Pioneer to release $299 Blu-ray drive next month

If there was one thing that could win the war for either of the two next-gen disk formats, it would be cheap players. Pioneer Electronics may have just tipped the scales in favor of Blu-ray with their new drive.

Sadly this is not a stand-alone player, but the price just can’t be beat. The drive is set to retail for $299, making it the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market. The drive will be able to read any standard Blu-ray Disks, and burn CDs and DVD. It will not however, burn Blu-ray disks.

The Pioneer BDC-2202 will go on sale sometime during the beginning of next month.

[via press release]