Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD Price and Release Date

Today at X06 in Barcelona, Microsoft officially announced pricing and release dates for the anticipated HD-DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360. The drive will hit retail in North America in "mid-November" and will retail for $199.99. Europe will also receive the drive in a similar time period, where it will retail for €199.99/£129.99 in the U.K., France, and Germany. For a limited time, all 360 HD-DVD drives will include a copy of Peter Jackson's "King Kong" on HD-DVD as well as the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote.

The Toshiba-backed HD-DVD standard is currently involved in a format war with the Sony-led Blu-ray format. Both technologies offer movies encoded at 6 times the resolution of standard DVDs. Sony took the initiative in the format war in the videogame arena by making Blu-ray an integral part of the upcoming PlayStation 3, which will use the new technology for both games and movies. The Microsoft HD-DVD drive will only be used for movie watching.

Hardware prices have become a critical issue in the format war. Sony will launch two versions of the Blu-ray based PlayStation 3 at $499 and $599. The combination of the premium Xbox 360 ($399) and HD-DVD drive ($199) will place Microsoft's offering directly in price competition with the high-end PS3 version. A Core 360 and HD-DVD combination will compete with the lower-end PS3. In this configuration, the PS3 takes the value edge, as the low end model still has a hard drive, something the Core 360 does not.

Microsoft is unique in offering gamers a choice in adopting one of the next-gen DVD formats. The popularity of the HD-DVD (or lack thereof) will likely provide interesting insight into the videogame market's enthusiasm for the next-gen DVD formats.