Microsoft has announced that it has cut the price of its Xbox 360 HD DVD addon by $50 USD. The price cut follows recent decisions by Toshiba to drop prices on their HD DVD players.
The new price cut brings the price of the add-on in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to $129.99 USD. A few months ago Microsoft dropped the price of its add-on and promptly saw a surge in sales.
Earlier today, the huge e-tailer Amazon began selling the add-on for $79.99 USD and sold out within hours.
It is also important to note that every purchase of the add-on includes a free copy of “King Kong” on HD DVD in the box as well as an offer to get five free discs in the mail.
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After recent announcements that Best Buy had snuffed HD DVD and that Netflix would be dropping all stock of HD DVD, the HD DVD Promotional Group took time to make a statement about the future of the format and the recent decisions.
Clearly, the Group was upset over the recent losses (which seem to be mounting) and offered only this as a response.
“We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it’s unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail.
The response, which is rather tame compared to past statements could show that the Group is finally breaking down, or even accepting defeat. Price cuts have become standard practice for Toshiba HD DVD players but disc sales are still lagging and consumers are eagerly expecting and end to the format war.
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It seems that over the course of the last month, HD DVD has been taking loss after loss, but it seems the giant retailer Wal-Mart has finally put the final nail in the coffin.
The company announced this morning that it has chosen sides in the next-gen format war and that by June it will only be stocking Blu-ray Disc players, completely dropping HD DVD in the process.
Susan Chronister, of Wal-Mart’s video division wrote in her blog earlier this morning that the company made its decision following Best Buy’s and Netflix’s recent decision to snuff HD DVD.
“By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines and, of course, standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players,” Chronister said. She then added, “if you bought the HD DVD player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a (Blu-Ray Disc) player.”
That may be a good decision as well considering that HD DVD players are, on average, excellent up converting players for Standard Definition movies and are still much, much cheaper than its counterpart Blu-ray players.
As much as this latest blow hurts consumer choice, I hate to admit that this is the end for HD DVD. Lets see if Blu-ray fairs any better against digital downloads.
