In their blog post today, the company had this to say: "Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback."
If you caught it in there, DVD playback is no longer supported via Windows Media Player, even if you pay up for the Media Center.
Windows Media Player will be included with all versions of Windows 8 but "for optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray."
The Media Center upgrade is expected to cost $9.99.
As a hint from the AfterDawn staff, here is the link to VLC 2.x for all your media playback needs: VLC for Windows