So here's the thing about the next generation of optical video disc players: they're expensive.The Playstation2 helped bring DVDs into a lot of people's living rooms. And the PS3 and Xbox 360 are expected to do the same for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media respectively. That's because you can generally get away with selling the player as part of a video game system at prices far below what a stand-alone player would sell for. You'll make up the difference in sales to early adopter gamers who wouldn't shell out a thousand bucks for a video player.
That said, Sony has announced the PS3 will sell for $499 to $599, and both models will come with an internal Blu-Ray drive. Microsoft, on the other hand, is started the Xbox 360 at a lower price point without a next generation DVD drive. An external HD-DVD player is on the way, but there's been no official announcement on the price yet.
PS3news.ca is reporting that it Microsoft could charge as much as $500, but that seems like idle speculation from a store clerk.
Meanwhile, DigiTimes reports that Taiwanese game manufacturers say it will sell for $200 and be available by Christmas. If that's true, this will definitely be the cheapest way to get a next generation hi-def video player into your home... assuming you already have a $300+ Xbox 360 system.
1. I personally don't see it going for $200, I would hope MS would be selling it for between $99 and $150. It is, in my opinion, important for them to undercut Sony price-wise, since the thinking is the the PS3 is "expensive". The 360, at $300/$400, with a $200 HD-DVD player would be $500/$600, the exact same price as the PS3. On the other hand, if they made the drive $99 it would still come in at $100 under the PS3 for the pair.
Also, there should be no real reason to make the thing $200. It isn't like buying an entire HD-DVD player, it is just the drive + the usb connection. All the horsepower is provided by the 360, all that is going over USB is the raw, encrypted, compressed data. The interesting thing is if the drive is cheaper than other PC HD-DVD drives and people start buying them to use on standard PCs.
Posted at 11:04AM on Aug 14th 2006 by Kevin