Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

Microsoft Cuts Price of European HD DVD Drive

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

September 4, 2007, 1:23 PM

At the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin over the weekend, Microsoft said it would be cutting the price of the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on by 20 euros, bringing the cost down to 180 euros. This follows a similar price drop in the United States.

Blu-ray and HD DVD were a hot topic at IFA, with both sides unveiling new products and titles to help push their respective formats. But HD DVD has taken the more aggressive approach when it comes to pricing, and in the United States the cheaper Xbox 360 add-on has surged in sales at retailers such as Amazon.com. News of the European price cut was first reported by eFlux Media.

Add a Comment (33 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By pitdingo

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:06 PM

M$ is so desparate to get the limited HD-DVD format out there.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 10:31 PM

Limited to what? Paramount jumping ship? You stupid sh!t.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 10:30 PM

What's the matter Dave? Can't afford both formats? I can.

Remeber this? Your faggoty comment on blu-ray.com's forums: "Welcome to the crystal Blu world" You are such a gay boy, and your system still sucks.

Score: 0

By Detachment

posted Sep 5, 2007 - 4:22 AM

"Welcome to the crystal Blu world"

LOL, the Blu ray shills really are brainwashed kids...

Score: 0

By SGD

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 9:13 PM

The broken record speaks out again. Funny how you don't see the $ony coming price drop as not desperation. You are so clueless as to how business works.

At least the format is final unlike Blo-ray. Hey how is the HD or blo-ray add on for your Wii, oh yeah it is old time graphics can't handle it. It is a good system just seriously lacking in the graphics department.

MS could care less they only support not invest in the format but you will nevre admit that.

What next the HD format is a monopoly oh some other stupid statement. That seems to be all you know MS is a monopoly, they are desperate and so on. What ever JA.

Score: 0

By SGD

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 7:00 PM

Great deal.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 6:19 PM

Hey Steve / Dave...........

http://www.google.com/se...tIndex=&startPage=1

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

Score: 0

By plague201

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 8:13 PM

LOL,

I suspect Davey is the culprit here as well.
http://arstechnica.com/j...laying-halo-3s-graphics

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:15 PM

Looks like someone is desperate to lesson the attention to a sure game of the year game.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:04 PM

I'm sure that no one is surprised, Sony is a bunch of d***s.

Score: 0

By Steve Austin

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 5:12 PM

FIRE SALE!!!

Score: 0

By yountmj

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 7:51 PM

Ahh, just jealous because the HD DVD specs have been concrete-firm since all players launched?

It's a far cry from the planned obsolescence of all Blu-ray players out now. What a rip-off. $1000+ for a high-end BD player? There's no such thing... they're all sub-par, making the format sub-par by default.

The only BD movie that has "PiP" is a hacked abomination. Disney and others are planning to re-release their catalogs with special features enabled later when (or if) the 1.1 or BD Live specs see the light of day? Remotely entertaining the notion of "double-dipping" new BD releases already is extremely laughable.

If I were a Blu-ray customer, I surely wouldn't continue to unconditionally praise the format or the BDA. I'd be furious for being lied to and taken advantage of.

Score: 0

By pitdingo

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:08 PM

lol. Don't be mad because you support the limited HD-DVD format. Blu-Ray is superior. end of story. Blu-ray is dominating the sales. end of story. Even with a fire sale of players, HD-DVD still can not outsell Blu-Ray.

HD-DVD is a sinking ship... No one in their right mind would buy a HD-DVD player.

Score: 0

By yountmj

edited Sep 5, 2007 - 12:59 AM

Oh, I see the truth of it now. Only someone in their "right mind" would spend almost $1000 on a state-of-the-art cutting-edge player that will be obsolete by the time 2008 rolls around? Let me guess... a Blu-ray add-on for existing players to view the additional content that will be on re-released versions of movies that have only been out for a couple of months (and even some that aren't out yet)? Man, Douglas Adams couldn't have written anything more demented than what most of you Smurfs come up with.

Perhaps you'd care to explain how HD DVD is limited. Better yet, perhaps explaining how Blu-ray is not limited compared to HD DVD would prove to be more entertaining.

You poor little brainwashed Smurfs. You're supporting a format that doesn't even know what it wants to do yet.

Oh, and believe me... I'm not mad. Far from it. You continue to provide excellent entertainment, and these topics are usually anything but dull, thanks in no small part to your continued "valuable" input on the subject.

Oh, and how's that "fire sale" on the "faulty stock" of 60GB PS3's going?

Score: 0

By siryak

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 9:30 PM

LMAO!!! Oh look a $ony shill trying to make himself feel better about buying an overpriced format that is going to end up like all of it fellow overpriced predecessors. But hey who am I to come in a ruin your little fantasy.

Score: 0

By pitdingo

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 10:11 PM

so you are saying HD-DVD is outselling Blu-Ray? LOL. What planet do you live on?

I suppose next you will tell us the BrickBox 360 is outselling the Wii?

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Sep 5, 2007 - 12:38 AM

...and yet another pearl from that oyster you call a brain.

That's a shining example of how you do not actually read what others have posted. Where did he even remotely mention or hint at sales figures?

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Sep 5, 2007 - 2:56 PM

Lol that is exactly what I was fixing to say. I swear they read worse and worse everyday.

HD-DVD is NOT outselling Blo-Ray right now. But it will be in due time. The scales are going to start to tip probably in the not too distant future.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:17 PM

Only in your wet dreams clueless one.

Score: 0

By Hocuspokus

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 7:20 PM

Yeah but look at the calibre of shill they love to believe.....

Bill Hunt at 'Digital Bits' is widely understood to be a hardcore Blu-Ray shill.

The BDA hosted a party in his honor at a recent Vega function (just to be nice, huh?)

He has effectively lost any and all credibility due to his EXTREME bias in this area.

He should stop pretending to be an outside observer and independent commentator asap.

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 7:35 PM

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I decided to do some checking up on bottom-feeder Bill recently the more you brought his name up. You'll never catch me going back to that site again, I assure you. Almost every single Blu-ray-centric site out there is simply out of control, dominated by legions of "me too" fanatical Smurfs.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:24 PM

They truely are pathetic, like a cult, if you challenge them you are banished. They can not handle the truth. Their stupid little campaign at this stage to the game is a childish waste of money. Go buy as many movies as you can to support the format. I buy movies that I like not to support a format. Buying things that you don't need is stupid but then again so are many of the people there.

What is really sad is these douch^ bags buy hundreds of movies to support the love of their live which only makes the actual attach rate look even worse. If there is a couple hundred trolls buying everything that comes out makes the attach rate for the others look more like 1 disk for every 10 consoles sold.

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Sep 5, 2007 - 12:45 AM

Well, I suppose in their minds the ends justify the means. What the heck, right? They can always eBay the ones they don't like later... it's all about sales numbers, not which format is actually mature and ready for the public now, after all.

Sure, there's some stuff that's either on Blu-ray now or planned for future release that I would like to have (Lost would be a nice start)... but there are far more exclusives that I personally enjoy on HD DVD. Poor little Smurfs wont have Battlestar Galactica... *sniff sniff*

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 6:59 PM

WOW a predictable response from you. The PS3 80 gig price drop won't be the same thing I'm sure. Idiot.

Score: 0

By Hocuspokus

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 4:03 PM

Now if only they'd do us the same 9 freebie movies deal, as was recently going on in the USA, I'd buy another one.

Score: 0

By SGD

edited Sep 4, 2007 - 2:40 PM

Great news for the people on the other side of the pond.

There ya go.

Score: 0

By Jordanr05

edited Sep 6, 2007 - 6:12 AM

edited post - thanks SGD

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 9:25 PM

You can see that the usual trolls started the lies again.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 2:40 PM

Agreed. We'll see if this can be civil.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 2:31 PM

Thank God it's back to school time for most..

++QFT

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 7:05 PM

I have to agree... I'm lost too.

Score: 0

By Jordanr05

posted Sep 4, 2007 - 7:00 PM

I have no clue what the heck that means

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 5, 2007 - 9:27 AM

QFT=Quoted For Truth.

Score: 0

Sep 5 - 8:44 PM ET Mozilla's Aza Raskin: The journey back to Ubiquity

Sep 5 - 7:10 PM ET Red Hat buys virtualization specialist Qumranet

Sep 5 - 7:06 PM ET Analysts: Online news viewers rising as newspaper readership falls

Sep 5 - 6:55 PM ET Where does Sarah Palin stand on technology issues?

Sep 5 - 6:51 PM ET Adobe Flash to deliver NFL games in full

Sep 5 - 4:29 PM ET Exclusive beta invitation from GameTap and BetaNews

Sep 5 - 4:09 PM ET Report: OLPC buy one, give one deal returns

Sep 5 - 3:45 PM ET No ruling yet in TiVo vs. EchoStar patent case

Sep 5 - 3:37 PM ET Google Analytics starts tracking Chrome, with intriguing results

Sep 5 - 2:14 PM ET Comcast challenges FCC's authority in sanction appeal