HD-DVD date and price

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 September, 2006

Bundled with King Kong too.

It's the news we've all been hoping they'd get out of the way so we can get on with our lives! The HD-DVD add-on for Xbox 360 is due out in mid-November in the US and Europe, and has been priced too.

And that price, for the sake of preserving the paragraphic aesthetic, is something we'll tell you now: it's going to cost US$ 199.99 in North America, and EUR 199.99 / GBP 129.99 in Europe.

It'll also come bundled with a copy of Peter Jackson's King Kong (which is certainly a better option than The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, which was shown off at TGS), along with an Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote. Because you can never have enough of those.

Last week, Microsoft said that the HD-DVD drive - which is external and not used to run games lest anybody try for that rumour again - would be released in Japan on 17th November and cost 19,800 yen, which is about EUR 133 / GBP 89.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tejstar #1 5 years ago

    £130 with a HD-DVD count me in!

  • Japanpie #2 5 years ago

    me three :)

  • Bates #3 5 years ago

    Still pointless.

  • Hench #4 5 years ago

    So they just increased the price for what reason? £89 to £129

    How much is the remote and HD-DVD seperately?

  • Darren #5 5 years ago

    Hmmm, £130 with a copy of the wonderful King Kong... makes it very tempting...

    But, dammit, what if HD-DVD turns out to be the next Betamax... do I really want to risk buying a potentially dead format...?

  • TripleSeven #6 5 years ago

    It'll sure be an awesome external paper weight. Wouldn't be the point if they used it for games.

  • Blanchy #7 5 years ago

    I thought they already announced this as 200 pounds last week?

    Seems like a pretty good deal though, and it works out cheaper than buying a PS3.

  • Blanchy #8 5 years ago

    Hench - the HD-DVD price was never announced as 89 pounds.
    Edited by 1 at 27/09/06 @ 20:54

  • TripleSeven #9 5 years ago

    It doesn't, Blanchy.

  • Blanchy #10 5 years ago

    Xbox 360 + HD-DVD drive is cheaper than PS3.

    I wasn't counting the wireless adapter but most people don't need it anyway.

  • TripleSeven #11 5 years ago

    You're right and not at the same time. Depends. I've been counting in BlueTooth, 60GB HDD, HDMI, SD/memory card (and other) slots plus Cell and RSX. I personally don't like external power supply and drives either - but that again is matter of opinion.

  • paulrim #12 5 years ago

    Where's my credit card?? :)

  • CyRUS- #13 5 years ago

    It seems like a good deal, King Kong will be great in HD, should pick it up at Christmas.
    King Kong is a tragic movie, whatever the format... first hour is watchable, after that it's purely unwatchable...

  • chupachups #14 5 years ago

    "But, dammit, what if HD-DVD turns out to be the next Betamax... do I really want to risk buying a potentially dead format...?"

    There's absolutely nothing you can do about it, except perhaps wait for dual format blu-ray/hd-dvd players to start appearing. :(

  • Penguinzoot #15 5 years ago

    Hmmm ... just about impulse-buy territory. Might be tempted.

  • Artemis_Matsas #16 5 years ago

    Hmmm, just look at the prices of stand-alone HD-DVD players. It is a good deal.

  • Nobuo #17 5 years ago

    Hmm... I don't think that's cheap enough IMHO. If you take into account the fact it's only for 360 owners with HDTVs with £120 extra to spend on what is bound to turn out to be an inferior HD-DVD player compared to stand-alone devices... I dunno. Really doubt it's going to add any value to the console anyway.

  • Monsta #18 5 years ago

    anyone know what the region encoding situation is going to be.

    Is it going to be region encoding on the xbox or on the hd-drive

    i assume its going to be on the console, if nto i'll be tempted to pick up a drive over in the states

  • effinwooly #19 5 years ago

    get in!! now this is a bargain !!!!

  • lefizz #20 5 years ago

    maybe moore actually reads these fourms. I was bitching about the £199 price the other week. £129 with the remote and king kong is a f@

  • dllord #21 5 years ago

    WoW! cheaper than i thought it was going to be, I'm SOLD!

  • asphaltcowboy #22 5 years ago

    Hmm... I was going to buy the King Kong 3disc Special Edition!

    Damn them!

  • EmiliasHorse #23 5 years ago

    Total no brainer for HD telly owners with a 360. Great news and King Kong in HD is a perfect way to open the show. Merry Christmas to all.

  • EmiliasHorse #24 5 years ago

    With 50 titles before Christmas on HD-DVD I do not see the battle with Blu-Ray being quite the same as Betamax Vs VHS. MS are backing the HD format and as they have proved with Xbox, when they decide to do something they go for the long haul. I expect to see both formats for a few years with neither side ever winning as a bigger better format will be here offering Terrabytes of storage.
    Edited by 1 at 27/09/06 @ 23:50

  • mike_mcmuffin #25 5 years ago

    We're all aware that if the movie industry ever unleashes the wrath of Image Constraint Token, this £130 add-on will be rendered absolutely worthless, right? Complete lack of HDCP-HDMI = ticking time bomb, similar to the one that Sony have just recently defused for themselves by adding HDMI to their 20-gig PS3.

    Oh, and your 1080p-capable TV probably won't support that resolution over anything BUT HDMI anyway, which again would make this £130 add-on a complete waste.

    But this news is just AWESOME nonetheless!

  • Scimarad #26 5 years ago

    Should have been inside the machine the whole time - I'm really not going to be wasting money on an add-on just to watch films. I still remember the Megadrive with all it's add ons...

  • bigbadbeasty #27 5 years ago

    At £129 i'll buy it....... but why King 'bloody' Kong, it is an awful movie. I would have liked to see Star Wars HD or something!

  • captainrentboy #28 5 years ago

    Mike isn't that supposedly kicking off in the next 4 or 5 years,if at all?If so,personally I couldn't care less that the drive COULD be made slightly redundent,I'll be getting 4 or 5 years of hd-dvd viewing pleasure for £130,not exactly a bank balance smasher :/
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/06 @ 08:35

  • ave #29 5 years ago

    Mike, theres a gentlemanly agreement in the industry to put off the HDMI tag until 2010 at the earliest, afaik(and theres as good a chance as it never appearing as there is of it appearing)

  • gizmo #30 5 years ago

    Count me in! Nice, Nice.

  • S.J.Rogers #31 5 years ago

    Happy days...

    Another gadget for me to purchase to PISS the girlfriend off..!

    Will be getting this (Bargin).

    Love to the 360.

  • Mr_Whacker #32 5 years ago

    Does the media remote do anything the pad doesn't?

    And I'm no King Kong fan but it really could be worse. It could have been Under Siege. The idea of that in hi def is daft - its just 4 times as crap.
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/06 @ 10:15

  • Frogger #33 5 years ago

    One for me please !

  • Gurgeh #34 5 years ago

    "I was informed yesterday that the Videoscape report on home movie sales has just come out for the last month, and shows that HD DVD is outselling Bluray by a factor of 11 to 1. Wow… That’s more than 10 times the sales! The month before, HD DVD was outselling Bluray by 8 to 1, so the gap is growing bigger"

    [link url=http://www.nextechnews.com/Pe rmaLink,guid,f220add5-2ce5-46d0-a72d-0979f5bff702.aspx ]http://ww w.nextechnews.com/PermaLink,gui...[/link]

    Early days still but the shadow of Betamax is growing...

  • belziah #35 5 years ago

    I think its a great price! I may pick one up as a short-term route to hi-def movies this chrimbo.

    It will hopefully shame the inept, conniving, chiselling, thieving, incompetant, arrogant, price-raping and to be blunt, fuck-witted SCE to drop the ps3 price before they eventually launch.

    And before the fanboys go crazy, I love Sony. They brought me back to gaming after a long time in the wilderness(women, bingo, drinking and drugs), but when they fuck up they should get called and in the last couple of years all they've done is fuck up.

    /rant over

    I'm sorry

  • raiden-snake #36 5 years ago

    yeah next mega cd

  • raiden-snake #37 5 years ago

    And since hd dvd don´t have the sipder man movies or other Columbia Pictures like Resident evil or Silent hill, il stick with ps3 and blue ray.

  • getinthereson #38 5 years ago

    <em>And since hd dvd don´t have the sipder man movies or other Columbia Pictures like Resident evil or Silent hill, il stick with ps3 and blue ray.</em>

    Yeah i'm gutted too that I won't be able to watch the beautifully crafted cinematic materpeices Resident Evil and Silent Hill on HD-DVD. :D

  • rhinoxious #39 5 years ago

    I think I'll wait to see if any of the online film rental companies start supporting HD-DVD first, I don;t want to buy new discs just to see films I already own/have seen.

  • Psi #40 5 years ago

    erm.... but more importantly.... whats the quality like compared to the real hd-dvd players out there like the tosh etc?

    and anyone spouting blueray for movies... have you seen the quality? hddvd rips all over it.

  • Vin #41 5 years ago

    HD-DVD ftw.

    Blatantly because of the dual movie sided option of HD-DVD, thus NOT making my lovely DVD collection REDUNDANT.

    edit: Holy shitballs. 130 quid for the kit and a fab movie?

    SOLD.


  • alpha-0ne #42 5 years ago

    "We're all aware that if the movie industry ever unleashes the wrath of Image Constraint Token"

    80%+ of HDTV's in the USA do not have HDMI or and are 1080i...

    there will be no ICT token if they want a market to sell too... for at least anither 3 years by then my £130 will have been well spent and the of standalone players will be £200 or less.... £200 + £130 = Less than a standalone player now
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/06 @ 22:25

  • Penguinzoot #43 5 years ago

    mike_mcmuffin, I understand that it is down to the TV manufacturer themselves whether or not they support 1080p over the component input on their TVs.

    I would have thought that since 1080p is coming to the HD party a bit later than 720p, that many TV manufacturers with new 1080p capable TVs on the horizon, will have had the time to ensure that their component input is OK with 1080p. But who knows? - they might not care less.

    As far as HD movies are concerned, given the fact that ICT implementation has been postponed certainly until 2010, but possibly beyond as well, means that HD over HDMI is a bit of a non-issue really - at least for the moment, and as long as the TV has inputs other than HDMI which can do 1080p. But I guess that is a subjective view.

    As far as games are concerned, even if the new 1080p TVs do not support 1080p over component, they most likely will over VGA - so use that instead. Wise to check before you buy though ;-)
    Edited by 2 at 28/09/06 @ 23:50