Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

We just got some goodies on our team: Xbox 360 HD DVD drives in black! These limited-edition drives were made especially for those of us who helped work on the product, and come along with a black remote control.

All I need now is an Xbox 360 at home to plug it into and I'll be set! (It's no use to me at work as retail drives don't work on Xbox development kits).

Different teams at Microsoft give different things to team members as "Ship-It" awards, and how good they are depends on the coolness of the team and the coolness of the product. Fortunately our team is cool in both regards. My old team (Visual C#) once gave us empty cardboard boxes of the product as a Ship-It award. Not-very-cool-at-all.

Unlike some other Microsoft-internal goodies, we are permitted to sell these, so if you want one you might be lucky and a co-worker could put one on eBay. Or not.

[Update 4/20/07: the rules have changed and in fact we are not allowed to sell these after all]

Published Friday, February 16, 2007 2:49 PM by andypennell

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

Monday, April 09, 2007 2:14 PM by David

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Shame on you for not having a 360 at home already!!

Sunday, May 20, 2007 2:38 AM by Blake Cassata gamertag RECONRAGE

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

I am a hrdcore gamer and specifically 360 gamer. I am trying to get ahold of a black 360 hd player can you tell me how or when it will be available with the remote?

Monday, June 04, 2007 10:04 PM by Jamie

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Hey hows it going?  I just bought an xbox elite system and was wondering if you had any more info on the black hd dvd drive.  Any info would be great and if you change your mind about selling it let me know.  Thanks

Monday, June 04, 2007 10:08 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Jamie: We are no longer allowed to sell them, though I never wanted to sell mine anyway. Look on Ebay: you can buy skins that turn the white drives into black drives for <$20. No idea of the quality, but worth checking out.

Monday, July 30, 2007 10:55 PM by Sergio

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

WoW That's pretty sweet, I wish I could get one of those, especially the black universal control Do you know where i could get one? :( it sucks that they haven't come out with anything for the Elite, They need to make more accessories for it...

Thursday, December 20, 2007 4:58 AM by deano

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

wher can i get the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive in black

Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:45 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

deano: Like I already said: buy a skin on eBay.

Saturday, December 29, 2007 6:08 PM by Darren

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

DansDecals.com has the black skin ti match the elite for 14 bucks....

Thursday, February 28, 2008 3:08 PM by ITz xCvDuDex

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

hey i wanna buy the black hd dvd player and i wanted to know if Microsoft will sell it even though they stopped making them anymore and if you know at all and if there was someway where i could get one reply back @ cvlboi89@gmail.com

Thursday, February 28, 2008 8:21 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

ITz: As I said above, buy a black skin on eBay.

Saturday, April 19, 2008 12:44 AM by re:

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

How many were produced for the team?

Monday, April 21, 2008 11:46 AM by Mikkel Petersen

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Hey Andy.

I just got hold of the Black Employee drive mentioned above, lucky me;-)

But can you tell me a way to verify that it's an original drive, and not a spray painted one? Other than open up the casing? Fx what should the sticker read? Mine says, amongst other things: X809507-006. Does this sound right? And maybe you could post a closeup of your sticker for comparison?

I bought it from an eBay user called ta.chat. Maybe you know him?

I would really appreciate it, if you could clear this up for me:-)

Thx in advance, Mikkel Petersen:-)

Monday, April 21, 2008 11:22 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

I don't know the exact numbers, but I would guess a couple of hundred max.

Mikkel: the number you quoted was on my black drive but also on my white one: I think its a part number. The other number is the serial #, if you post yours I'll see if its near mine.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:28 AM by Mikkel Petersen

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Ok Andy, thanks:-)

I'll post it when getting back from work;-)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:39 PM by Mikkel Petersen

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Okay, have checked now, and my Serial is: 015701770520

Thanks yet again for your time:-)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:39 PM by re

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Thanks, for the quick response. I was also one of the lucky ones to get my hands on a black drive. Love the Black remote! Looks real slick! Hoping that one day it will be worth lots as they will become an antique and how few were produced. I sure wish that HD DVD was sucessful!

Thanks for the HDDVD ride!

re

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:24 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Mikkel, your number is pretty different to mine, but I don't know if that means anything or not, sorry. If it looks cool, who cares, right? If it came with King Kong then it is NOT an employee drive: the movies were pulled from our ones.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 2:41 AM by Mikkel Petersen

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Ok, it didn't, but there is a cardboard holder thingie attached to the undersider of the box lid, where a dvd cover might had fit, currently used to hold instructions...

Could it have been placed there, and afterwards removed?

And by the way, I thought the black drive was never released to the public?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 1:00 PM by andypennell

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

The cardboard is the same for all drives I think, so the holder thingie is where a disc would go, yes. Black drives were never released to the public, correct.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 5:28 PM by Mikkel Petersen

# re: Xbox 360 HD DVD drive now in black

Great, then I must conclude that it's authentic;-)

Leave a Comment

(required) 
required 
(required) 

  
Enter Code Here: Required
 
Page view tracker