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Fuzzy Logic Xbox 360 HD DVD drive price drop good but underwhelming
Fuzzy Logic Xbox 360 HD DVD drive price drop good but underwhelming | Xbox 360 HD DVD drive price drop good but underwhelming |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Thursday, 07 February 2008 | |
  
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Toshiba had to drop prices by around 50% and promise a stack of free HD DVD movies with each player to get sales moving again, so savvy consumers who wanted to buy the HD DVD drive for their Xbox 360 would have been patiently waiting for a similar price drop to occur. And it has happened – the price has fallen from AUD $249.95 to only AUD $129.95 with a free copy of Peter Jackson’s King Kong on HD DVD. Interestingly, despite Microsoft’s announcement of the price drop, consumers walking into stores today could still find $249.95 price tags, with Microsoft saying that: “We are working with individual retailers to have the new pricing available as soon as possible.” Whether all these price drops is enough to save HD DVD is yet to be seen, but it’s certainly the right move to make to try and get the stock out the door and cover costs, if nothing else. Universal’s announcement of 20 new titles due in 2008 means that HD DVD owners will at least still have something to buy this year, but the picture is far less clear for the future, something that's quite ironic for a 'high definition' format. The biggest question for Xbox 360 owners is if they could really be bothered with an HD DVD drive, when $129.95 could instead buy them a new game, or a couple of cheaper, older games – or at least 5 movies on regular DVD. $129.95 would probably buy a DVD player with upscaling capability, although I haven’t done any extensive checking of upscaling DVD player prices. I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit over the whole Blu-ray and HD DVD war. Microsoft’s price drop was expected, and it’s a good buy for anyone who anyone who already owns an Xbox 360 and really wants to watch the movies that are available (or due soon) on HD DVD. But I’m just feeling underwhelmed by the whole thing. No doubt Microsoft will shift a few more HD DVD players with the price drop, but isn’t it just an attempt to clear out what is now old stock, just like Toshiba is doing with their HD DVD players? There's nothing wrong with that, of course, especially when it is so obvious. Ah, high definition. What a troubled entry into the world you've had, with every toil and trouble broadcast to the entire world in the sharpest of detail! |
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