Microsoft: Xbox 360 will never follow PS3 with Blu-Ray
By Jonathan Schlaffer
It’s well known that Sony has been trying to use the PS3 to bolster the Blu-Ray DVD format in its bid to remain relevant in the audio visual market.
Microsoft has now made it very clear that it will not support Sony, with a company spokesperson stating emphatically that the XBOX 360 will never have a Blu-Ray drive.
In the high-definition DVD war, Microsoft has sided with the HD-DVD camp, offering an optional external HD-DVD drive for the XBOX 360 console, which can also be used on PCs (with some slight modifications).
Blu-Ray is currently winning the format wars. With 1.5 million Blu-Ray players in the hands of consumers, comprised of both PS3s and stand alone players, many say that HD-DVD is already dying with only 300,000 players in the mix, made up of both XBOX 360 HD-DVD players and stand alone players.
The co-president of the HD-DVD association attempted to bolster the HD-DVD format by saying that the game is still early and far from over. He continued by saying that Blockbuster’s decision to exclusively offer Blu-Ray titles “may be a factor” in the current popularity of Blu-Ray, but that HD-DVD discs and hardware are ultimately cheaper.
While it appears that Blu-Ray is a more popular format than HD-DVD, Microsoft has clearly taken a stand against Blu-Ray, and Sony.
If Blu-Ray does eventually become the dominant DVD format, it won’t be through Microsoft’s help.
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June 23rd, 2007
blu - ray is not only a movie format playable on the PS3, its the format for its games..the allure of the PS3 is the extra space on the disk for well, extra gaming content..all of it built into the hardware..microsoft creates an add-on that ONLY plays HD-DVD movies..Microsoft helped Blu-Ray Win long before the war even got under way.
June 23rd, 2007
Meh, counting ps3 sales as a sign of success of the Bluray format is not very sensible, the 300,000 HD-DVD players where all bought to play movies.
Whilst most of the Bluray players were all bought to play games, as a result, I doubt theres much difference in sales between the two camps, infact it may well be there are more HD-DVD players then Bluray players, if you discount PS3’s, and including free dvd’s or so on in blue ray sales figures doesn’t mean that HD-DVD’s are are less popular then Bluray.
One thing it does show though is sales of the PS3 are pretty poor worldwide considering the dominance of the ps2 in that generation of the the console wars, and as the games industry has expanded considerably with far more gamers then ever before, this generation really counts the poor sales are probably due to the decision to force gamers to spend a fortune on a games machine with a propriety HD disc format on it and strong competition and much more competitive pricing from the Wii and the X360.
When a console doesn’t sell out on release in most locations ye know it’s not doing to well…
Im not a fanboy, but I am firmly in the HD-DVD camp*pats his xe1*(ye can prefer something without being a fanboy), the idea of a company like Sony being in primary control of the release of HD disc content is not one I like very much, the very fact that they forced the Blu-ray player onto gamers with their PS3, to further other ends.
This shows a disregard to their consumers desires which pretty much confirms my suspicions as to the nature of their company.
Especially as a hard-core gamer ill have to cough up for a PS3 at one point myself to play exclusives to the format and so end up be included in the blu-ray camp statistics.
And for those who don’t care just use simple logic, there is unlikely to ever be a noticeable to end-users difference viewing wise between the two formats, technological differences and branding not-withstanding, so ye better of getting the already for the most part cheaper HD-DVD drives, players and discs then paying more for something which has only has greater potential on paper.
June 23rd, 2007
btw pantyhelmet, the HD-DVD player addon for the X360 is optional and purely designed to play HD-DVD’s for those who actually want to.
Not to mention cheap and with a little tweaking PC compatible to, and as an Xbox360 plays everything else the PS3 plays except Blu-ray media wise…, and it has a hard-drive and upscaling and so on… I severely doubt any can with a straight face say its helping sony, and most importantly of all its for far less money.
A X360 HD-DVD Addon is around 110-125 pounds in the UK, which as it hooks up to a PC, makes it far cheaper then the expensive blu-ray PC drives so far out, and purchasing both it and a X360 will gain ye a system both cheaper then ps3 on its own and indeed purely as a hd-dvd drive then other blu-ray stand-alone players on the market for the most part currently out.
Not to mention ye get a games console which has a wide range of games available for it to boot (and quite possibly it will be cheaper then the first generation of official HD-DVD drives for the PC due out later this year).
See thats the thing that mostly annoys me about the Blu-ray camp I would’nt have wasted my time writing these messages if it was not for this, they keep misrepresenting what they have in an attempt to mislead folks into buying into their products, and they constantly attempt to rubbish and discredit anything from the HD-DVD camp, they seem to have no ethics.
June 23rd, 2007
find out the 380 games that our comming to the ps3 sign up and click on 380,
http://www.lost.eu/553ae
June 23rd, 2007
meh whish this site had an edit existing post feature, forgot to include one point, 99.99% of games have plenty of space left when stuck on a modern dvd, especially when ye include compression.
So creating blu-ray only games just pushes up the price of the games unnecessarily as theres no good reason for doing so over DVD’s at this point in time, and should ye actually manage to create something complex enough to need something greater then the capacity of a single dvd, its cheaper to include two dvd’s then it is to include one blu-ray disc or for that matter a HD-DVD disc at this time which is better for consumers, hence why Microsoft will not be allowing HD-DVD games through its drive more than likely through the X360’s lifecycle.
Think of how long it took for the average PC game to be released in DVD format to see an example of that in action, so HD discs for games atm will just mean unnecessarily expensive games, and unhappy customers.
June 23rd, 2007
They must be limiting that 1.5 mil to the US because there is definitely a lot more people using BR in their PS3 than that.
June 23rd, 2007
I’m overwhelmed by indifference
June 23rd, 2007
space doesnt matter? are u guys insane? the more u have the more content u can add. those thar argue that compression will save the r insane. all compression degrades the compressed data which harms overall quality. in addition, blu ray can also utilize compression to gain even more space. if u want proof just look at this years madden 2008. one of the features is coop player but its only 2player. bad news if u want 2 play with 4 friends, right? wrong. ps3 will have the feature because of blu ray and xbox will not,
dump hddvds its dead
June 23rd, 2007
[...] Microsoft: Xbox 360 will never follow PS3 with Blu-Ray TECH.BLORGE.com - Sydney,Australia Microsoft has now made it very clear that it will not support Sony, with a company spokesperson stating emphatically that the XBOX 360 will never have a … See all stories on this topic [...]
June 23rd, 2007
Wow, i thought they said that if blu-ray was to win that they would possibly make a blu-ray add on. hmm thats funny, well maybe they cant make up there minds or maybe just maybe this e3 Microsoft pops up with a 360 upgrade changing its chips to 65 nanometer and adding in the built in HD DVD drive and lower the 360’s price all at the same time. Currently Microsoft is making money off each 360 sold (usually consoles are sold at a loss)
so they are banking and can afford to do what i said but these are just my thoughts.
*cut the price of 360 by $50 or $100
*upgrade to 65 nanometer chips
*make the hd-dvd drive built in to all 360 models or just the pro and elite models and sell the core model without built in hd dvd at $175..
June 23rd, 2007
oh and watch blu-rays lead fall
June 23rd, 2007
lol, I remember M$ saying if Blue-ray wins they’ll have an add-on because that’s what consumers wanted…what happened?
So much for M$ giving you a choice. BTW, if HD-DVD is so good, why is it being outsold 5:1 at the moment?
HD-DVD should be selling more then, if you can use the add-on on your 360 and PC… plus the standalone players.
Open your eyes fanboys, the ‘War’ is over, HD-DVD has lost.
June 24th, 2007
the only reason bluray is selling more is cos the ps3 forces you to have it. i think when it comes down to the crunch consumers will pick HD-DVD as it will reach an affordable mass market price point first. at the moment its only really falling behind as people arnt really bothered about either format.
bluray for games is unnecisary as dvds are for music CDs. just makes games more expensive.
Technically DVD is selling more than either HD alternatives by a long long way and it will do for years to come. neither formats may become dominant. downloadable content is on the way.
June 24th, 2007
Downloadable content is on the way BUT I’m not going to pay $40 for a downloadable 4.5GB game which would take… well… so long that I’m not willing to wait and I would rather drop the $60 or $70 on a boxed version.
Take Halo, you won’t get the “Legendary edition” extras if you simply downloaded the game though I suppose there could be a means of shipping the extras to you.
Nah, I’d still rather have the boxed version. It just isn’t practical (yet) to download large movie/game files… either that or I’m just too impatient.
July 7th, 2007
# Bill:
June 23rd, 2007
lol, I remember M$ saying if Blue-ray wins they’ll have an add-on because that’s what consumers wanted…what happened?
“So much for M$ giving you a choice. BTW, if HD-DVD is so good, why is it being outsold 5:1 at the moment?
HD-DVD should be selling more then, if you can use the add-on on your 360 and PC… plus the standalone players.
Open your eyes fanboys, the ‘War’ is over, HD-DVD has lost.”
Is the PS3 giving you a choice? No.
Its funny you call us fanboys, but yet one could easily pick out your fanboyism from the “M$” bs. Open your eyes. Sony is forcing you into a next-gen movie format war, while microsoft is leaving the option to you.
If you want a true comparison I think you need to compare the sales of standalone players (360 drive included because it was bought for the sole purpose of hd dvds). I find it funny how sony never really comes out and shows their standalone blu-ray player sales… Truth is, most of blu-ray’s strength comes from ps3 sales. Before ps3 hd dvd was outselling br by at least 2:1. PS3 comes out and still has very few great games and not much online play. People feel they need to get some value out of a $600 purchase.
July 9th, 2007
So, will Sony support HD-DVD on PS3 if Blu-ray fails?
;OP
This site is thick with Sony boot lickers.