Best Buy is selling the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 for $50 plus shipping. Shipping is about $5. Also available for free in-store pickup at most locations. If you purchase this drive by the 28th of February, you qualify for the 5 free movies in addition to the free copy of King Kong in the package. Sure the format is dead, but it’ll cost you $50 for a couple of BluRay movies anyway. So, if you’re interested in getting your HD movie collection started, this is a great way to do it.

Amazon is selling the drive for $65 with free shipping.

Link: Microsoft HD DVD Player for Xbox 360 - $50

Well, we all knew this was coming sooner or later… Microsoft announced on Saturday that all production of the HD DVD attachment for the 360 has been stopped. Microsoft will, however, continue to honor the warranty for the drives that have already been sold. Additionally, the company said that the failure of HD DVD and the decision to stop selling the players will have “no material impact” on its video game business. You can read the full press release here.

For those of you who do own this technological white elephant, just think of it this way… it could be worse. You could have the original Nokia N-Gage.

Link: Microsoft says it will stop making HD DVD players for Xbox 360 after Blu-ray wins format war

British gaming news site Digital Spy brings news from the Game Developers Conference. Microsoft’s John Schappert told attendees of his keynote speech that

“We have no plans to announce (a Blu-Ray drive) right now. But I’d also urge you to look at the attach rate for the HD-DVD drive. It was a 3% attach rate…you also have to take into account how did the other accessory do when you look at the future.”

We’ll see if Microsoft’s tune changes in the future, but for now movies downloaded in Xbox Live are going to be the only way to get HD film content from the 360.

Link: Digital Spy: Microsoft says ‘no’ to Xbox Blu-ray

Gamerscore Blog has announced a price drop on the HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. The price has been dropped $50 from $180 to $130. This makes it by far the cheapest HD DVD player you can buy, given you already have an Xbox 360. If you don’t, why are you reading this site?

The downside to this is the inevitable victory of Blu-ray over HD DVD, given the recent events. I’m not sure HD DVD will last another year or two. Other than the obvious size advantage of Blu-ray, HD DVD was the superior format. Hopefully, both formats lose and everyone learns a lesson.

Link: Xbox 360 HD DVD Drops Price to $129.99 in US and Canada

Adding fuel to the rumor fire, the website for Stuff magazine claims to have the scoop on Microsoft’s big announcement, coming on Sunday at CES. According to the site, the Xbox 360 Ultimate will be released in the fall and will feature the following:

1080p HDMI
Built-in Wi-Fi
65nm chip
320GB hard drive
HD DVD drive
IPTV support
DVR functionality

They seem pretty confident about the info, but I’m still not 100% convinced. I think the only feature that is guaranteed to be announced is the 320GB hard drive. I only say that because I just bought the 120GB hard drive, so it only makes sense that the bigger-better hard drive would be coming out shortly.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Link: BIG IN 2008 - Xbox Ultimate [Via Kotaku]

Rumors have been floating around the past few days that Bill Gates will be making some surprise Xbox 360 related announcements in his final CES keynote on Sunday. According to the rumors, he will announce that Microsoft will incorporate an HD DVD drive and DVR functionality into the Xbox 360 by partnering up with companies like Toshiba. Essentially, it would be a consumer electronics device that would have the ability to play Xbox 360 games.

These rumors are pretty interesting, so I thought I’d share my two cents. DVR functionality wouldn’t surpise me at all, since MS has already told us about their plans for IPTV on the Xbox 360. The HD DVD drive, on the other hand, is a little harder for me to swallow. On one hand, I agree with the thoughts of Michael Bay, that MS would rather both formats lose so that digital distribution can become the next “format” of choice. On the other hand, a consumer electronics device would be a great way to introduce “non-core-gamers” to the Xbox 360, since that is the market that seems to elude Microsoft at the present time.

Anyway, MS hasn’t done the best job of keeping their secrets in the past, so I think it’s anyone’s guess at this point. What are your thoughts?

Link: Visions of Gates’ keynote swan song [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]