backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 68 comment(s) - last by Kyanzes.. on Oct 1 at 6:38 AM
Microsoft sets the price for its HD DVD add-on

Microsoft today announced that its HD DVD add-on for the XBOX 360 will be released in the United States in mid-November with a price tag of $199.99. This comes just a week after the announcement that the drive would launch in Japan on November 22 for 19,800 yen ($170 USD).

"[The HD DVD drive] will work with either Core or SKU. It puts [the price] on par with people who want to watch movies. The key part for us is to give consumers choice. We're not gonna lose money on this, but we will give it value," said Microsoft's Scott Henson.

The drive will ship with an XBOX 360 Universal Remote and will come with Peter Jackon's King Kong. The drive should arrive just in time for the Fall system update which is set to add 1080p support for games and movies. Let the games...err, movies begin!

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
price
By asabour on 9/27/06, Rating: 0
RE: price
By daniel1113 on 9/27/2006 7:45:52 PM , Rating: 4
The option to purchase an HD-DVD drive rather than paying $200 for a feature that most people will not use: priceless.


RE: price
By tk109 on 9/27/2006 7:55:22 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah it's nice that people aren't forced to pay for it. And plus it's like a year after they paid for their 360's and now it's a nice add on. $200 a year later is not so bad. If you want it you buy it, of not you dont. I think it's a nice add on personally.


RE: price
By Arkham1 on 9/27/2006 8:24:23 PM , Rating: 1
The ability to have 25/50 GB/disc games: Priceless. ;)

Regardless of which format wins or loses as a movie standard, the BR standard for games will still be a distinct advantage. Face it: no one except fanboys and the early-adoptors will care about these technologies for movies for some time to come. I'm a collector and I don't plan on buying another player for a couple years, so either choice is irrelevant in regards to movies.

And you just KNOW they're going to come out with a game-and-a-movie disc.


RE: price
By ViperROhb34 on 9/27/06, Rating: -1
RE: price
By HibyPrime on 9/27/2006 9:00:17 PM , Rating: 2
What where did sony say they arent going to use games on BR?

And dvd's hold 13gb now? what? http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=13gb+dvd&btnG=... - Hmm....

PS3 games are going to cost $59.99 USD - http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4347

There are plenty of reasons why games would take up more than what DVD9 holds, the concept of a movie/game in HD is one, games in HD is another. Normal 480 resolution games with larger amounts of content is another.

There are also plenty of PS2 Games that use more than 5GB, why do you think most PS2 games are dual-layer and not single layer?


RE: price
By modestninja on 9/27/2006 10:20:00 PM , Rating: 3
Well I have played computer games at *gasp* greater than 1080p resolution and they somehow managed to fit on to one 5gb DVD.
But I guess to get those games above 480p you really need that extra capacity...


RE: price
By HibyPrime on 9/27/06, Rating: -1
RE: price
By HibyPrime on 9/27/2006 10:56:28 PM , Rating: 2
I forgot to add that most PS2 games from BT have lots of content removed (cut scenes, maps that noone uses, audio, ect) to force them to fit on a 5gb dvd.


RE: price
By HibyPrime on 9/27/2006 11:00:10 PM , Rating: 2
SCEA's Phil Harrion - "Citing launch title Resistance requiring 20GB of disc space, games several years from now could be utilizing the full 50GB capacity of the medium."

Hmm...


RE: price
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 9/28/2006 2:00:16 AM , Rating: 5
Ok, to see the full original PS3 Blu-Ray arguement, follow this link:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4187&...


quote:

http://gamesfirst.com/index.php?id=1132


As you can see the following facts:

Average size for Xbox DVD-9 games:

Average for 2001: 1.81 gigs ( 21% of disc )
Average for 2002: 2.17 gigs (25% of disc)
Average for 2003: 2.47 gigs (29% of disc)
Average for 2005: 3.20 gigs ( 37% of disc )

Total size increase between 2001 and 2005 was: 77%

Over the course of its life, the size of the average Xbox title increased by 77%. If the Xbox 360 size increases at the same rate, and the four 360 titles are representative of the whole, we can expect the average Xbox 360 title in 4 or 5 years to be around 7.40 gigs, and to occupy about 87% of the disc's capacity.


So I don't think we truly have to worry about the Xbox360 disk sizes being filled up, and even if we do there is still another option; put the game on two DVD-9 disks which would work perfectly for the majority of games out there.

-------
Chillin


RE: price
By therealnickdanger on 9/28/2006 9:27:18 AM , Rating: 2
Nice work, Chillin. It really is obnoxious to constantly hear people complain about things they either do zero research on or simply have no knowledge of. DVD-9 has plenty of storage for past, current, and future games. In-game rendering eliminates the need for FMV sequences (which is probably why that PS3 game is 20GB), Microsoft's XNA initiative assists developers in producing less-bloated games, and the Xbox360 hardware does amazing things with both compression and this fun little thing called procedural generation (or synthesis). Given a set of rules and minimal number of textures, an entire random forest can be created from just one tree's worth of info... basically... The same goes for buildings, cars, rocks, characters, you name it.

I will only concede one thing in the whole PS3 vs Xbox360 debate. Game audio is still one thing that can't be compressed excessively, so as games (mostly RPGs) become much more massive in terms of character interaction, I fear that the DVD9 capacity may be reached. Oblivion has something like 50 hours of speech (most of which you'll probably never hear) and it consumed roughly half the disc if I remember correctly. Seeing as how a number of high-profile PS2 RPGs came on two discs, it's not unreasonable to one day see 2-disc Xbox360 games if necessary. Given the quality of vocal synthesis in commercial applications, I suppose we may be very close to having in-game-generated voice-acting...

Back on topic, I will be buying this HD-DVD drive. While a clear winner of the formats is far from being decided, I have seen the best of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray side by side and HD-DVD is hands-down the winner with my eyes and ears.


RE: price
By TheDoc9 on 9/28/2006 12:15:21 PM , Rating: 2
This is fine if you expect any FMV to be at 480p. Of course, if you want the FMV to be at 1080P then you will need a lot more than one or two dvd's.

Now if you remove FMV completly, which no games do, then yes, I could see a PS3 game going on a DVD 9. In fact, It wouldn't surprise me to see some of them on DVD 9.

The point is, if the space is there, it will be used. Saying we don't need more space now simply because we don't use it now isn't very forward thinking to say the least.


RE: price
By PrinceGaz on 9/28/2006 1:38:34 PM , Rating: 3
If the space is there, it probably will be used but that doesn't mean that it needs to be used or provides any benefit.

The majority of space taken by really large (in terms of gigabytes) games is used by the pre-rendered FMV scenes. On previous-gen consoles (XB, PS2) the graphics processor was incapable of rendering cut-scenes on the fly of a high enough quality so space-consuming pre-rendered FMV was used instead. Once you've determined how many hours of FMV there will be and how much space is available for it, the obvious thing to do is to use up almost all of that space as it not only ensures the best quality picture and sound (fewer compression artifacts) and also makes it less convenient to distribute illegaly (due to the large filesize) unless the FMV is ripped or re-encoded at a lower bitrate.

The graphics processors of the XB360 and PS3 are capable of rendering scenes at a quality close enough to pre-rendered content that there is no need to include those space-consuming FMVs. Instead they can be rendered by the game-engine using the same high-definition textures that are already being used by the game proper (presumably the cut-scenes have something to do with the gameplay ;) Textures take up a lot less space than high-bitrate movie files so games could actually end up being a bit smaller if all the FMVs are removed.

I personally prefer PC games which render cut-scenes using the game engine over those that use FMVs, because the games looks and feels more consistent throughout. The XB360 will presumably render high-definition movies using the game engine in order to avoid taking up most of the available 8.5GB.

I wouldn't be surprised if some PS3 games continue to use pre-rendered FMVs simply as an excuse to fill up more of the BluRay disc, in fact Sony and especially Sony fanbois will probably claim their games are better because they are bigger. Of course the rest of us will know that the only reason the PS3 game is bigger is because of unnecessary and wasteful FMV filling up many gigabytes of disk space. The only possible benefit of it would be to deter copying of PS3 games in favour of XB360 (which would itself drive another nail in the PS3's coffin).


RE: price
By JazzMang on 9/28/2006 5:35:50 PM , Rating: 2
1920x1200? yes i do.

the end.


RE: price
By Loc13 on 9/28/2006 9:10:54 AM , Rating: 1
Every PS3 game is released in Blu ray disk. For example, Resistance: Fall of Man takes up 20GB. Can a dual-layer dvd fit that much content? I suppose not.


RE: price
By reboos on 9/27/2006 8:31:44 PM , Rating: 2
Yes they are the same price except the ps3 will have 40 more gb is hd space, wifi & hdmi.


RE: price
By ViperROhb34 on 9/27/2006 8:48:27 PM , Rating: 2
What makes the Xbox more appealing is its entry price.
Its more feasible to go out a buy something that cost Three hundred and be able to upgrade it when you have money... and only if you want to. If I dont want a HD-DVD player.. great.. I dont buy one.. and NEVER spend the money. The Xbox 360 doesnt need a big hardrive.. it can be networked to any Windows PC.. and Windows Vista which many have now as beta lets you network it and watch movies from your pc.. store music.. Id rather use my computer 300 gig hardrive for that then depend on a hardrive in a game console.

Not enough people can go out and drop 500 or 600 at one time to sell the massive numbers Sony needs to sell for PS3 to be a real success.

Sony will sell as many or less units the MS has sold mainly because of price alone. Most people here are looking at features.. reality is.. the everyday working person won't buy something that cost that much.

PS2 started off at only 299.. and is now on 120 dollars.. thats why it continues to sell well..

If I buy a PS3, which is not likely - And I do have the money - and if I could buy one - which there will be too few out there to buy at even the ridiculous price it will be - I'd have to buy what else with it ? No rumble... and how much will accesories be ..


RE: price
By Hemipower on 9/28/2006 1:15:43 AM , Rating: 1
<