Digitimes is claiming the Microsoft HD DVD will be $200 by Christmas 2006. Microsoft hasn’t issued an official statement, and were quite silent about the pricing last week during the HD DVD demo.

Digitimes also reports that the Taiwanese game industry as a whole—developers and game service providers—are saying this is a smart strategy to include the HD DVD separate instead of on-board like the Sony PS3. This will, in the manufacturers’ opinion, allow Microsoft to have much lower production costs and undercut Sony.

We should have more official word on the HD DVD pricing as the holiday season gets closer.

Taiwan game industry favors Microsoft’s adoption of external HD-DVD dives for Xbox 360 [DigiTimes via Gadgetell]