Microsoft: Xbox 360 with Built In HD-DVD Drive On The Way?

I think it is likely to happen too, but this is just speculation on his part. He hasn't heard anything about any real conncrete plans for such a box.

I hope Microsoft knows what they are doing. This is great for HD DVD but there are going to be a lot of angry XBox 360 owners out there. There were a lot of very angry 360 owners when the HDMI Elite was announced.

Not going to happen at least until 2009. The HD DVD drive speed is too low to sustain the transfer rate needed by 360 games (16Mbps vs 9Mbps). Toshiba must develop at least 4x HD DVD drives.

So its going to be more expensive then the ps3 and the hddvd drive is worthless for games. Whos gonna pay 200+ more then premium for it?? Puts it in the same expensive situation ps3 is in.

The Xbox drives are 16x DVD - There are already HD DVD drives capable of 12x DVD speeds - so the leap to 16x HD DVD drives seems very do-able.

Don't see this as a great move. People still want that "choice," I have one gaming console and one HD DVD player.

I don't think all the SKU's will have the HD DVD drive. I believe there will be another SKU with it. (in addition to the existing 3, or 4 if you count the Halo 3 SKU)

As long as HD DVD is for movies only, and the external drive is still offered, why should existing owners care?


If Tosh/Venturer can make (and sell) a whole player for < $200, and Tosh puts them in cheap laptops, the cost of the drive must not be that much...They me able to eat the cost premium and not change price at all...


What if they put it in the Elite, and still offered the Premium w/DVD? Or offered it in the Premium but didn't lower the price?

One more point...

Back in late July....Digitimes article...


If MS only produced 200,000 external HD DVD drives in 7 months (November '06-July-'07), why bother soliciting new manufacturers (other than Toshiba) for an additional $10-$20 off the cost of the [external] drive, unless they are producing them in volume?

Bringing on additional manufacturers to save $2 million is not worth it, given the additional headaches that can result. Bringing on additional manufacturers to produce a million drives becomes a worthwhile proposition, however.

Thin? yes...Anorexic? Yes. But if they are going to make HD DVD drives internal, then right after the PS3 price drop seems like the logical time to do it.

Beat me to it. This is exactly what I was about to post.

Doesn't mean jack until they can get the Xbox console MUCH quieter.

I don't think this will happen. Sources at microsoft told me not to hold me breath for a xbox wiht built in 360 as recently as a few weeks ago. It could happen later, but not in the next 6 months.

Well with the XBox 360 already proven to be an unreliable piece of hardware, this could actually hurt HD-DVD. It does make sense for them to head this direction though as HD-DVD drives will just get cheaper and cheaper real soon. The only hope is that they finally figured out using cheap components in the long run has hurt them more in repairs/warranty costs than if they had used better drives and components to begin with. So hopefully if they do incorporate an HD-DVD drive it will be a quality one. I still think Blu-Ray is the way to go due to higher capacity.

I think all XBox 360's have the 360 built in already. If not Microsoft has really pulled one over on us.

It looks like Microsoft is finally getting ready to admit that DVD9 is just not enough space for modern games that include hours or speech and many megs of textures.

While this is a good move as it will help with the longevity of the console, this will be yet another configuration for the users to contend with. Unless Microsoft forces game companies to use both DVD and HD-DVD it may take a long time before it will be widely accepted since it will leave all current consoles obsolete.

Lunch break at Sony?

I doubt they are going to produce HD-DVD based 360 games that require the 360 with HD-DVD Drive built in cause that would mean that the original 360s wouldnt be able to play them. Talk about some pissed owners.

I agree with FrancescoP that it is not likely anytime RSN. One real problem would be if you couldn't use the external HD-DVD drive to achieve the same effect. If its possible to use the external HD-DVD drive and have the same effect as an internal HD-DVD drive, I could see Microsoft releasing a game exclusively on HD-DVD. One standalone and one bundled with a lower cost HD-DVD drive (as mentioned in the article). After all, we do see people very interested in getting GH3 that requires the remote guitar.

Release a 360 w/ built in HD DVD w/TrueHD and DTS-MA passthrough, wifi, HDMI, 120GB HD at 499 and I'd buy one even though I already have an A2 and a 360.

Yeah, people keep missing the fact that an internal HD DVD doesn't mean HD DVD games, it means HD DVD movie playback w/o the add-on.

ROTFLMAO

The one thing nobody seems to consider when they imagine configurations of the 360 with an internal HD DVD is a dual drive chassis. Perfectly sensible way to create a bridge until HD drive mechanisms reach the speeds necessary for a single drive configuration. The internal DVD drive can't add that much to the Bill of Materials...

Microsoft can not sell against a $399 PS3 without a higher build quality and a richer feature set. MS has two directions it can take... build a premium sku to sell at the same price point, or continue to sell at a big discount in lower feature skus.. I think they will do both.

A sub $200 Toshiba HD Player gives MS a chance to offer additional functionality and not steal too much volume away from Toshibas higher end products.

??? 360 would mean it didn't go anywhere. 360 and 0 are the same thing.

An internal Drive would be great, but it will never be used for games, its is also not needed for games like blu-ray is to the PS3. DVD9 is plenty and has been proven by the fact that blu-ray games use uncompressed textures and movies, and also have multiple copies of disk content to facilitate the slower blu-ray drive. Also most blu-ray based games need to dump files to the hard drive to help with loading times.

There is at least one 360 title with multiple discs: Blue Dragon has three. It also has multiple audio languages for all the spoken cutscenes and battle lines etc, and quite a few pre rendered cutscenes too (they do alot in engine, but sometimes they use a pre render instead).

But hey, we swapped through multiple discs for FF7 and it didn't kill us. It's not like this is a FPS swapping discs every 2 hours or something.

For the majority of titles, disk space is not an issue.

Me too although I have A3/360.

If the XBOX 360 had had HD-DVD then I would not have bought my XA2 and would be watching all my movies on an XBOX 360. Microsoft needs to hurry if they want to make some more sales.

and quiet + RELIABLE. I'd be sold. I'm not holding my breath though I wish they had done something similar at launch.

As an Xbox 360 owner I really could care less if they release a HD-DVD included version AS LONG as they don't start making games that require the HD-DVD drive. If it's the equivalent of an Xbox 720 or whatever coming out 2 years after the original system, then that'll be a bummer. If the HD drive is exclusively for movies, then great more sales of XBox and better games.

I think an HD-DVD included Xbox won't be until Microsoft's next system comes out, which very well could be 2-3 years from now. Regardless, games wont utilize the HD-DVD if Microsoft is smart in this generation, because they already have an impressive 360 userbase.

It's very quiet when playing movies. it's games that it spins fast.