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X360 HD-DVD sells 100k

In the US.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD-DVD player has sold nearly 100,000 units in the US according to figures released by NPD Group.

The movie-playing add-on, which launched in November, sold 42,000 units in its first month and another 50,000 in December.

Xbox 360 itself has sold around 4.5 million units in the US according to the same group's figures.

Microsoft UK said it does not release individual sales figures for peripherals, so we've nothing to compare that to on this side of the Atlantic. Unless we make up a figure, like "78" - in which case the US version would obviously be doing a lot better.

The HD-DVD player, which costs GBP 129 over here and comes bundled with Peter Jackson's King Kong remake, attaches to the console via USB and has its own power supply.

Thanks to a minor software update, the drive integrates quietly with the 360 dashboard by splitting the "eject" button into semi-circular HD-DVD and DVD drive buttons.

The films themselves aren't particularly widespread yet, although e-tailers like Amazon and Play do sell them, with the best of them all obviously being Serenity. So buy that, you. YOU.

Quite how the player's actual sales will be viewed is unknown, but in a sense the relatively slight take-up is a vindication of Microsoft's stance that advanced movie-playing is better as an option than a pre-requisite - rather than the other way round, as it is with Sony's PlayStation 3 Blu-ray disc drive.