Following on from the news that the adult movie industry has standardised on HD DVD, sales for the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive are pushing 100,000 units in the US according to data released by the NPD group.
According to the sales data, the high definition movie-playing add-on sold 42,000 in November – its first month on sale – and a further 50,000 in December.
As for the Xbox 360 itself, it has sold 4.5 million units in the US according to the NPD figures which also place total Nintendo DS sales for 2006 at 5.3 million. While the DS’s runaway success across the globe is nothing short of spectacular, it’s worth noting that the Xbox 360 is a lot more expensive and doesn’t yet have as broad appeal to such casual market.
Back to the HD DVD drive, the 100,000 unit figure will no doubt be compared to the number of PlayStation 3s (which of course have Blu-ray drives built in) sold in the US which is currently sitting at 687,300.
However, it’s worth noting that early adopters to Sony’s console won’t feel any particular allegiance to Blu-ray as yet and the in-built drive wouldn’t have been the main selling point – they would’ve purchased the console anyway regardless. Those who have purchased the HD DVD add-on have done so specifically to watch movies.
Sony’s decision to provide the expensive Blu-ray device within the PlayStation 3 is a risky one, as if the format loses out to HD DVD then the PS3 is essentially carrying a very heavy dead weight that will keep the console expensive to produce for longer than it would if Blu-ray movies were making a substantial return.
Microsoft on the other hand can freely ditch its HD DVD player add-on at any point in the future should the format prove unpopular without any lasting financial repercussions.
