Neowin.net

That statement is completly out of line with MS's vision for the XBox as stated numerous times by some of MS's leading staff. How many times have MS execs stated that their vision for the XBox is to be the centerpiece in peoples living room. Whats with them offering HD-DVD to begin with. What about IP-TV they demoed back in 2006's CES (believe it was the CES Keynote anyway) and what about their currently expanding digital movie service they are offering over live. Those are movie services, they also have added in MSN support ect not to mention things like DIVX support as a major feature in previous updates.

Regardless of whether they are making the drive or not, the above statement is completly out of line with not only what they have said in the past but the services they are even now unrolling to customers.

I personally call BS and plans are in the line for a BluRay player either integrated, as an addon or both. It may not be in production yet but 'm sure it's on the tables and they are just saying no to stop people from not buying one now just as they wouldnt announce a price drop in advance. I may be wrong, but thats my take anyway and contrary to what the article says, I think having the drive makes more sense to them than not having it based on the 360's current direction.

Reminds me of http://www.bash.org/?23396

I'm pretty sure Blu-ray is not a Sony technology.

1. And MS stands to profit too. They will either sell external units and make money on those (since they don't sell addons at a loss but rather a big gain) or if they are integrated with the console they will potentially sway customers where BluRay is a factor and not only gain a console sale but alot more in terms of software revenue down the line.

By having Blu ray, while they have to pay Sony they also take away one of the main advantages sony has over MS. Given alot of consumers buy the PS3 as a BluRay player 1st and a gaming console second this is a big deal.

I'd liken it to giving Rockstar $50million for the exclusive content for GTA4. Thats hardly going to see much in the way of profits from the downloads alone I would gather what with the current install base and the price I imagine this would go for (especially if they launch an advertising campaign for it which will cost money), but what it will gain them is XBox customers and thus software sales for other titles along with Live subscribers (which then leads to more purchased digital content ect ect).



2. It doesnt signify anything of the sort. Supporting a movie format in no way is sending out the signal that their games console is inferior to Sony's. And MS really adopted DVD and from my perspective while they supported HD-DVD they never got behind it remotly as much as some people either expected or think. For MS to adopt BluRay is not out of the question and the fact they supported HD-DVD originally wouldnt sway their decision.

It's not like all the HD-DVD film partners went DVD exclusive because they backed the wrong company.

If I was MS I'd do the addon and then integrate with the elite and leave the Premium/arcades DVD. To me the elite serves little purpose nowday since HDMI is in the other models so they should drop it or improve. I know it has a larger HDD, but I'd argue that should be in the premium nowdays too.

That integration is assuming it doesnt cost them too much in manufacturing cost to produce a Blu Ray one alongside a DVD one.

And leave your Xbox 360 running overnight, that must consume alot of power as well?

How effective will Digital Downloads be as an all- encompasing delivery service when ISPs are trying to throttle and shape our D/Ls as we speak? Seems counter-intuitive to me...

They are denying everything because if they came out and said "the next version of the xbox360 will include a Blu-ray player", then their consoles sales from now until the new Blu-ray 360 release would be non-existant.

They won't reveal anything (if they are in fact doing anything with Blu-ray) until the last possible moment.

I would think it would be much more likely that this would be an add-on drive like the HDDVD drive was.