Xbox 360 vs. PS3: PS3 Offers the Better Movie Deal

[PlayStation Fascination]

2007.07.26 • 13:14 EST

An HD DVD price cut moves the Xbox in line with the PS3
The curious -- and, to those of us who've adopted neither, silly -- battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD next-gen video formats heated up today, as Microsoft cut the price of its Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on. You can now buy an HD DVD player for your console for $179 (down from $199), and you'll also get five free HD DVD movies. (PC World reports that available titles include "Apollo 13," "Seabiscuit," "Constantine," "Casablanca," "We Were Soldiers," "U-571" and "Blazing Saddles," among others.)

Every time I write about the comparative price of the Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, people assault me for not mentioning the PS3's Blu-ray capability (I can't see why I should -- it matters not a whit to the games people play on the system). But let's do the price comparison now. If you're looking for a console and a next-gen movie player, you can get a 60GB PS3 for $499 (while supplies last!), which includes a Blu-ray player. Or you can get a $399 20GB Xbox 360, plus a $179 HD DVD add-on, for a total of $578.

You get five free movies with the XBox. But as a reader points out below, there's a Blu-ray promotion (expires Sept. 30) that will give you the same number of free movies.

So if you're looking a next-gen movie-capable gaming machine, your cheaper bet (until Sony runs out of the no-longer-in-production $499 model) is the PS3. Take that, MS.

Correction: Hey, my mistake. Earlier I called the XBox deal cheaper because it comes with five free movies; I didn't know about the Blu-ray promotion. So there you have it: PS3's cheaper.

Link:

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/07/26/hd_dvd_xbox/

Just like I said the other day, the recent price drop on the HD-DVD add on player still doesn't make it a good deal.

[naruto007]

only dumb people is buying a dead format.

[DeputyDon]

Link:

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/07/26/hd_dvd_xbox/

Just like I said the other day, the recent price drop on the HD-DVD add on player still doesn't make it a good deal.

It was only a $20 drop... $20 won't increase sales enough to even mention a sales increase..... If Sony would have dropped the PS3 sales only $20 sales would have barely, if at all increased. I would say they will have to drop it atleast $50 dollars for the HDDVD add-on for sales to properly increase.

[Stoffinator]

I don't see any reason to buy the HD DVD ad on for the 360. Its noisy as a jet and its a dying format. Plus no how good of a deal it is, its still something not built into the unit. So its extra money and extra space needed.

[NEXGEN BLU]

Ms Needs To Just Give Up,on Trying To Make Hardware For Games And Movies.it Simply Sucks Ass.maybe Ms Can Be A Software Company And Throw In The Towel.lol

[rikwakefield]

I will never use a games console to play movies. I prefer stand alone units.

[BenL]

The price drop looks like an act of desperation to me.

[venom]

why would anyone want to buy an add on for a console that breaks down every two months??

[Saigon]

yeah this is true but I just noticed the 300 advertisement...on tv they mention HD-DVD...but only show the Blu-Ray label...Also I looked in the paper this morning and the Blu-Ray version is cheaper by 5 dollars...

[rikwakefield]

why would anyone want to buy an add on for a console that breaks down every two months??

I've had my console for 20 months. By your reckoning I should have been through 10 consoles by now. Guess what, never had a problem.

[razorblade416]

Even if the HD-DVD players get cheaper, it doesn't matter. HD-DVD is pretty much already a dead format.

[crxdriver]

LOL, this is radiculous comparison, it's like my 6yr old son did it . What happened with 50$ Live subscription and 20$ charge and play, because you get that with 500$ PS3 ?

Feels like this is xbox fan how recently changed his mind..

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

yea the 50 $ drop is crap shoulda been atleast 50. also the 360 got a price drop also it should be starting soon. the drop was 50 bucks.

[DeputyDon]

I will never use a games console to play movies. I prefer stand alone units.

Whats sad is, when I got my PS2, I said the same thing. Later on, I realized my PS2 (slimline version, 2 normal sized consoles later....) I learned my Sony stand-alone DVD player sucked in comparison to my PS2. The DVD player scratched all my DVDs and eventually made them unreadable by the DVD player, so now I have to pop them in my PS2 for them to even work.....


EDIT: Although I will say the PS2 sucks at playing burned movies...

[Nyengo]

Even after the price drop the PS3 still looks like a better deal.

[fumper]

why would you want to use a 360 to watch a hd-dvd movie?
given that most new movies are around the 2 hour mark you would have to watch it in multipull parts to let the 360 cool down to aviod the red ring of death. lol

[jphuff]

The price drop looks like an act of desperation to me.

Well, I wouldn't go THAT far.... The deal with the HD-DVD add on was that everyone supporting HD-DVD was saying that those that bought that add-on obviously were doing so to watch movies (as it can't be used yet for games), while PS3's didn't count so much for the Blu-Ray side since people primarily bought PS3's for gaming.

It's been out quite a while now (almost a year, isn't it?) and MS recently said they'd only sold like 180,000 units. Not real good sales. But with manufacturing costs reducing, etc I'm sure they have some room to drop the price with so they did. It IS also obviously an attempt to spike sales a bit but I wouldn't say desperation. MS DOES back HD-DVD but they don't have as large of a stake in that as say Sony does with Blu-Ray.

This whole format "war" is interesting and it will REALLY be interesting to see what happens through the holidays. I would HOPE that things come to some sort of resolution sooner rather than drag out for years, but it could go either way. We'll see...

[venom]

I've had my console for 20 months. By your reckoning I should have been through 10 consoles by now. Guess what, never had a problem.

well my 360 died in two months i got it repaired and then sold it and my friends 360 died in five months wot do u say to that??