X360 HD-DVD sells 100k

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 January, 2007

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.

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.

You may also like...

Comments (72) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Aysir #1 5 years ago

    "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."
    Or it means that people are unwilling to fork out extra for just an expensive movie playing device that isn't going to enhance their gaming experience at all :p

    As a sidenote, gamestation sell HD-DVD's too...including Serenity :)

  • Zane #2 5 years ago

    It's because for those 4.5million xbox360 owners it's the cheapest Hd-DVD player on the market at the moment.

    Wether this makes any impact on HD-DVD vs Blu-ray remains to be seen. TDK's 200gb blu-ray disk isn't anything to be sniffed at for gaming though for sure.

  • Psychotext #3 5 years ago

    I imagine they'd have sold a lot better if they were able to get the stock out. Seems like these things have been rarer than hens teeth. Oh, and Zane - The PS3 can only use dual layer blu-rays. The 200gb prototype needs modifications to the drive optics to work.
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 09:35

  • moggsy #4 5 years ago

    The slight take up may also be due to the fact that you can't get your hands on the blimmin things!

  • Xerx3s #5 5 years ago

    Quite how the player's actual sales will be viewed is unknown, but in a sense the relatively slight take-up

    Isn't this more due the fact there these buggers are nowhere to be found?

  • Zane #6 5 years ago

    Yeah. I didn't mention specifically for ps3 ;)

    I meant for the future of gaming in general. Hell even films. Being able to store entire boxsets on 1 disk.

  • mkreku #7 5 years ago

    I thought Serenity was a bore. I guess only true geeks appreciate it fully.

    I am a false geek! :(

  • TipTop #8 5 years ago

    As an early adopter of SKY HD, does anybody know if HD DVD is going to be any better than SKY MOVIES HD? I appreciate the points about ownership etc. but is the quality different as they are both HD sources?

  • Beano #9 5 years ago

    "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."

    Yes, "quietly" like blowing a trumpet next to a jet engine ;)

  • smelly #10 5 years ago

    WAHEY!!! It's looking good!

    Go microsoft go!

  • in5ane #11 5 years ago

    This article is about the US numbers, where they weren't as sold out as here in the UK (where one HMV lady told me there were only 1k for the whole of the UK).

    Hopefully everyone here knows HD-DVDs are region free, as is the 360 add-on :) After a frustrating trip around my local gamestations, dixons and PC worlds, I ordered one from the US via movietyme, and it was here within a week :)

    As for lack of movies, I'm sure most people will one out of the 150 currently available they like? We watched Tokyo Drift last night, and even if you don't like the movie, the cars, the girls and tokyo city look absolutely awesome in HD.

  • thedaveeyres #12 5 years ago

    I'm hanging on for a HD-DVD integrated 360 - it's bound to happen.

    Oh, and congratulations, this thread mentions the two worst DVD's I had the displeasure to sit through last year!

  • TheBigK #13 5 years ago

    I never got King Kong DVD with my unit! boooooo //mmm.. shit film anyway//

  • lambtron #14 5 years ago

    Oh that's great its region free - is Bluray? I mean I know the games on PS3 are region free but what about the films?

  • morriss #15 5 years ago

    It doesn't come bundled with King Kong anymore.

  • Steroyd #16 5 years ago

    psychotext TDK or some other company said they got a 200GB disc using a normal player i'd provide a link right now but i'm on my PSP.
    All the PS3 needs is a software update.

    And with Hideo Kojima's claims that 25GB is not enough for MGS4...

  • udat #17 5 years ago

    I had one sent over from Japan. It was cheaper than buying it here and it works flawlessly. It's also a lot quieter than my 360 drive.

    Serenity is magnificent. Superman Returns looks good, and Batman Begins looks amazing. Despite all that though, I can't see either HD format taking off like DVD did. The step up in quality is not big enough. My parents couldn't really tell DVD and HD apart on their 40" Bravia. I can, but I work with this stuff.

    So, I'm fairly happy with the drive, but HD movies are not enough of a step up to warrant much of a premium, nor the purchase of a dedicated player in my mind.

    -A

  • myk #18 5 years ago

    @TipTop: depends on what level of compression Sky is using, it tends to change during the day (best time to record HD is late at night). I'd say the best quality Sky stuff is about level with HD-DVD, but HD-DVD also offers the high definition audio options. The thing with Sky movies is that once they've full sorted all the rights issues it'll have the widest range of HD movies of the HD 'options'.

  • LeD #19 5 years ago

    So we have 100 000 HD-DVD enabled 360s vs 750 000 Blu-Ray players (PS3s). Mmm. I guess Sony's plan is working after all, when it comes to that format war.

  • LeD #20 5 years ago

    And for the record, I'm not going anywhere near one. 200€ suddenly is a lot of money if the format tanks.

  • Beano #21 5 years ago

    "I can't see either HD format taking off like DVD did. The step up in quality is not big enough. My parents couldn't really tell DVD and HD apart on their 40" Bravia. I can, but I work with this stuff. "

    I agree... a decent DVD on at good DVD player with scaling looks great and the leap to HD-DVD is not big in 720p. Maybe the difference in 1080p will be bigger though.

  • Psychotext #22 5 years ago

    Steroyd: Nope, they intended it to be just a software modification but they could only get it to work by modifying the optics in the end.

  • Beano #23 5 years ago

    "And with Hideo Kojima's claims that 25GB is not enough for MGS4..."

    30 hours of cut-scenes and 1 hour of gameplay... can't wait ;)

  • Grim... #24 5 years ago

    They'd have sold 79 in the UK if I could fucking get my hands on one =[

  • S.J.Rogers #25 5 years ago

    If I could find one, I would purchase it...!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Are you listening to me Microsoft…????????

  • Steroyd #26 5 years ago

    Oi! Kojima said he'd cut down on the cutscenes so that's 29 hours of cutscenes.

  • Ceatlan #27 5 years ago

    TipTop,

    I am also an early Sky HD adopter, and I work in the TV/Film industry having access to HD video in all its various formats. I can tell you that when watched on a good quality HD TV, material from a HD-DVD or BluRay disc does look significantly better than any broadcast HD (including Sky Movies), some but not all of the time. The SKY standard def digitial broadcasts look considerably worse than DVD, SKY's HD broadcasts look a little better than DVDs upscaled to HD, and HD-DVDs look at than SKY HD broadcasts. (You notice the difference most in scenes that show the extra compression the worst e.g. dark scenes with lots of shadow, smokey/graduated colour areas, or things like the grass when panning across the football pitch on SKY sports, which becomes a blurry mess in broadcasts.)

    Ceatlan

  • a.d.venturer #28 5 years ago

    "As an early adopter of SKY HD, does anybody know if HD DVD is going to be any better than SKY MOVIES HD? I appreciate the points about ownership etc. but is the quality different as they are both HD sources? "

    Sky compresses their HD content so much that it is barely better than standard digital broadcast quality. So you'll see a significant improvement.

  • peterfll #29 5 years ago

    Sky Movies HD range from adequate to good. I think with a good DVD player you can achieve similar results (via upscaling). I don't know what compression Sky are using. BBC HD seems to be the best advert for HD content IMO. Some of their content looks stunning (Planet Earth springs to mind). Oh, "Lost" recently look quite lush when it was showing on Sky One HD.

    I *believe* however, that HD DVD is already showing superior results at 1080i and once BluRay encoding switches to the VC encoding from MPEG the results will look stunning. But it would appear both formats have yet to show us their full potential yet.

  • Steroyd #30 5 years ago

    In the end it's all about ga...movies that'll win the war.

  • t8yman #31 5 years ago

    if the article on aintitcoolnews.com is anything to go by, the format war is over. And I tend to agree with the point being made. The porn industry has fallen into the HD DVD camp, and as history suggests- porn makes or breaks formats.

    bluray (sony) basically turned the porn industry away

  • Frogger #32 5 years ago

    Led : "So we have 100 000 HD-DVD enabled 360s vs 750 000 Blu-Ray players (PS3s). Mmm. I guess Sony's plan is working after all, when it comes to that format war."

    It's not ! You have to take into account the number of those PS3 early buyers who actually owns a HDTV, and then will become BluRay movies buyers. On the other hand, we can suppose that all X360 HD-DVD buyers do have an HDTV.

    It's also good to know that the porn industry finally decided to back the HD-DVD format, mostly for pricing reasons, but also beacause Sony seems to be reluctant to see some porn content onto its own format.

  • Kazzahdrane #33 5 years ago

    It's correct that only 1000 units made it to the UK for the December 1st launch, the store I work in was the only one in my city to get one - suffice to say we sold it to a guy who had been queuing for an hour (who then sold it on eBay and bought another one last week).

    As of yesterday we actually had one on the shelf though, so I think we're seeing MS beginning to get more stock into the UK, which is good as we get a lot of people asking about them.

  • Darren #34 5 years ago

    So the HD-DVD add-on has at least 100,000 people buying movies on that format then since you can only use it for watching movies? In comparison the PS3 has obviously sold far more but since its predominantly a games machine, how many people have actually bought Blu-ray movies?

  • Steroyd #35 5 years ago

    t8tyman

    Here's a riddle.

    it begins with [link url=http://www.]http://www.[/link] the middle has xxx and ends .com what is it? ;)
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 11:02

  • Psychotext #36 5 years ago

    Steroyd: Yup, cos me and the missus are going to get it on in front of the monitor... SEXAY!

    Either way, adult DVDs were worth 4 billion dollars last year. Nothing compared to normal movies but hardly an insignificant sum.

  • Rambaldi #37 5 years ago

    @wonka

    "N'thing but a splash in the ocean"

    Agreed, but this is actually good for MS. As far as I can see HD movies are going to remain a niche market for a good 5 years. Low saturation of HD sets, relatively high price of HD movies and other than a higher resolution no advantages over DVD (not to mention the fact that a good HDTV does an amazing job of upscaling DVDs).

    They were 100% right not to force it onto consumers and make them pay the price for it.

  • lennon #38 5 years ago

    Got one from Gamestation on Friday which included King Kong!

    Quality is superb to be honest and superior to Sky HD although the difference isnt massive. Agree that BBC HD is the best broadcast example at the moment.

    I actually enjoyed KK even though I didnt think I would. Hardly noticed the 3 odd hours passing.

  • chupachups #39 5 years ago

    They've gone out of stock on Amazon almost as soon as they've become available, so I'm guessing there's either extremely limited stocks in Europe or else an enormous demand.


    "So, I'm fairly happy with the drive, but HD movies are not enough of a step up to warrant much of a premium, nor the purchase of a dedicated player in my mind. "

    It's worse than that, most people need to buy a new TV as well if they want to watch HD. Like you say, the step up is nice but probably not good enough to make HD videos an instant hit.
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 11:09

  • Steroyd #40 5 years ago

    what the hell is with that auto hyperlink?

    Porn doesn't have the same strength as it did back in the 80's Video was just about the only output medium for porn.

    Like you said yourself it's nothing compared to Hollywood which is mostly backed behind Blu-ray.

  • paulf #41 5 years ago

    has anyone actually seen one of these in the uk?

  • Foxclose #42 5 years ago

    Look at what's coming soon on play.com on both formats, and I think you know the answer which format I am backing!

  • Xerx3s #43 5 years ago

    Look at what's coming soon on play.com on both formats, and I think you know the answer which format I am backing!

    The HDDVD obviously. You are such a little ms fanboy.

    ¬_¬

  • jiveguy #44 5 years ago

    I cant wait for Exotic Saltwater Aquarium.

  • kangarootoo #45 5 years ago

    @lambtron

    Blu-ray isn't region free.

    [link url=htt p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Region_codes
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Reg...[/link]

    Though the US and Japan are in the same region, which is of note if you plan on importing a player (PS3 or otherwise) and already tend to import your films.

  • lambtron #46 5 years ago

    Oh cheers Kanga.

    Well that's one disadvantage then I suppose although the games being region free is obviously a WINNAR!

  • rudedudejude #47 5 years ago

    I thought you said WINRAR then for a moment, lol

  • Foxclose #48 5 years ago

    @Xerx3s

    "The HDDVD obviously. You are such a little ms fanboy.

    ¬_¬ "

    Of course! ;)

  • Foxclose #49 5 years ago

    I can't wait for Virtual Fireplaces, myself! LOL!

  • Steroyd #50 5 years ago

    It's not ! You have to take into account the number of those PS3 early buyers who actually owns a HDTV, and then will become BluRay movies buyers. On the other hand, we can suppose that all X360 HD-DVD buyers do have an HDTV.

    When the Xbox 360 launched the attacth rate of those who had a HDTV as well was at 60%.

    Now obviously the it might not be the exact same attatch rate for the PS3 but lets just say it is that's 420,000 people who are very likely to get at least 1 HD movie.

  • Beano #51 5 years ago

    "The porn industry has fallen into the HD DVD camp, and as history suggests- porn makes or breaks formats. "

    Nope - what was true in the old VHS vs. betamax vs. Video 2000 wars... but no longer true.

  • Foxclose #52 5 years ago

    Debbie Does Dallas ... Again is coming soon on BD.

    So porn will be avaliable on the format.

  • JayeM #53 5 years ago

    Love the Serenity plug.

  • old_man #54 5 years ago

    I bought one from Gamestation on Friday.

    I was expecting more, it’s good but not a massive leap from standard DVD quality.

  • Steroyd #55 5 years ago

    No.

    The HD-DVD runs at a slower speed hence less noise.

  • Hughes. #56 5 years ago

    I really couldn't give a toss about either format, and with the size of most people's DVD collections I'd think upscaling those is more important than the fancy-pants features of HD-DVD/BR.

    Has anyone done a comparison of an upscaled DVD to a Hi Def movie?

    There are very few films I own that I could see myself buying again, maybe Ridley Scott's true Director's Cut of Blade Runner (whenever that shows up).

  • Xerx3s #57 5 years ago

    +1. I don't plan to buy those dvd's again.

  • kangarootoo #58 5 years ago

    @lambtron

    Its unlikely all games will be region free, just like not all 360 games are region free.

    In both cases the console does not region lock, but it DOES provide region info the software, which can then lock itself at the disgression of the publisher. The Wii is the only current gen console to region lock in HW.

    I'm not sure if Sony 1st party PS3 titles are region free. If they are, it is no guarantee that 3rd party publisers won't lock their own stuff.

  • t8yman #59 5 years ago

    @ steroyd

    could it be

    http://www.ainti tcool.com/node/31219

  • in5ane #60 5 years ago

    I have 2 UK Blu Rays that work on my Jap PS3, so BR isn't 100% region locked, and I doubt either format will be until the 'war' is won.
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 13:27

  • chupachups #61 5 years ago

    "I really couldn't give a toss about either format, and with the size of most people's DVD collections I'd think upscaling those is more important than the fancy-pants features of HD-DVD/BR. "

    I think you're right, HDDVD/BR is far too recent to expect people to replace their entire DVD collections, especially as many have only just finished replacing their VHS collections.

  • Walshicus #62 5 years ago

    The best HD-DVD available is not Serenity, it's Syriana! ;)

    Soon it'll be Battlestar Galactica.

  • symmetry #63 5 years ago

    "with the best of them all obviously being Serenity. "

    I love you Tom! I want to have your babies! Do you have any for sale?

  • kangarootoo #64 5 years ago

    @in5ane

    Isn't there a multi region DVD type? Cheaper releases tend to use it to keep their costs down. Sounds like there could be a multi region Blu-ray disc format (which would be groovy).

  • jamesbee #65 5 years ago

    I lived in berlin and there was tons of them around. Iam now living back in the UK and popped over just before xmas. On the 22nd December there was a good 20 of them in my local Saturn (largest german electronics store). I grabbed one for my friend. No idea why Germany seemed to have so many of them. Since it launched they have been available in just about every store I looked in.

  • OfficialBlue #66 5 years ago

    Blue-Ray is better!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • MaxiSleep #67 5 years ago

    OfficialBlue

    "Blue-Ray is better!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    So was betamax. :)


    /runs
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 20:18

  • icelt #68 5 years ago

    I'm not convinced the backing of the porn industry is going to have as substantial of an effect this format war go-round. Assuming for the moment that the primary payoff of porn is flesh, flesh and more flesh what benefit is there in 1080 or even 720 presentation? Unless there's some aspect of the experience that I've missed that requires super hi-def special effects, color pallets that must jump off the screen or lossless 7.1 musical scores, I'm just not seeing how Joe bloke is gonna care. IMHO the mind's eye and ear is sufficiently served by good ole 480 resolutions and "lossy 5.1" via cheap DVD. Now when/if HD-DVD or BluRay becomes cheaper than DVD to record, produce, package and distribute... but by that time the war will assuredly have been decided by other factors. Right?
    Edited by 1 at 15/01/07 @ 21:32

  • DocTep #69 5 years ago

    "I'm a leaf on the wind..."

  • davisorle #70 5 years ago

    @OfficialBlue
    "Blue-Ray is better!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    Since you know, why don't you tell as what is it any better at than the HD-DVD? Im really curious to know from someone so informed like you....

    *wtf*

    Anyhow, Im not willing to replace my dvds for new formats.... Once I see what it really does like I've heard on a movie like Tokyo Drift I might end up changing my mind though. And it's still early to know what else they could do with movies on HD later on...

  • urban #71 5 years ago

    serenity was dull, untill the big space battle, then it was dull again.

  • F1Tom #72 5 years ago

    Someone told me that the 360 upscales dvd's. is this true? cos i cant really notice much difference