Mac head, i really don't care for MS but i do think the xbox is a superior system to the PS2 (and yes, i own a PS2 along with a Cube and just about every other system ever released in north america; i collect video games). i'm enjoying the crap out of my 360 and that console made me go buy an HD TV. since getting that TV i've discovered HD on cable and the picture quality is shocking; as are a few of the 360 games (fight night demo jusr released today on LIVE, check that out in HD).
that said, i'm very much looking forward to the PS3 and revolution. last round of consoles, xbox was my favorite system. this next round, if Sony is the better machine for what i play, i'll be a ps3 fan. but right now, that system isn't out and won't be for another year (#28, TJ, i'm also an industry insider) so for now i'll enjoy my 360 in HD and i can not wait for movies to make that jump.
have fun, play games, on whatever system plays them
BrutalMutant @ Jan 5th 2006 1:39AM
If it costs $149 I would buy it. Either way I'm getting a PS3 and bluray looks very promising as well.
Tom @ Jan 5th 2006 1:52AM
This is great. Xbox 360 owners rush out to buy HD-DVD drives for their consoles. BluRay destroys HD-DVD. Xbox 360 owners have a $200 piece of junk added on to their systems. Classic!!!
Wengero @ Jan 5th 2006 1:54AM
for those who dont think a next gen drive is needed for high def gaming read this: http://joystiq.com/2005/12/04/certain-highly-anticipated-xbox-360-title-filling-four-discs/
BrutalMutant @ Jan 5th 2006 1:58AM
I bet you were the first person in line to buy a sega 32x. rock on.
ZildjianKX @ Jan 5th 2006 1:59AM
alexp -
No way it will play in HD with components. It will have to play in HDCP, so either DVI or HDMI... the studios don't trust us, remember?
seth @ Jan 5th 2006 2:13AM
umm i have a 360 and watching 720p videos on it looks like shit. The processor is barely able to output at 24 fps, my 720p trailers stutter all the time.
Evilsushi @ Jan 5th 2006 2:23AM
what you guys don't understand is that HD-DVD disks are backwards compatable. This means the first two layers are traditional red laser dvd and can be played in standard DVD players. The additional layers are blue laser layers and are used for the new player. So people can release movies in SD and HD on the same disk. This means they can also release two version of the same game on the same disk too. One that will play in all players and one that will play with HD drives only with more content. I think HD DVD is good idea, i wouldn't count it out yet. Think about it, those ppl without HDdvd players can buy HDDVD disk now and future proof thier movie collection while still being able to play it in a regular DVD player. BRILLIANT!
Douglasp @ Jan 5th 2006 2:26AM
Don't even lie. I my brothers have a xbox 360 and all their trailers dont stutter not one bit. And whe where watching it on his panasonic 61" lcd rear projector 16ms. The xmen 3 trailer was so smooth i was like dammm it puts my athlon 64bit 3.2 with 1 gb of ram and a radeon 9800 pro video card look like crap. I have hipcups playing 720p videos from apple in quicktime 7. I dont know what codec xbox 360 uses i can only guess it uses WMV 9 but damm so smooth that I even was like dammm my computer is old now.