Magnific0 on 03 June 2008
Well, we all know they went with DVD 'cause they couldn't afford HD-DVD in the console. Coming from such great losses with the first Xbox, going deep into the red is not exactly a smart choice to start off the next-gen. So DVD was indeed the cheap path to take. It allowed them to spend more money on a beasty GPU, then cut some more costs on the quality of some other components and launch perfectly well on the $400 range by the end of 2005. Then spend 1 billion on 3-year RRoD warranty and still be able to start making profits 2 years after launch. Just imagine if they by some world-warping paradox had included HD-DVD or Blu-ray (if available in 2005), there's no way they could've pulled this off.
