Microsoft on Sunday cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20GB hard drive from $349 to $299.
Microsoft on Sunday unveiled an Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard drive. It's expected to go on sale in August.
(Credit: Microsoft)The company also introduced a new Xbox 360 model with a 60GB hard drive. It will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada for $349 in early August.
Microsoft's announcements, which were widely expected, come on the eve of the start of this week's E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles.
Rumors of the Xbox price cut swirled on popular gaming blogs Joystiq and Kotaku last week. The two sites received snapshots of Kmart and RadioShack fliers advertising the $299 price.
Microsoft announced in May that Xbox 360 had become the first next-generation video game console to hit 10 million units sold in the United States. All told, Microsoft said it has sold 19 million Xboxes worldwide.
Microsoft will end production of the external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 video game console, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The company said it would, however, continue to offer warranty support for the peripheral.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own," Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft's media and entertainment group, said in a statement.
The drive, which currently costs about $130, was intended as Microsoft's answer to Sony's PlayStation 3 console, which contained an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive.
Microsoft is just the latest top-tier tech company to abandon the failed high-definition disc format. Along with Toshiba, Intel, and NEC, Microsoft was one of the most prominent supporters of the standard. Toshiba said last week it would no longer make HD DVD players. Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, and all the major movie studios have all now said they will exclusively support Blu-ray.
The biggest proponent of Blu-ray, Sony, now stands poised to become the standard bearer of HD video mostly because of its strategy in including Blu-ray playback capability into the PS3. It's unclear if Microsoft now plans to make an attachable Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360.
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