Microsoft stops HD DVD production for Xbox 360 Posted on 25.02.2008 at 16:30 in Tech News by Martin Microsoft has decided to stop making the HD DVD add-on for its Xbox 360 games console after Toshiba abandoned the high definition DVD format. Toshiba estimated last week that about 300,000 of the add-ons had been sold. Microsoft was one of the key backers for the HD DVD format, competing with Blu-ray, which was the format available in Sony’s rival PlayStation 3 console. Microsoft said it would continue to provide warranty support for the $130 (£115 in the UK) HD DVD add-on. Last week, Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders after major film studios decided to back Sony’s Blu-ray format instead. Toshiba said the tipping point came last month when Warner Brothers decided to release its movies only in Blu-ray. The Xbox add-ons sold represented 30% of the one million HD DVD devices that were sold worldwide. That compares unfavourably with the 10.5 million PS3s sold by Sony, which come with a built-in Blu-ray drive. -rlslog
Damn. HD DVD is losing it's grip extremely fast. Guess Blu-Ray won if even Microsoft stopped backing it up.
they're on sale for like 50-70 dollars, the xbox 360 hd dvd drive. hd dvd dies but even before it died, the players were modestly affordable. now that blu ray is live and hd-dvd is dead, there will probably slow decreases in the players affordability. the price i believe is about 350-375 for a blu ray player. of course one can buy a ps3 and stop complaining about the stand alone blu ray player. standard dvd is more then modest enough for most people as most people will more then likely purchase a 32" [37"] or less as apartment sizes in new york city is small.
that's crazy. how long would it take for someone to actually download a full 360 game? for me it takes about one hour to download a 250MB file [such as movies]. so assuming a 360 game is 7GB, then it would take me about 28 hours assuming everything is a constant and not a variable.
X360 uses standard DVDs, which are 9GB MAX. (dual layer) anything more than that isn't feasible to download.
i believe he may have meant games that would have used the hd-dvd discs instead of having multiple standard dvd discs. btw, that is too long to wait just to have to play a game. 14GB being a minimum size for hd-dvd disc 360 game would take me 56 hours to download [more then 2 days]. off course some of you [i believe winter and born2kill] could careless as you guys have like super high speed download speed.
Actually, i think microsoft will do it. Because if they don't they'll make a lot of customers (like me) angry because we've bought the xbox 360, so why change it now, why not release a new console with blu-ray. I hope they do put full games on live. They should put a contract with toshiba agreeing to make hddvd's for a certain amount of time, until they release a new blu-ray console.
