On November 17th, in Japan Microsoft will be releasing their HD DVD external drive for the Xbox 360. Under their current model, as opposed to Sony's, Microsoft says the only want consumers to buy what they need. At launch the HD DVD drive will most likely be used as next gen movie player but with Microsoft's coinciding announcement of 1080p move and game support, there is the possibility game developers integrating their content with the HD DVD drive (no more disk swapping). However the drive will be limited to the Xbox 360 connectivity which excludes HDMI output.

So owners of Xbox 360s will have access to an affordable HD DVD player while non-Microsoft console user can choose between the Toshiba Standalone HD-DVD Recorder (RD-A1) or the slightly more conservative Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD. This seems to be a good move by Microsoft in the land where HD TVs are bountiful (Japan that is), where they really need to get more Xbox 360s into Japanese households. Microsoft's Japanese marketshare has been dismal to say the least and if getting people there to buy the Xbox 360 solely for the cheap HD DVD drive, Microsoft can capitalize then by trying to sell them their games. Also, did I forget to mention that the player will only cost Japanese folks ¥20,790 ($180 USD). That said the HD DVD drive will probably make its way to the North America around the $200 mark.