As the sale of PS3s continue to enable more consumers to play Blu-ray HD DVD movies, Microsoft has now struck back by reducing the price of the Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD Player to $179 from August 1st and including five free HD movie titles from a choice of 15 with each purchase. Assuming an average of $20 per HD DVD, this effectively works out at a player price of $79 with $100 worth of movies.
Microsoft also aims to promote HD DVD by allowing Xbox LIVE members to obtain a free download of the Hero show's pilot episode in high definition for a limited time period, along with trailers and scene teasers to promote the boxed set titled "Heroes: Season 1".
It will be interesting to see how well this promotion boosts its HD DVD add-on sales. However, even with this add-on discount, unless Microsoft decides to later integrate HD DVD into the Xbox 360, it will unlikely compete as well as the PS3, since every PS3 comes with an internal Blu-ray player whether or not the PS3 buyer wants one.
